Mookie Betts announces plans to join Home Run Derby field
Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts has announced that he plans to partake in the coming Home Run Derby, part of the All-Star Game festivities slated to take place in Seattle in July.
Betts joins Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Seattle Mariners' Julio Rodriguez, who was last year's runner-up to Juan Soto in a neck-and-neck competition at Dodger Stadium, as the current participants.
It will be Mookie's first time joining the field since first cracking into the big leagues 10 years ago.
Mookie's ready for the Derby. Are you? pic.twitter.com/c4lXQzaDRG
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 30, 2023
He currently leads the Boys in Blue with 20 homers, making it his seventh season with at least that many home runs.
If he wins, he will be the first player in the history of the Dodgers' franchise to win the derby, which started back in 1985. Joc Pederson was the closest to accomplishing the feat in 2015, when he fell in the final round against the Cincinnati Reds' Todd Frazier at Great American Ballpark.
On Thursday, Betts was announced as one of the National League's starters for the looming All-Star Game, which will take place on July 11 at T-Mobile Park. It's his seventh time being voted into the Midsummer Classic and third appearance as a Dodger after he was traded from the Boston Red Sox in 2020.
The remaining five players to fill out the eight-man bracket have yet to be announced.