TORONTO — While Mookie Betts didn’t let it on from afar, when the final ball in play of the 2025 World Series bounced his way, he felt some nerves.
The Dodgers had taken their first lead of the night on Will Smith’s go-ahead homer in the top of the 11th. The Blue Jays, their season all of a sudden on the line, responded by putting runners at first and third with one out.
Alejandro Kirk grounded an 0-2 offering from Yoshinobu Yamamoto toward the left side of second base. Betts settled his nerves, then let his preparation take over. And he did what he needed to do, fielding the ball before stepping on the bag and throwing to first for the final out, the Dodgers repeating as champions with Saturday night’s 5-4 win in Game 7 of the World Series.
“As he was pitching the ball, I was talking to myself,” Betts said on FOX. “‘Be nasty, just move, just make a play — just be nasty, be nasty, be nasty.’ … The ball found me and I just kind of played it. I don’t know what happened. All the work, all the work in the backfields, it all came to fruition this season.”
“I think the work that he did there,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, “how good he has played at short, even at periods where he was struggling offensively — for him to play that caliber of shortstop, I think, is underappreciated.”
Betts is one of the most accomplished active players in baseball in addition to the championships, with an MVP Award, seven Silver Sluggers and six Gold Gloves in right field to his name. Even as the 33-year-old slumped through the first two-thirds of this year’s regular season, he took solace in the strides he made at shortstop, becoming one of the best in the game.
Neither Betts nor the Dodgers need any additional validation on that point, although the team believes him to be deserving of Gold Glove honors. At the very least, he’ll have the pride of having turned the final outs of another World Series championship at his new position.
“For him to get that final double-play ball,” Friedman said, “I think was a perfect bow on what was an incredible season for what he did at shortstop this year.”
