Dodgers to put Mookie Betts on IL and call up Hyeseong Kim

Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times on Apr 5, 2026

Published in Baseball

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WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts’ MRI scan Saturday night revealed a strain of his right oblique. That sealed the Dodgers’ decision.

The team put Betts on the injured list and recalled Hyeseong Kim from Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday morning.

“Hearing oblique, it kind of gives you a little something in your stomach,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But talking to Mookie, I felt a little more reassured today.”

Betts had popped into Roberts’ office minutes earlier, dressed in his travel sweatsuit and carrying several bags. Roberts said Betts reported feeling better than expected.

Betts didn’t feel the pain until he was rounding the bases to score on Freddie Freeman’s first-inning double Saturday, according to Roberts. But the team’s working theory is that he strained the muscle on a check swing as he worked a walk in his only plate appearance of the game.

“As far as putting a timeline, I’m really hesitant right now, because [obliques] are tricky,” Roberts said.

When asked if it could be a four- to six-week recovery, Roberts said he’d “take the under.”

Kim was also in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park Sunday morning. While Betts is sidelined, Kim is poised to share playing time at shortstop with Miguel Rojas, who was in the lineup batting second and playing shortstop on Sunday.

“Playing the good defense that he’s been known to do,” Roberts said of what he expects from Kim. “And just take good at-bats. Take the walks when they’re there, control the strike zone. And not expect to carry us, but just be the player he is, bring energy. And it’s good to have him back. Obviously, not at the cost of Mookie. But he’s always additive when he’s around.”

Kim was a surprising omission from the opening day roster. Despite his offensive struggles with Korea in the World Baseball Classic, he hit .407 in 27 at-bats while with the Dodgers this spring.

“Kim, when he starts to chase back-foot sliders, that sort of thing, you know he’s feeling something that’s not right, he’s not trusting himself,” Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates recently told The Times. “I think that’s where it kind of went awry in the WBC, a little bit. But he honed it back in when he got back with us. Once he got done with the jet lag, and the whole thing, he basically did everything we asked him to do.”

The Dodgers felt there were growth opportunities for both Kim in Triple A, with regular at-bats to reinforce his spring adjustments and playing time at multiple positions, and Alex Freeland in the majors, where he has faced a higher caliber of pitching and served as the left-handed half of the platoon at second base.

Roberts plans to keep Freeland, who entered Sunday with a .750 OPS, at second base, though he also can play shortstop.

Roberts had yet to figure out a new normal for the top of the batting order without Betts. The lineup Sunday — which was scheduled to be a day game following a late-afternoon Saturday matchup and before the Dodgers head to Toronto for a World Series rematch — included backups in right field, third base and behind the plate.

Right fielder Kyle Tucker usually bats behind leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani. Roberts moved up Rojas to set him up for an extra at-bat against Nationals left-handed starter Foster Griffin. Left fielder Teoscar Hernández took Betts’ usual No. 3 spot in the order.

“I haven’t thought through that,” Roberts said of the top of the order going forward. “I might have some time before today’s game starts to do that.”

In fact, he knew he’d have plenty of time. There was already a downpour outside. The game against the Nationals began at approximately 12:45 p.m. PDT, after a 2 hour, 10 minute rain delay.

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