Mookie Betts said at a Los Angeles Dodgers press conference on June 28, 2026, that he is not yet ready to declare himself fully back to normal. "No, it ain't time yet. We'll see. We got to keep on going," he said.
Betts noted that the previous two weeks had felt different. "It just feels normal. It feels normal. Feels like I can feel be a ball player again," he stated. He acknowledged that a key part of his adjustment was recognizing he could not apply the habits of his self to his current game at 33. "Trying to fix that person instead of trying to use the guy to apply to the guy — just doesn't work," Betts explained.
Central to his current approach is a philosophy of resetting each day rather than building on prior work. "I just start from zero every day and build it up. It's the easiest way for it to become the same every day," he added. Betts mentioned that this shift has also reduced the volume of cage work he requires, saying he no longer needs to take as many swings because he is literally starting from zero each day. He contrasted this with an earlier habit of searching for a mechanical cue and then taking a thousand swings to test it. "I used to have things I would think about that would produce a swing, and now I'm actually just training my body every day," he said.
Betts credited the Dodgers hitting coaches and Freddy Freeman for collectively helping him arrive at this approach. The hitting coaches helped develop the new method for Betts, and Freeman helped with his hitting approach as well. Betts also praised Freeman's at-bat during the fifth inning of the game, along with a contribution from Pies, describing the team's mindset when opposing pitcher King lost command: "While he's trying to find the zone, that was kind of our time to be aggressive and kind of pounce on him."
When asked about not facing Mason Miller in the series, Betts responded with casual indifference. "I don't care. I mean, yay. I don't know what you want me to say," he said. Betts had previously discussed in Minneapolis how he found something in his swing without fully knowing what it was and without having to think about it — a point that reporters referenced during the June 28, 2026 session as context for his ongoing progress.