For much of the 2025 season, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts was lost in the worst slump of his career. “I’ve never done this. It’s all new. I’ve never been this bad for this long,” he admitted during the slump. Manager Dave Roberts expressed concern but never lost faith, saying, “He’s an easy guy to bet on in knowing he’s going to turn it around.” And he did it. The turnaround has been nothing short of spectacular. On August 4, Betts was hitting .231 with a .355 slugging percentage and .657 OPS. And then..

Everything changed in a matter of hours. Betts has been on fire since August 5th. He hit.352 in the next 32 games, which was a huge. He had a 978 OPS, hit seven home runs, and drove in 26 runs. The manager responded, “He looks like Mookie.”

So what was the secret? According to MLB Network’s Mark DeRosa, Betts had been searching everywhere for advice. DeRosa explained, “He was a superstar who had never truly struggled… When you’re struggling, you’ll ask anybody. I mean, you go to Chipotle and order double chicken and you’re asking the person behind the glass if they got any hitting tips.” But it wasn’t a stranger who provided the answer.

The solution came from first baseman Freddie Freeman. DeRosa revealed, “But the one guy he said that he talked to that just gave him a little nugget was Freddie Freeman. And he talked about keeping your shoulders square.” What does he mean by that? DeRosa explained that: “Guys have a tendency, they want to rip this front shoulder out, and your barrel is in the zone and out of the zone super quick. So what Freddie was just trying to give him, kind of a feel versus real, keep your shoulders on plane and keep your shoulders in the swing, so you stay in it.”

Basically, struggling hitters often rip their front shoulder open too early, which causes the bat to fly through the hitting zone so quickly. Freeman’s advice was to keep the shoulders level, allowing the barrel of the bat to stay in the zone for a much longer time.

Freeman’s advice might sound simple,

But it unlocked Betts’ rhythm

First, Betts’ OPS of .987 since August 5th is the 10th best in all of baseball. This is the same as the number he had when he was the runner-up for the NL MVP in 2023, placing him back on the same level as Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Second, he has become a real “hit machine,” getting 45 hits with a .352 batting average, which is the second most in all of baseball.

Third, his contact skills are crazy, he only strikes out 5.6% of the time, which is almost as many home runs as he hits. Not many players can say they’ve hit more home runs than strikeouts in a month.

If you look beneath the hood, everything gets more crazier. Statcast figures out a batter’s projected stats depending on how well they hit the ball. Mookie’s predicted batting average of.361 since August 5 is the highest in baseball. It’s higher than Ohtani’s, Trea Turner’s, and anyone else’s. Why? Betts has the highest line drive rate in the league at 37.2%. When you add it all up, the FanGraphs WAR leaderboard put him ahead of Ohtani (fourth in value since August 5).

These data make Freeman’s “square shoulders” advice look like the truth, not just excellent advise.

In the meantime, the Dodgers have other issues like a Bullpen collapse,  Evan Phillips is gone after Tommy John, Tony Gonsolin lost to elbow surgery, Brusdar Graterol to shoulder surgery, and even Will Smith’s hairline fracture in his hand makes him unavailable for the rest of 2025, but Mookie Betts is rediscovering himself was the single most important development for the Dodgers this fall.

The Dodgers have already clinched their 13th straight postseason berth and are within three games of locking up the NL West. Their goal is clear: a chance to repeat as World Series champions.

With Betts rediscovering his swing, Freeman anchoring the lineup, and Ohtani looming as a two-way force in October, the Dodgers enter the postseason battle-tested, scarred by injuries, but riding momentum — and perhaps, their star right fielder’s rebirth, into October.