Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (50) high fives teammates after the victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on July 28. Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

Former Dodgers All-Star Flew to Tampa to Help Mookie Betts End Career-Worst Slump

Originally posted on Los Angeles Dodgers on SI
By J.P. Hoornstra | Last updated Aug 8, 2025 8:30 PM ET

In 2018, Boston Red Sox designated hitter J.D. Martinez led the American League in RBIs (130) and total bases (358). Because they do not play defense, no full-time designated hitters would win their league's MVP award until 2024, when Shohei Ohtani did so for the Dodgers.

But Martinez did garner a lone first-place MVP vote in 2018, the year teammate Mookie Betts won the award. He finished fourth in the AL MVP race overall, and was widely credited for his mentorship of teammates inside Boston's batting cage. The Red Sox would go on to win the World Series that year, defeating the Dodgers in a five-game series.

Five years later, in 2023, Martinez would find himself teammates with Betts again — this time in Los Angeles, where he clubbed 33 home runs and 103 RBIs in his only season as a Dodger.

Their bond remains strong enough that Martinez, a Florida resident, reportedly met up with Betts when the Dodgers visited the Rays.

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Martinez "traveled to aid struggling superstar Mookie Betts (88 OPS plus) at a Tampa batting cage last weekend."

Martinez, 37, is a six-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger Award winner in 14 major league seasons (2011-24). He had a productive 2024 season with the New York Mets, slashing .235/.320/.406 (107 OPS+) in 120 games.

But Martinez could not land a contract for 2025, or at least disliked his options enough that he chose to remain a free agent when spring training and the regular season began. He is still lingering on the open market, free to sign with any team.

Martinez is also still doing what he arguably does best: dispensing hitting tips to anyone who will listen — and one player in particular.

When he signed with Boston in spring training of 2018, Martinez would later tell The Athletic, he was “pretty much assigned" to work with Betts: “They called me into the office and said, ‘This is your project.’ I said, ‘Damn, alright.’”

In the same 2022 article, then-Red Sox hitting coach Peter Fatse told The Athletic that the Red Sox's "hitting program kind of evolved around some of (Martinez's) philosophies and ideas. It was a collaborative effort, obviously, but J.D.’s driven a lot of the conversation.”

Martinez said that Betts had an unorthodox way of moving in the batter's box before they worked together prior to his MVP season.

"I kind of do a good job — I feel like — of showing guys why they’re good when they’re good, and why they’re bad when they’re bad," Martinez told The Athletic, "and helping them find their way to good again.”

Now, with Betts enduring the worst season of his career, he found himself fortunate that Martinez has plenty of free time to help.

"Teammates or not teammates, he’s one of my better friends," Betts said in a 2022 interview. "We always talk and communicate but to have him in the locker room again is definitely very special."