Mookie Betts likes where baseball is headed, but there’s one part of the modern game he’d happily see disappear.
The Dodgers star told Sports Illustrated, speaking on behalf of Corona, that once a team has burned through the point where a position player has to pitch, the game should be over.
“Once position players come in (to pitch), just call the game,” Betts said in an interview with Sports Illustrated on behalf of Corona. “That’s pretty much it. Once you’re down 10 [runs] and the position player comes in, just call it a day.”
Betts’ gripe lands in a very specific corner of the sport, one that used to feel like a novelty. A position player on the mound was once one of baseball’s weird little treats - the kind of off-script moment that produced lobs in the mid-60s, a few laughs and maybe a harmless inning. Over the years, though, it became a much more regular sight as managers leaned on non-pitchers to save arms in lopsided games.
The numbers tell that story clearly. MLB says there were only three position-player pitching appearances in 2008. That climbed to 90 in 2019, then reached a record 132 in 2022.
The league tried to pull that back in 2023 by tightening the rules. Under the updated system, position players can only pitch in extra innings, when their team is trailing by at least eight runs at any point, or when their team is ahead by at least 10 runs in the ninth inning. Before that, the threshold had been six runs.
Those changes cut down the frequency for a while, but the trend has started climbing again. There were 131 position-player pitching appearances in 2025, and halfway through the 2026 season, MLB has already logged 83 relief outings from 39 different position players. Rockies catcher Brett Sullivan leads the way this year with six innings across five appearances, all in blowout losses.
Betts has only seen it once at the plate this season. That came against Pirates utilityman Tyler Callihan in the Dodgers’ 12-3 win on June 9, and Betts flied out to center.
“It’s a lose-lose,” Betts told SI. “You get a hit, you’re supposed to.
But it’s so hard to get a hit. It’s so hard to get that hit.
And then if you get out, ah, you got out by a position player. I’d rather just go home at that point.”
The comment comes with the Dodgers sitting on top of the sport as the All-Star break arrives. Los Angeles owns baseball’s best record at 61-36 and holds an 11.5-game lead over the second-place Diamondbacks, putting the club on track for a fifth straight NL West title.
Betts, meanwhile, has had a quieter year at the plate. In 60 games, he’s hitting .235/.293/.416 with 11 home runs and a 95 OPS+, which sits five points below league average. There’s still time for that to change.
Away from the field, he’s been busy with a different kind of lineup. Betts recently teamed with Corona for the Beach Connect Series, a set of limited-edition jerseys co-designed by a group of MLB stars: Betts, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ronald Acuna Jr, Jeremy Pena and Cristopher Sanchez.
Betts’ own “La Playa” jersey includes a golf course across the chest and a bowling pin patch on the arm. Fans can enter a sweepstakes to win one at CoronaUSA.com.
“Bowling and playing golf keep me in the chill beach mindset where I can just relax,” Betts told SI.
After taking part in the jersey project, Betts said his five favorite jerseys in MLB are the Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, White Sox and Padres. Just don’t ask him to watch those teams roll out a position player on the mound.
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