LOS ANGELES -- Nearly five weeks removed from sustaining a right oblique strain, Mookie Betts is on the verge of returning to the Dodgers.
Betts began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday, going 1-for-3 at the plate and playing five innings at shortstop. He's scheduled to suit up for the Comets on Saturday as well, which may mark the end of his stint in the Minors.
Oblique injuries are notoriously tricky, so the Dodgers have been hesitant to put a timeline on Betts' return as he's worked his way back to full health. But in an ideal world, he'll play his two games with Oklahoma City, and as long as he comes away feeling good, he could be back in L.A.'s lineup as soon as Monday's series opener against the Giants at Dodger Stadium.
"Feel good with his timing, build up some endurance with playing defense, the running piece. And hopefully he gets tested where he doesn't feel anything," manager Dave Roberts said of the boxes Betts needs to check while with the Comets. "That's about it.
"I do think that once he gets back … we're not going to run him out there every single day. There'll probably be a couple of days that we kind of get reintroduced to playing a lot, but yeah, that's it. I'm going to count on Mookie, but as long as he's healthy, then we're better with him, certainly."
Betts tweaked his oblique on April 4 in Washington, D.C. He was unsure of how exactly he sustained the injury, whether it was while running the bases or on a checked swing. Both he and the Dodgers were optimistic that he would return before six weeks had passed, and he should be right on schedule.
Before going on the IL, Betts hit 5-for-28 (.179) with one double in eight games. This season, he's looking to bounce back from recording a career-low .732 OPS in 2025.
In Betts' absence, Hyeseong Kim and Miguel Rojas have been holding down shortstop. The corresponding move to activate Betts will most likely be between Kim and Alex Freeland. Santiago Espinal could also be part of the conversation, but as a right-handed-hitting utility man, his role won't quite be redundant until Kiké Hernández returns from the IL in a little more than two weeks.
Freeland, who made the Opening Day roster over Kim, has made this a tougher decision for the Dodgers over the past couple of weeks. He entered Friday hitting .325 with an .876 OPS in his last 14 games following a slow start to the season. Kim, on the other hand, has shown more consistency, hitting .314 with an .801 OPS in 26 games.
There is a lot of overlap between their roles -- infielders who play up the middle and are primarily used vs. right-handed pitchers, although Freeland is a switch-hitter -- which naturally sets up some competition between the two of them.
As the Dodgers experienced on Friday, when they announced Blake Snell would make his season debut the following day only to lose Tyler Glasnow to the IL, sometimes roster decisions are not entirely in their hands. If they do end up choosing between Freeland and Kim when Betts returns, that is ultimately a good problem to have.
"We're going to have some hard conversations, but fortunately, we don't have to have those until he does come back," Roberts said. "And as we've seen, things can change quickly. We'll be prepared, though."