Dodgers: Dave Roberts Reveals His Leadoff Hitter

Roberts has already decided who's going to bat leadoff for the regular season.

The Dodgers loaded roster provides manager Dave Roberts with a slew of different lineup combinations. Now that Freddie Freeman is a Dodger, Roberts can utilize a variety of defensive alignments and rejigger the batting order as he sees fit.

Freeman's arrival to the Dodgers creates a logjam at the top of the batting order. Roberts stated that Freeman would be hitting second or third for the bulk of the season. Last season, LA penciled Mookie Betts and Trea Turner in the top two spots of the order for the majority of the second-half. It sounds like that could be changing now that Freeman is a Dodger.

If Freeman does hit in the second spot, who will Roberts slot in as his leadoff hitter? Roberts talked about just that following the Dodgers tying the Rockies in a Thursday Cactus League game. 

“I think if you look at Trea and Mookie — which I think that they’re interchangeable as far as first, second and third [spot in order], with Freddie [Freeman] obviously mixed in there — Mookie feels considerably more comfortable in the [leadoff spot].”

In 2021, Betts played in 122 games - 104 of those were with him batting leadoff. Mookie hit .272 as the leadoff man and .214 in the third spot. Trea Turner on the other hand posted a .315 average as a leadoff man, but also excelled in the three spot (1.028 OPS).

Based on Roberts' comments, the Dodgers will be installing Mookie Betts as the leadoff hitter with Freeman likely the number two. Trea Turner will probably start the season batting third and we'll see how things shake out from there.