Trade From Red Sox Helped Mookie Betts Figure Out Life After MLB

BOSTON -- Being ready for life after Major League Baseball isn't a chapter Mookie Betts wants to undergo without any preparation.

While retirement is still a long road away, especially after signing a 12-year extension with the Dodgers in 2020, the former Red Sox outfielder is still thinking ahead. Betts doesn't want to worry about how the post-MLB life shift will treat him.

For now, Betts credits the Los Angeles experience for helping clear that up.

"I don't wanna be toward the end of my career and not know what I wanna do," Betts said prior to Friday's contest against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. "I have an idea at least. I know it's kind of against baseball culture for someone to work while they're working, but there's space to do it and I'm figuring it out. And I'm happy that I'm doing it."

Betts is working on a few side projects, including a production company and the "On Base with Mookie Betts" podcast presented by Bleacher Report, while also pushing the Dodgers toward World Series contention,

The market of Los Angeles obviously makes that easier for Betts, and the 30-year-old All-Star intends to fully utilize the opportunity at hand.

"I'm super happy where I'm at," Betts explained. "I'm very blessed, I'm very happy. I'm at peace with my life now. It's a little bit easier for me to look back and when I go up and down the streets and when I walk on the Fenway field, it's a little bit easier to say, 'Wow, that was super cool.'"

Through it all, Betts has also assembled another MVP-caliber season.

Entering the long-awaited return to Boston, Betts is hitting .310 with 34 home runs and 89 RBIs.