Mookie Betts is one of the plethora of great players on the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that is set to defend its World Series championship against the Toronto Blue Jays. The best of seven series starts Friday night at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman are the Dodgers' primary superstars and they take pressure off of each other in the most important games. None of them feels the heat in any one game because they know that the team is loaded with players who know how to come through in the biggest moments.

Betts is gunning for the fourth World Series title in his career — the first was as a member of the Boston Red Sox and it came against the Dodgers — and he would join some of the players from the Yankees dynasty of the late 1990s and early 2000s who won 4 or more titles. One of those players is Derek Jeter, and Betts remembers meeting the New York captain for the first time in 2014.

“Honestly , I remember the first time I met Derek Jeter,” Betts said. “It was 2014 and I was shaking. ‘He's Derek Jeter.' To now be in the same conversations with him, it's all come full circle. I feel blessed.”

Betts settles in at shortstop

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During the first part of his career with the Boston Red Sox, Betts was an All-Star outfielder. That was also the position he was in when the Red Sox traded him to the Dodgers prior to the 2020 season, and he played that position at the start of his time in Los Angeles.

However, he expressed a desire to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to play infield, and he has played both second base and shortstop  for the Dodgers. The Dodgers have thrived with him at shortstop. He is nominated for a Gold Glove at the position this season, something he has won six times in his career along with seven Silver Sluggers.

The 33-year-old Betts has an MVP on his mantle and has made eight All-Star Game appearances. He seems headed for the Hall of Fame.