Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts says his body is ‘eating itself’ amid mystery illness
Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts has revealed his struggles with a perplexing health issue that’s melting weight away when he desperately needs to build himself up as the season begins.
What’s happening to his body is a mystery, he told reporters in a video captured by SportsNetLA.
“I’m not exactly sure what it is. I don’t think anybody really knows,” said the 32-year-old shortstop. “My stomach is, I guess, really aggravated. I’m practicing all day and my body’s just kind of eating itself. Literally, every time I fuel my body, I throw up, and I don't know what to do about it.”
Betts — who is entering his fifth season on the Dodgers — said he hasn’t been able to keep solid food down for weeks, causing him to lose 25 pounds.
“You go weigh yourself and you weigh 150 pounds. And before I left spring [training], I was 175,” he explained before admitting he has been “scared to eat.”
Betts was unable to play in the team’s first two regular season games in Tokyo last week due to his unknown illness.
The star flew home early from Japan after participating in a few workouts to regain his strength and rest ahead of the home opener on Thursday, according to manager Dave Roberts.
Roberts said that had the team known the severity of his illness at the time, they most likely would have told him to stay home entirely.
“The thing is when you lose a lot of weight, when you’re dehydrated, that’s what opens a person up to soft-tissue injuries,” Roberts told MLB.com. “We’re very mindful of that. So to take the next week .... to build him back up, his strength, do some baseball activities to get ready for the home opener."
After being sent home from Tokyo, the professional athlete underwent testing.
In a March 23 interview withSportsNet LA, he confirmed that all the tests had come back “clean,” but the doctors were still unsure of what the root cause of his sickness was.
“I mean, I feel great. Like, my body feels great. I’ve been able to work out. I’ve been able to do pretty much everything but eat, which is strange,” he said.
“So the symptoms have kind of gone away. I just have to figure out how to get my stomach to kind of calm down,” Betts continued. “I guess it's just something with my stomach being really aggravated, so I've just started some new medicine now to try and calm my stomach down.”
It’s “just hard to fathom not eating and going to play a game. So it looks like I’m just going to be light for a little bit ... I just want to play, man. I’m tired of sitting, tired of throwing up, tired of doing all this. I really just want to play, said Bells.
As of now, Betts is slated to start as shortstop for the Dodgers’ home opener against the Detroit Tigers Thursday, according to a USA Today.
Following six seasons playing for the Boston Red Sex, Betts was traded to the Dodgers in 2020. He signed a massive 12-year, $365 million during the 2020 season before Betts helped the Dodgers win the World Series in the COVID-shortened season.
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