The Los Angeles Dodgers are hoping to get a much-needed spark back in the lineup.
Mookie Betts, who has been out since April 4 with a right oblique strain, has been activated from the 10-day injured list and will start at shortstop and bat second in the order in the series opener against the San Francisco Giants on Monday, May 11, the Dodgers announced.
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“I don’t know if there’s gonna be a jolt of energy or not,” Betts told reporters in the dugout pregame. “I just know that I’m here, I wanna play and I wanna win. Hopefully that gets the guys going as far as focusing on the game and taking care of wining ball games, but we’ll see. Only time will tell when it comes to that.”
Rookie infielder Alex Freeland was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City in a corresponding move.
The four-time World Series champion went on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City over the weekend in which he went 2-for-5 with a walk and played 11 innings in the field over two games. Entering May 8, manager Dave Roberts told reporters that Betts could come back as early as May 11 if he came away from both rehab games feeling well.
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The current plan, according to Roberts is to ease Betts back into action. There isn’t much opportunity built into the schedule to get Betts rested and recovered with the Dodgers playing 10 games in the next 10 days through May 20, so expect Roberts to give him some days off over that stretch. Right now, the current plan is for Betts to play two in a row before a planned off day on May 13.
“I think he’s going to want to be in there regularly, but we’ll kind of see,” Roberts told reporters. “But this is more just based on the front-end progression.”
The Dodgers are hoping that getting Betts back into the lineup will provide some production that has been missing as their offense has stalled to a collective .204 batting average over the last five days with a .658 OPS in that span.
“I think that we certainly have enough talent to be better than we have,” Roberts told reporters on Sunday. “But adding Mookie’s at-bat quality, I think, will certainly help. We just haven’t been as consistent as a group as we should be, even without Mookie. But yeah, he certainly raises the floor.”
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Betts himself struggled to start the season, slashing .179/.281/.429 through eight games, but had finally broken through for his first multi-hit game of 2026 with a home run and two RBI on April 3, one day before he injured his oblique on a check swing.
But in his first game back in five weeks, the Gold Glove finalist isn’t worried about trying to overcompensate or do too much.
“It’s gonna take us all. It is what it is,” Betts told reporters. “We’re gonna go through our ups and our downs but it’s important for everyone to know that it’s gonna take all of us, and not just one guy getting through our struggles.”
The Dodgers enter May 11 tied for first place in the NL West with the San Diego Padres after back-to-back losses to the Atlanta Braves on May 9-10.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA Dodgers Mookie Betts returns from oblique injury
