Here Are the 2022 MLB Playoffs’ Most Popular Walk-Up Song Artists, From Bad Bunny to Drake

It’s a shame Cleveland Guardians’ rookie outfielder Oscar Gonzalez doesn’t get to pick the walk-up music for every Major League Baseball player — his delightful choice is the theme song from SpongeBob SquarePants. Far more widespread in stadiums throughout the four Division Series, which begin Tuesday (Oct. 11), is superstar rapper Bad Bunny, who, according to data the MLB provided for the remaining eight playoff teams, soundtracks eight players’ trips to the plate (including the Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuna Jr. and Eddie Rosario, who each use two different Bad Bunny tracks).

Billboard crunched the numbers to highlight the most popular walk-up music stars for the eight remaining playoff teams. Given the number of Latino players in baseball, Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, Elvis Crespo, Anuel AA and Los Hermanos Rosario are especially popular, and just about everybody gets a rise out of hip-hop.

Outside the below list, there are plenty of SpongeBob-type outliers: Houston Astros outfielder Jake Meyers’ use of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”; not one but two uses of Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”; Braves third baseman Austin Riley’s adaptation of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s classic wrestling intro; Garrett Stubbs of the Philadelphia Phillies going way back to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life”; and Sean Manaea of the Padres going way soft with Grover Washington Jr.’s “Just the Two of Us.” Reliever Edwin Diaz’s team, the New York Mets, may be out, but Timmy Trumpet’s “Narco” carries on, for the Braves’ William Contreras and others.

Exclusive to Billboard, the MLB shared walk-up songs for nearly all 26 players on each team’s playoff roster, or about 200 overall (some of whom walk out to multiple songs).