Cubs fans know to fear Shohei Ohtani, but a larger threat looms on the Dodgers

The Chicago Cubs will be opening a three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers today and the reasonable inclination would be to fear Shohei Ohtani, the man who received the largest contract in baseball history over the offseason.

While Ohtani has been exceptional (as to be expected) hitting .393/.500/.714 with almost as many walks (6) as strikeouts (10), the player that should be striking fear into fans is actually a player the Dodgers signed to a mega-deal a few years ago.

At the time of the tweet below, Mookie Betts was leading the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, home runs, runs batted in, runs, hits, extra-base hits, total bases, times on base, walks, WAR, oWAR, dWAR, and OPS+.

Mookie Betts could be a problem for the Chicago Cubs this weekend.

Miguel Cabrera stole the MVP from an arguably more deserving Mike Trout in 2012 because he hit for the Triple Crown (meaning he led the American League in batting average, runs batted in, and home runs). If Betts were to continue at this pace he’d win the Double-Octuple Crown. All while playing Gold Glove defense at shortstop despite the fact that this is his first year playing that position since he was in high school.

The other thing to be concerned about, specifically from a Chicago Cubs' perspective, is that in two of the three games in this series, the Cubs will be sending out a left-handed starter with Jordan Wicks and Shota Imanaga which will allow Betts to use his handedness advantage in those early at-bats as well. This may be the first (and hopefully the last) time this season that the rotation's lefty heaviness is a problem.

The Dodgers have plenty of players to fear, and Ohtani is certainly no slouch, but the guy that the Cubs need to steer clear of in order to steal a couple of wins in this series is definitely Mookie Betts.

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