Almost daily, baseball finds a way to fascinate me. Today it was discovering that Mookie Betts leads all Dodgers not named Ohtani in runs scored, but he is a below-average player (according to OPS+).
Only 22 players have scored more runs than Mookie Betts this year. With just a handful of regular-season games remaining, Betts’ 82 runs feels like a good return.
Sure, it’s not the number that Dodgers fans expected, but for various reasons, this hasn’t been the season that the former MVP expected.
His stat line reads 14 home runs, 60 RBI, .252/.323/.376 triple slash and eight stolen bases in 10 attempts. His 53 walks to 56 strikeouts suggests his patience at the plate is still elite.
Previously, 2017 was Betts’ worst season, yet he still had a 108 OPS+ and finished sixth in MVP voting. Lots of players start their careers with dodgy “cups of coffee” or suffer injury-impacted campaigns, yet Mookie currently has 11-straight years of unblemished, above-average production.
August was Betts’ best month this season, so fingers crossed he continues this for the rest of the year to drag his OPS+ into triple digits.
Betts battled a bizarre illness at the start of the 2025 season, which caused him to lose over 8kgs, and he suffered a freak fractured toe injury – stubbed walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night… apparently.
It is also unclear whether the switch to shortstop has affected the 32-year-old’s offensive production, but few players have ever been able to make this shift successfully in their thirties.
Despite all of this, and amid a career-worst season, Betts has still scored more runs than all but 22 players in the league. Which led me to consider, is this unusual?
I love the brief moments of computer processing when Baseball Reference is creating a Stathead report.
With criteria set at a minimum of 82 runs and a sub-100 OPS+ in seasons from 2000-2025, I was half expecting Mookie Betts to be the solitary entry.
I certainly wasn’t expecting nearly 200 criteria-matching players. This was a rabbit hole waiting for exploration.
Top of the list was one of my favourite ever players, Jimmy Rollins. In 2005, when the Phillies’ shortstop was an All-Star and finished 10th in MVP voting, he scored 115 runs but had a 97 OPS+.
Having discovered a power surge to go with his base-stealing prowess, Royals’ Maikel Garcia was set for a career year last season, and although he scored an impressive 82 runs, that came with a 75 OPS+. He was the worst offensive player among qualified hitters in 2024.
In his 2024 sophomore season, New York Yankees’ shortstop, Anthony Volpe scored 90 runs but finished with an 86 OPS+. Amazingly, this 86 OPS+ is the highest achieved by the second coming of Derek Jeter in his three-year career in the majors.
Once I realised that there were 197 names on the list, I suspected many would be light-hitting speedsters, like Juan Pierre and Elvis Andrus. And this was true, with Pierre appearing seven times, and Andrus four times.
The poster boy for the “offers speed but not much else” is Billy Hamilton. The Reds outfielder had 633 plate appearances in 2017, swiping 59 bags and scoring 85 runs, but it was a 66 OPS+ season. I was interested to see this week, that with postseason pinch-running potential in mind, the Chicago Cubs have signed the veteran outfielder to a minor league deal.
Of course, at the other extreme are the power sluggers for whom the risk of strikeouts is no deterrent to their swing-for-the-fences approach. Mark Reynolds in 2008 and Drew Stubbs in 2011, hit dingers, scored runs, and produced sub-100 OPS+ seasons, thanks in part to each striking out more than 200 times.
It would appear that Mookie Betts’ 86-run, 96 OPS+ campaign is neither unusual nor spectacular. It would also appear that this was not the most useful hour I have ever spent in my life, although I would rather waste an hour like this lost in Baseball Reference than doomscrolling.
The most noticeable entry on the list of 197 names was Andruw Jones. The ten-time Gold Glove winner, who, incidentally, has just been appointed manager for the Netherlands for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, scored 104 runs with 34 home runs and 104 RBI in 2001. He registered a 94 OPS+. He was 6% below league average!
208 combined runs and RBI, and 34 homers, and it was a 94 OPS+ season.
I looked at my watch. I had stuff to do, but another Stathead query beckoned. Surely there can’t be many players with 100 run, 30 home run, 100 RBI seasons, yet posted a sub-100 OPS+?
If you’re interested, here are the answers.
Featured image of Mookie Betts by Harry How/Getty Images
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