Mookie Betts Credits Basketball For Ability To Make Baseball Adjustments

Mookie Betts’ days on the hardwood could prove beneficial.

Betts will need to make adjustments throughout his Major League Baseball career, especially this season as pitchers look to cool his hot start. The 22-year-old outfielder picked up a few things while playing hoops in high school, though. He’s confident the skills will translate to the diamond.

“When I think about it, it wasn’t really baseball that showed me the adjustments,” Betts recently told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford at Boston Red Sox spring training in Fort Myers, Fla. “It was basketball.

“Being small and playing with guys who were bigger, you just had to learn how to adjust. It’s not something where I felt like I had to do this or that. It was just figuring out that I can’t take it to the rack every time because my shot would get blocked, so I had to pull up. Those adjustments naturally happened, and then I took that into baseball and let it naturally happen, and it’s just gone from there.

Betts, who has bulked up since debuting with the Red Sox last season, is listed at 5-foot-9, which is very short by basketball standards. He learned the hard way in high school in Tennessee that he couldn’t simply stick to his guns and expect success. He needed to change his game.

“You can’t go to the basket against guys 6-foot-8, 7-foot. You just learn over time you have to make an adjustment,” Betts told Bradford. “In baseball, you have to learn to make adjustments. … Same adjustments, just different sport.”

Betts recounted to Bradford a couple of instances in which he was swatted by a taller player. He eventually learned how to create separation, though, and he’ll now look to implement similar tactics in adjusting to how pitchers will pitch to him in certain counts, etc.

“The adjustments I make are things I can’t really explain,” Betts told Bradford. “It’s kind of something that happens. I just kind of pick up on things. I don’t really say, ‘OK, I’m going to adjust to what he’s doing. I know he does this, so I’m going to do this.’ Somehow my body just naturally adjusts. Sometimes I can’t explain how I do some adjustments.”

Fortunately for Betts, no explanation is necessary.