SEATTLE — Mookie Betts spent his day off doing something he almost never does—nothing. During an in-game chat with SNLA’s Kirsten Watson, Betts admitted that the post-clincher breather felt strange. “There’s nothing to do,” he laughed, the words landing like a confession from a guy who’s hard-wired for daily competition. But then he revealed the new outlet that’s helping him channel all that energy when he’s not diving for grounders or turning a double play: the guitar.
This isn’t a whim. Betts said he practices about thirty minutes to an hour a day and has been at it for about a month. The instrument was a gift from his dad—already a great image, Mookie opening a case that promises a whole new rhythm to an already rhythmic life. If you’ve followed him for any length of time, it tracks perfectly. When he’s curious, he commits. It’s the same mindset that turned a hobby—bowling—into something he does with real competitive snap. Now he’s bringing that mix of discipline and joy to six strings.
The early setlist is delightfully eclectic and very Mookie. He’s already learned the folk/country classic “Wagon Wheel” and “I’m the Problem” by Morgan Wallen. And he’s doing it his way. “I don’t sing, but if you can play the guitar and just speak, it sounds good,” he said, grinning at the workaround. It’s the ballplayer version of taking the extra base on a ball in the dirt—find the edge, take it, smile later.
If you’re wondering whether this is just a clubhouse parlor trick or something more, Betts has already set the bar: “My goal is to do a live performance with Morgan Wallen and my boy Ernest next offseason.” That’s not a throwaway line. Betts and Ernest go back to Nashville days, and their friendship has stuck through the years like a good chorus. Ernest has made cameos at Dodger Stadium and on Mookie’s podcast, and the two share that easy Southern shorthand—music, sports, and a shared hometown tempo. If there’s a winter jam session coming with Wallen and Ernest, expect Mookie to show up prepared, the same way he shows up for April baseball like it’s September.
What’s most endearing here is how on-brand the whole thing feels. Betts has always been the guy who says yes to the craft. Whether it’s getting extra grounders on a travel day, bowling frames into the night, or now working G-Major chord changes between games, he leans into repetition. Thirty to sixty minutes a day sounds modest until you remember who’s doing the practicing. This is Mookie Betts—he doesn’t dabble; he accumulates. Reps become competence, competence becomes confidence, and confidence becomes the kind of stage presence that makes a full stadium go quiet just before a swing.
And let’s be honest: the guitar suits him. Baseball is a sport of timing and feel; so is strumming. You sit inside the rhythm until it starts to carry you. Hit a sweet spot and everything rings a little brighter. On the field, Betts creates those moments with a quick first step or a violent, compact turn on a fastball. Off the field, it might be the crisp brush of a pick across steel strings, the sound filling a hotel room after a night game, the road miles softening under a new kind of focus.
It also tells you something about where this Dodger team is right now. They clinched a couple days early, the vibes are loose, and the veterans are finding ways to keep the game fun while still sharpening the edge for October. A day off after a champagne shower can feel like a hangover for a creature of habit, but Mookie turned it into a chance to talk about building a new habit. That’s leadership with a smile—showing younger guys that loving the grind doesn’t mean you can’t pick up a hobby that fills your tank.
The Ernest connection adds a layer of charm. There’s a reason athletes and musicians gravitate toward each other: both chase flow in front of an audience, both live on the road, both know the difference between practice and performance. For Betts, a winter collaboration with Ernest and Wallen would be more than a novelty; it’d be a celebration of the circles that shaped him—Nashville’s melody, baseball’s rhythm, and the community woven between them.
As for “I’m the Problem,” you can already imagine the clubhouse jokes and speaker-check singalongs. Betts says he won’t sing, but if he’s onstage with Ernest and Wallen, he won’t need to. He’ll bring the same presence he brings to a playoff at-bat: calm, prepared, and a little electric. Say he lays down the progression, speaks the lines, and lets the pros handle the vocals—sounds like a perfect Mookie compromise. Get the job done; make everyone around you better.
So file this away with the Betts bowling lore, the podcast episodes, and the line-drive lessons he gives by example. The star right fielder is adding guitarist to the list, one daily session at a time, because of course he is. He’s still restless on a day off, still searching for a groove, still finding a way to make the hours count. “There’s nothing to do,” he said—then promptly found something worth doing. If that’s not Mookie in a nutshell, I don’t know what is. And if next offseason brings a live collab with Ernest and Morgan Wallen, the only question left is whether Dodger blue looks as good under stage lights as it does under October ones. We’re betting it does.
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