Mookie Betts at his best Mike Trout is back and more early MLB trends

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LOS ANGELES -- Miguel Rojas spoke Saturday, near the third-base line at Dodger Stadium, and Mookie Betts listened intently. This was Rojas delivering a seminar on the finer points of playing shortstop in the big leagues, and Betts, standing two feet away, was like an A+ student sitting in the front row taking notes of every word. The two men had just finished taking ground balls for a half hour, and Rojas was delivering an infielder's version of class review.

"They do that every day," Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Rojas began his shortstop tutorials in spring training as Betts prepared his move to the position. "8:15 every morning," said Dino Ebel, the Dodgers' third-base coach.

And to this day, Rojas and Betts will talk arm angles and foot movement and other nuances of fielding the position. Rojas is regarded as an elite defensive shortstop and Betts, a Gold Glove-winning outfielder who has transitioned to the infield full-time for the first time since he was a minor leaguer in the Red Sox organization, is doing all he can to be as good as he can be at age 31. "He's obsessed with it," Roberts said. "His focus is unreal."

Betts' climb to another echelon is one of a half dozen early season trends that stand out -- but which will still be true at season's end?

1. Mookie Betts is the best he's ever been

The metrics suggest that Betts has played an above-average shortstop -- he has scored a plus-3 in defensive runs saved, behind only Anthony Volpe and Bobby Witt Jr at his position -- but more importantly, his production at the plate right now is peerless. If you'd prefer to keep it simple and judge Betts with the stats you see on a jumbotron, he's got you covered: He's batting .347, and he's among the major league leaders in runs (20, 1st), RBI (16, 6th), home runs (six, 2nd), hits (26, 2nd) and walks (16, 1st).

The underlying numbers reveal the depth of his performance. He has swung at only 19% of pitches outside of the strike zone, the best rate of his career, which is a good thing because opposing pitchers -- apparently fearful of the damage Betts is doing -- have thrown only 35.1% of their pitches to him in the strike zone. Betts has swung and missed at only 4.6% of pitches, the 12th-best ratio in the majors. In fact, Betts has missed swings on pitches in the zone just four times.

To say another way: Betts has more home runs (6) than missed swings on pitches in the zone (4).

Will it last?

He's not going to lead the league in hits and walks (which he did for the first two weeks of the season), something that's never happened. But Betts has a huge jump-start toward winning another MVP award.

2. The Astros are in trouble

Against the Texas Rangers on Friday, the Houston Astros allowed six runs in the third inning -- the third consecutive game in which Houston surrendered at least six runs in an inning. This is a first in the Astros' storied history of pitching, and just one symptom of a larger problem developing early this season.

Justin Verlander is on the injured list, and so are Jose Urquidy and Framber Valdez. With most of the rotation down, and with new manager Joe Espada still early in the process of identifying bullpen options in the middle innings, the Astros' pitching is a mess, bearing a 5.35 ERA; only the Colorado Rockies rank behind them. For the first time in Alex Bregman's nine-year career, he's taking the field with his team more than five games under .500.

Verlander might be back from the injured list by the end of the month, and it seems inevitable that the team's two primary late-inning relievers, Josh Hader and Ryan Pressly, will improve. But the Astros' pitching problems are real and will need to be fixed if they have a shot to return to the American League Championship Series for an eighth-straight season.

Will it last?

The Astros are fortunate in that Texas is currently without two star pitchers, Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. Houston needs to fix its problems by the time those guys get back in the Rangers rotation -- or the Astros won't recover.

3. Juan Soto is beloved in the Bronx

Superstars who journey from other places to New York have almost uniformly run a gauntlet of judgment before reaching acceptance -- some never get there. Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez won MVPs elsewhere but were booed in their early days of being Yankees. Hell, Giancarlo Stanton has hit 139 homers with the Yankees and is still routinely booed.

So the early love affair happening between Soto and Yankees fans is unusual -- but earned. He's batting .328, with a .457 on-base percentage and an OPS of .972. Of course, this is all perfectly timed for Soto as he moves closer to free agency in the fall. The Yankees will aim to retain him, and sources within the Mets organization have said that team intends to make a run, too.

Agents speculate that the two big numbers that Scott Boras, Soto's agent, will target are $500 million in a total package, as well as the record for any position player, which would be anything beyond Mike Trout's $426.5 million. While there might be other teams involved in the chase, all he really needs to push salary benchmarks is to be the object of a Yankees Vs. Mets bidding war.

Soto also could surpass the present-day value assessment for Shohei Ohtani's contract, which is $461 million because of the amount of deferred money in Ohtani's deal ($680 million, with no interest). Under the terms of his deal, Ohtani will make $2 million in salary next year. If Soto stays healthy and productive -- and continues his love affair with the Yankees and their fans -- it's possible he could make 25 times that amount. He could be the first player to earn $50 million in a season.

Will it last?

Let's keep this simple: Yes.

4. Mike Trout is back to being Mike Trout

Trout mentioned to Angels broadcaster Mark Gubicza early in spring training that he aimed to stay healthy this season after missing 249 games over the past three years, and that he also wanted to play at the level that used to be exclusive territory for the slugger. Early this season, he is wrecking pitchers -- and more specifically, he is doing all kinds of damage on fastballs, a pitch that had been become kryptonite for him in recent years. "He's making better decisions on fastballs," said one evaluator, "and he's not missing them."

Trout is hitting .353 against four-seam fastballs this season, with a .706 slugging percentage, getting to pitches at the top of the strike zone that used to beat him and generating one of the highest rates of fly balls in his career. So far this season, he's got an OPS of 1.072.

Will it last?

Stop us if you've heard this Trout caveat before: If he stays healthy, yes. He'll be back in the conversation for being one of the best players in the game.

5. The Cardinals are regretting letting Tyler O'Neill go

When the Rangers faced the Tampa Bay Rays in the playoffs last year, there was a lot of conversation about the matchup of two former St. Louis Cardinals outfielders who blossomed into stars in other organizations, Adolis Garcia and Randy Arozarena. The Cardinals have been saturated with position player prospects over the past five years, leading to plenty of deals, but it has seemed like the guys they've kept have struggled and the players they've dealt have flourished.

Now O'Neill, who was traded last winter for 21-year-old fringe pitching prospect Victor Santos and reliever Nick Robertson, is playing well in his first days with the Boston Red Sox, generating a .459 on-base percentage and a .750 slugging percentage.

In a sense, St. Louis was vulnerable for this kind of scenario to play out -- O'Neill had played well for the Cardinals in the past, finishing in the top 10 of the MVP voting in 2021 and winning two Gold Gloves, but he was sidelined by injuries constantly in 2022 and 2023. As Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Dylan Carlson, Alec Burleson and other outfielders graduated into the majors, the Cardinals had to make choices and began by dangling O'Neill into the market last year.

And if O'Neill goes on to have a strong season, the Cardinals might not be the only team with regret -- all teams other than the Red Sox could've snagged him for a good deal, as well.

Will it last?

Yes -- though they'll be looking enviously at another team, if the Red Sox fall out of contention.

6. The Oakland Athletics aren't be the worst team in baseball

The Athletics' payroll is $43 million, or about the same as Scherzer and Verlander are each making this season, so expectations were duly muted going into the season. And despite some intriguing individual performances -- like that of reliever Mason Miller, the hardest-throwing pitcher in baseball -- the tanking and on-field struggles are bound to continue. But Oakland, off to a 7-10 start, might not be the worst team in baseball.

The Chicago White Sox are getting a lot of attention for their exceptional brand of early season failure, which has been fueled by a succession of injuries to some of their best position players -- Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez and Yoan Moncada. So far, the White Sox have been outscored by an average of about three runs per game. Our colleague Jesse Rogers recently predicted they will lose 120 games this season.

The Miami Marlins, meanwhile, are 3-14, with a -36 run differential and about half of their projected pitching staff on the injured list, from Sandy Alcantara to Eury Perez. Additionally, the Marlins made the strange decision to void their 2025 option on manager Skip Schumaker, who is already regarded as one of the more coveted managers in the sport; there is an industry assumption that Schumaker will be headed elsewhere after this season.

And we haven't even mentioned the 4-13 Colorado Rockies, who are six years removed from their last playoff victory and don't seem to be making much progress after losing 103 games last season.

Will it last?

It seems really weird to say, but sure seems like it: The A's are much better than the White Sox right now.