Dodgers notes: Mookie Betts at second, Justin Turner homers, Freddie Freeman

While still struggling to get used to the idea of USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten (?????), let’s distract ourselves with some morning Dodgers news and notes.

When Mookie Betts returns from his broken rib, he might play some second base, writes J.P. Hoornstra of the Orange County Register. Betts, who was drafted as an infielder and played his first two minor league seasons at the position before moving to the outfield, started once at second base in 2020 and five times there in 2021.

Justin Turner on his two-homer night after a long power drought, from Mike DiGiovanna in the Los Angeles Times, “Eventually, you feel like it’s gonna click, and tonight, I got good results.”

After a week in which the focus was squarely on Freddie Freeman’s emotional return to, and exit from, Atlanta, Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs breaks down just how steady Freeman has been at the plate for the Dodgers.

Actor Jon Gries, who played Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, was in the broadcast booth when Diego Cartaya homered for a third straight game Thursday for High-A Great Lakes. On the call, Gries called back to his role in Napoleon Dynamite, saying the homer “was over those mountains.” Nick Aguilera at MLB.com has more.

Dodgers broadcaster Orel Hershiser was a guest on David Cone’s Toeing the Slab podcast, in which he talked about the 2022 Dodgers, among other things. But what was incredibly fun was hearing Hershiser and Cone talk about pitching and their previous battles as players.

Double-A Tulsa broadcaster Dennis Higgins talked about the pitching-rich Drillers’ first half on the Between the Lines podcast.