1. My Typical Daily Schedule

2. Physical Preparation Methods

3. Integrating the Spiritual Life

Typical schedule for a 6:30pm home game (can vary):

9-9:30am: Wake up

9:30-10am: Morning prayer/walk

10am: Breakfast

10:30am: Stretching/mobility routine

11am: Complete various tasks/chores for the day

11:30-11:45am: Go to adoration, read bible, or get extra rest

12:45pm: Drive to stadium

1pm: Arrive at stadium for lunch

1:45pm: Begin preparing for the game. Stretch, movement prep, get treatment, etc.

3pm: Throwing, conditioning, defense, etc.

4:30pm: Pregame meal, start getting ready for the game

5:30pm: Get dressed for the game, final mental prep

6:30pm: First Pitch

9:30pm: Game ends, postgame shower/training/meal

10:30pm: Arrive back at apartment

11pm: Unwind, read book, prayer time, etc.

11:30pm: Lights out

Physical Preparation:

Most nights I might not come out of the bullpen to pitch until around 8pm. But as you can see my routine to prepare my body begins much earlier.

So what am I actually doing all day to get ready?

I start the morning walk and stretch/mobility routine. This is not taxing at all but really just meant to get the body moving so that I feel loose and relaxed heading to the field. Sitting around all morning doing absolutely nothing can make your body feel stiff and sluggish.

Once I get to the field, I start my movement prep to get ready to train. This routine is similar to the one I do in the morning, but also includes some more advanced exercises to fully warm up the body, address any lingering soreness, and get ready to throw.

After this comes the throwing, conditioning, and any other team-related stuff. In professional baseball, with 6 games a week, we don’t have regular old ‘practice’ days anymore like in high school or college. The ‘practicing’ is done before the game. This is the final tune up before a game. On days you don’t pitch, this is the bulk of your training for the day.

Once that’s done, my focus shifts towards the actual game. Now it’s time to rest a bit, have another meal, and start mentally preparing myself to play.

Since I pitch out of the bullpen, I don’t play right when the game starts. Instead, I watch the game and follow what’s going on, all while running through the same stretching, warm-up, and mental routines. I continue what I’ve been doing all day so that I’m ready at a moment’s notice.

Once the game is over, it’s all about coming down from that adrenaline high. After I get my post-game exercises in, my main goal is to refuel on calories and get my mind and body to relax so I can go to sleep.

Spiritual Life:

My spiritual life and Catholic faith is very important to me and an integral part of every day. Click here to read more about it.

In the past, I would use baseball obligations as an excuse to suppress my spiritual life.

This season I have been much more intentional about giving praise to God for each day and bringing him along with me through my daily work on the field.

The best way I’ve found to do this is to always start the day off with meditative prayer. Then I do my best to incorporate one spiritual work into my morning. This might be some scripture reading, adoration, or daily Mass. It really depends on the schedule for the day and what time the clubhouse opens.

There are plenty of secondary benefits of filling your morning with these spiritual endeavors. It gives your brain some exercise rather than just your body. You are also less inclined to doom-scroll on social media.

But the most important reason for all this is to keep God at the forefront of my mind, and to invite him into every day that always has so much going on. His presence makes me more grateful for the abundant blessings in my life. He continues to inspire me to work hard to make the most of the opportunity He has gifted me with.

Why Routines Matter

Baseball is a game of hidden endurance. While the actual game involves short, high-explosive plays, the length of the season makes it feel like you’re in a long, slow grind.

140 games in the minor leagues, 6 days a week. You’re in it for the long haul.

You need a consistent routine that keeps your mind, body, and soul in order month after month. Disorder from one can cause problems across all three.

If you enjoyed this deep dive into my daily routine, let me know what other deep dives you’d like to see.

- MT

In an attempt to distract myself, I open up my bible and start to read.

I just so happened to stumble upon this in Chapter 6 of Matthew’s Gospel:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life… do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”

I froze. Chills ran down my spine. I was stuck beating myself up over things that already happened, thinking about a future that didn’t exist yet. With all that going on in my head, I was completely distracted from the present moment.

Stressing over things adds nothing to your life. It diverts your attention from the joys and opportunities of the present by keeping you hung up on the past and future.

“Oh wow great point, I think I’ll just never stress again.”

Oh if only it were that simple.

Here’s what I found to be the key to avoiding stress and focusing on the present:

Shifting from Passive to Active state of mind.

I was spending more mental energy thinking about what might happen to my career (passive) instead of thinking about how I could improve today (active).

When you are in a passive state, you are mostly thinking about things happening to you, mostly things beyond your control. You are anticipating a potential bad outcome, one that creates some type of fear. You find yourself leaning into distractions, avoiding major responsibilities, or even zoning out of the present moment.

When you are in an active state, your gaze is fixed on the opportunities and responsibilities right in front of you in the present moment, because you know that how you engage with the present can affect your future outcome. You cannot control everything, but you at least want to make the most of what you’ve been blessed with.

I always want to stay in an active state of mind, but sometimes life causes me to slip back towards the passive. Here’s 2 ways I found that help me stay locked in as the aggressor without worrying about the future.

1. Detach from things beyond your control

As a professional athlete, competing every day, grinding to reach the top, there’s always an abundance of external noise, speculation, and influence. You find yourself thinking about your career all the time, sometimes for better or for worse.

This can often be a distraction from the work and opportunity right in front of me. Almost like an invitation back into the passive state.

The only thing I can control is working as hard as I can each day, competing as best I can each time I take the field, and being the best version of myself every day. The only day that matters is today.

2. Obtain confidence through evidence

Sometimes we experience worry and doubt due to some type of failure or lack of confidence. Confidence creates focus and conviction, so it’s something we must have to be fully present in an active state of mind.

I have found the best way to obtain true confidence, not fake self-talk, is to have an actual process that works. This process creates evidence that we have the skills to achieve what we are working towards. This evidence then becomes the source of our confidence.

For example: If I need to improve a certain pitch, I throw that pitch during my training sessions in a way that yields measurable improvements. Now I am going into my next game with a new level of confidence in that pitch that I did not have before.

I read through Matthew 6, meditated on it, and reminded myself of the opportunity I have been blessed with: living out my dream as a professional baseball player.

I practiced what I just preached to you. I let go of all the noise and everything beyond my control. I re-evaluated my routines and figured out what part of my game I needed to work on. I saw real results in a very short time which got me excited to get back on the field again.

When my name got called to go pitch again, I was more than ready.

Filled with excitement, energy, confidence, but also with a sense of calmness that helped me focus on throwing one pitch at a time.

If you are constantly hung up on the past and worried about the future, you can be completely oblivious to the present right in front of you. There are so many opportunities and blessings every single day.

Sure life can be filled with hardship, suffering, and adversity, I’m not denying that. But I’d rather spend my life competing for the future I want than worrying about the one I’m afraid of.

Detach from what you can’t control. Build evidence you can trust. Let today be the only day that matters.

- MT

So let’s figure out together what it means to be mentally tough, why it matters, and how we can put it into practice.

If you do a quick Google search on ‘mental toughness,’ it will say:

“Mental toughness is a personality trait and psychological resource that determines an individual's ability to perform consistently under stress, pressure, and adversity, regardless of the circumstances. It is characterized by maintaining confidence, focus, and motivation to persevere through challenges, mistakes, and failures to achieve goals.”

I would say that’s pretty accurate. But what does this actually look like in practice? In my journey to professional baseball, I have learned through my own personal experience what ‘mental toughness’ actually looks.

It’s a lot deeper than just be confident or just be perseverant. We all like to believe we are mentally tough until real failure or adversity punches us in the mouth (figuratively).

So here’s a deep dive on mental toughness and fortitude from the perspective of a professional baseball player:

The 4 Pillars of Mental Toughness

1. Falling and getting back up. Undeterred by failure

2. Having faith that something greater has yet to come

3. Drowning out the noise and focusing on what matters

4. Being honest with yourself for the sake of self-improvement

If you embody all of these traits, you reach a state where are you are actually able to grow from failure, not simply just endure it. Let’s break it down:

1. Falling and getting back up. Undeterred by failure

Having a stomach for failure is far more difficult that people suggest. It is so much easier to just run away from our failures or just put them down and act like they don’t matter.

Let me tell you a story about failure:

February 2025, first game of the season, a disaster. My first weekend start as a college pitcher and I don’t even make it through the first inning. I’m sitting in the dugout distraught watching our team suffer a blowout loss thanks to me. My final year of college, transferring in hopes of making a name for myself, and I hear the voice in my head saying “am I cut out for this?”

For context, I had endured a lot of failure in my college baseball career, but I was still set on making a name for myself and eventually becoming a professional. So to be with a new team, in a new role, in my final year, starting off like this… it hurt.

But I didn’t listen to the voice in my head that was casting doubt. I got back up and kept going, and was able to have an incredible season.

The only reason I had the strength to stomach big losses like this and keep going was because I had a vision for my future success that I felt was inevitable. Which leads me into my next point…

2. Having faith that something greater has yet to come

What does ‘faith’ mean to you? To myself and many other Christians, it means a powerful, unwavering belief and trust in God. Even though we can’t see Him with our own eyes, we still believe matter how difficult our life gets.

Well faith is not a word that is exclusive to religion, so I would suggest it applies here too. For a long time I have had an unwavering belief that I could become a very successful baseball player. Regardless of how good or bad I was playing, the vision for my future success remained the same. Even when the evidence was not visible, I still believed I could do it.

I did a deeper dive on how to visualization here:

The problem is, if you have some grand vision or massive goal that seems so unattainable, many people will either suggest or tell you directly that it’s not possible. It’s not worth the pursuit. Even the voice in your own head will tell you this at times. That’s why this next pillar is so important:

3. Drowning out the noise and focusing on what matters

As I just mentioned, any worthwhile pursuit if always going to be cluttered with noise. Opinions, judgement, doubts from others or even your own mind, these are obstacles you will face.

The professional sports world is especially filled with noise, hence why having a strong filter is important. This is how you protect that original vision, goal, or dream you have for yourself.

Here’s a personal story about drowning out noise:

November 2025, I’m alone in my apartment, in a new city all by myself, training in hopes of signing a minor league contract with an MLB organization. The competition is fierce and the spots are limited. I’ve invested a lot in pursuit of this dream. People doubted whether I actually had a chance. As I’m laying on the floor in desperation, I hear the voices saying “am I cut out for this?”

Had I actually listened and believed what everyone else probably thought, well then I wouldn’t be in the position I am today.

But I will say: drowning out the noise does not mean to ignore all feedback. This leads into my last point…

4. Being honest with yourself for the sake of self-improvement

When I say ‘drown out the noise’ I’m talking about external forces that work against what your goals are. However, it is still very important to use objective feedback so you can learn from your failures and grow.

I’ll use baseball as an example. I ignore blanket statements that serve me no utility like ‘you’re not good enough.’

But if I have a bad game and my coach tells me, ‘you didn’t throw this pitch in the strike zone enough,’ thats objective feedback that leads to actionable advice. I can take that objective (not emotional) criticism and create a plan to develop my skills to improve that area of my game.

Don’t let others determine your own confidence, but don’t be so stubborn either to the point where you can’t learn anything. Have the mental fortitude to look at things objectively, not emotionally. Then you can find ways to improve your shortcomings rather than ignore them.

Things that help with mental toughness

I just outlined what I believe are 4 traits that I see in people who are ‘mentally tough.’ How can we actually improve these things? What should I do if I’m lacking in some of these areas?

Well, unfortunately I don’t have all the answers to that question, but I can tell you what works for me. Maybe you can take away something from my own experience.

I’m not going to give generic mental performance advice or offer up some type of ‘exercise’ since that’s not my area of expertise. I’m just going to share the things that bring me mental fortitude:

Putting God Above Everything

This is what we all like to think we do, but I will personally this is something that is far more difficult than it sounds.

How do I (try) to put God above everything? Seeking a relationship with him. Going to Mass and adoration often. Prayers of petition and gratitude. Thanking Him for everything. Trusting in him when I’m struggling. Praying about everything.

He has had a far greater impact on my ‘mental toughness’ than any direct mental performance training, but it’s so much bigger than that. It’s about the eternity of your soul. But that’s too deep of a topic to get into here.

You also might have noticed a lot of underlying Christian themes in the 4 pillars above:

• Falling and getting back up

• Unshakable faith

• Drowning out the noise and focusing on what matters

• Honesty and self-improvement

Healthy Lifestyle

How can you expect to be tough and resilient when you are not healthy?

I have noticed my lifestyle habits play such a massive role in how I’m feeling physically and mentally. If I’m eating bad food, not sleeping well, stressed, or stuck inside all the time, it becomes very difficult to think clearly. Energy tanks, and my mood suffers. You’re stacking the deck against you.

Sometimes the chaos of life gets in the way, but I try my best to always make sure I’m living as healthy of a lifestyle as I can manage. For the athletic performance benefits AND the mental benefits as well. I have enough challenges in life as is. I want my lifestyle choices to energize me, not weigh me down.

Being Social

This is a very unorthodox piece of advice, but something I have embraced lately that has had a profound impact on me.

Branch out of your bubble and talk to as many people as possible. Strike up conversation all the time. Sometimes when we get caught up in our own little world, we are getting influenced by the same people all the time. We try so hard to conform to our small little circle that it dampers who we truly are. We put way too much stock into what certain people think about us.

Most people are afraid to do this people they are afraid of bad interactions, or of awkwardness and the feelings that come with it. This is a subtle implication that you have a outcome-driven view of your own identity and way of life.

We put so much pressure on ourselves to conform, so not stand out too much, to avoid uncomfortable feelings. These things don’t align with mental toughness and fortitude. If you want to develop a stomach for failure this is the easiest place to start.

Plus, you just might make someone’s day or make some new friends.

Unusual advice, I know, but it’s something I’ve noticed lately.

Why Mental Toughness Matters

Suffering, struggle, failure, it’s all a part of life. Some endure far more than others. Mental strength, fortitude, toughness, whatever you want to call it, is about being able to transform our struggles into strength and grace for our own self-improvement. We then invite adversity and challenge to help transform us.

Whether your own struggle in life is physical, mental, spiritual, or all of the above, I hope you gained something from this article that you can take as actionable advice.

Whether you’re an athlete like me, or you’re pursuing something completely different, remember that one singular failure does not define you unless you allow it.

If you have any personal thoughts on mental toughness, comment below!

- MT

For nearly 2 years I have been looking inward at how I can be a better Catholic, trying to live the way Christ commands us to do. I endured long periods of introspection, growth, struggle, and doubt, ultimately trying to find out who I really was.

What is my actual purpose?

I hadn’t really opened up about my Christian beliefs or prayer life online at all. I openly talked about the Catholic faith for the first time on TikTok just a few days ago, and the response and effect it had on people was overwhelming. People told me I inspired them to go to adoration, which brought joy to my heart.

So I decided I would deviate from my usual posts and actually open up about what it’s like to actually practice the Catholic faith as a professional athlete. It has taken me nearly 2 years to build up the confidence to share this online, mostly because I felt I wasn’t ready or qualified yet.

Hopefully now I can use my platform to inspire others.

It’s very easy to put being a pro baseball player and all the worldly perks that come with it above God. This was something I dealt with for a long time, and didn’t even realize until I had drifted so far away. The pro athlete lifestyle has its many challenges for a practicing Catholic, but it also has its perks. Let’s get into it:

The Challenge: Sunday Mass Obligation

The typical weekend schedule for professional baseball, especially in the minor leagues, involves Saturday night games followed by a Sunday game at 12pm. This makes the Saturday Vigil and most Sunday Mass times impossible. The only options are early Sunday and Sunday night.

For home games, I go to a 6pm Sunday night Mass, so I can slow down and enjoy it without worrying about my schedule. For away games, Sunday afternoon/evening is when we get on the bus and travel back home. So I’ll do some research and find the earliest Mass time near where we are staying and catch an Uber ride from the hotel to the parish. After Mass I’ll Uber again straight to the stadium.

I’m bouncing around to different parishes at different times every week. Sure the stability and consistency of a 10am at the same parish every week would be nice, but that is not an excuse to miss Mass. Ultimately my comfort and convenience doesn’t matter, the point of Sunday Mass is worshiping the Lord.

In a way, I actually find joy in the struggle of finding an Mass time that I can get to. Makes every Sunday feel like a pilgrimage of sorts.

The Benefit: Open Mornings

While my unique schedule can sometimes have it’s challenges, it has also brought me so many blessings. For a typical night game, I’ll report to the stadium some time between 12 and 2pm. This leaves the whole morning at my disposal, much of which I enjoy by spending time serving or glorifying Christ.

• Frequent Daily Mass & Confession: Receiving the Sacraments regularly has helped me feel His grace and has strengthened my desire to serve and glorify Him. It also holds me accountable for how I choose to live my life.

• Adoration: This is something I overlooked for most of my life until recently. I was fortunate enough to meet this amazing woman who gave me access to her private chapel. Now many mornings I find myself sitting in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, sometimes over an hour, before I head to the stadium. Being able to actually sit with Him in solitude has helped me to actually hear His voice.

• Volunteering & Community Service: I have been volunteering with my local parish because it’s a good thing to do to serve the community and the Church. I am also required to get community service hours, so I figured no better way to do it than through my local parish community. My availability in the mornings has allowed me to be involved in ways that are not possible for everyone.

Was I always like this? NO

I’ve been a Catholic my whole life, but it wasn’t until roughly 2 years ago I started to actually pursue him above all things. Looking back, I definitely put worldly things like the game of baseball above Him. I would use my demanding baseball schedule as an excuse to miss Sunday obligations. And from there, it was a slippery slope. The desire to go to daily Mass, confession, adoration, and be involved in the parish community won’t be there if I can’t even fulfill my minimum basic obligation to worship Him.

I always believed in God, but I endured periods of just going through the motions, feeling like an empty vessel, like something was missing. As a result, I was always overthinking. Stressed about my direction in life, baseball, career, future plans, how others perceived me.

When you actually submit to His will and trust in Him, all of your worldly concerns will be met with peace. You will see the world in ways you never had before.

Professional athletes are constantly trying to improve their mental performance. From my experience, nothing has brought me more peace, confidence, and focus in my endeavors than fulfilling my desire to seek God.

For me, when I put my baseball career above God, it would not bear good fruit, but rather add stress, difficulty, and even evil to my life. When I finally put God above everything, suddenly it finally starts to bear fruit. Not just in success on the field. My journey in my baseball career has introduced me to so many amazing people who I have been able to share the faith with, or who have been able guide and nurture my growth.

If we worship the game, the thirst of our soul will never be quenched. But if we worship the One who gave us all these blessings, we are free to enjoy them to their fullest.

From the wise words of St. Augustine,"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement."

If you feel far from God, just know that he is always right there, waiting for you.

- MT

My first Spring Training was a surreal experience, since I was finally getting to live out my dream of being a professional baseball player.

But what’s even cooler is that this was just the prep for the actual season which goes from April to September.

For those of you who don’t know how it works, each team essentially has two spring training camps running at once:

One for the major league club and one for the minor leaguers.

The major league camp plays all the Spring Training games you see on TV.

Minor league camp on the other hand all happens behind the scenes. It’s where we train and compete to work towards the big club someday.

Spring training is kind of like working a 9-5 but you’re playing baseball.

Contents:

1. Typical Spring Training Schedule/Day In The Life

2. Spring Training Games

3. Biggest Takeaways From My First Spring Training

4. Best Advice I Received

5. Thoughts Heading Into The Season

Here’s what a typical day in the life looks like for a minor league pitcher in Spring Training:

7-7:30 AM: Wake up

7:45 AM: Arrive at the complex. Eat breakfast.

8 AM: Get dressed. Prepare for training for the day. This includes any type of stretching, prep work, treatment, etc.

9-10 AM: On field work with your pitcher group. This includes a dynamic warm up, throwing for the day, and defensive work.

10-11:30 AM: Any lifting, conditioning, arm care, or mobility you have for the day. Some days you might throw off the mound at this time.

12-1 PM: Break for lunch.

1-4 PM: Spring training game. Those not pitching stay and watch. If you are scheduled to pitch, the morning schedule is different and pushed back.

Spring Training Games:

The Spring Training games take place in the complex backfields right next to the stadium. There are usually anywhere from 2-4 going on at the same time at both teams’ complexes. So if the Phillies had 4 games against the Yankees for example, we would send 2 teams to their complex in Tampa while two stayed back in Clearwater. We (the Phillies) typically play against the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Tigers since they are the closest.

The games are organized by projected minor league level, meaning there is usually a game for A, AA, and AAA all going on at once, so you are playing against caliber of players you will likely see during the season.

Sometimes there are exceptions to this. There were times where I got to face AA/AAA hitters even though I’m currently in A Clearwater. You find out what game your in and whether you’re at home or on the road when you get the itinerary for the day.

These games are ‘controlled’ in the sense that you know when you’re going to pitch and how many innings it will be. Sometimes 10-11 inning games will be scheduled if lots of pitchers need to throw.

My takeaways from Spring Training:

• Everyone is a ‘professional’: Everyone is always on time to everything and fully present. Everyone does their own extra work and has routines. Really difficult to just ‘out-work’ people since everyone is getting their work in all the time.

• Longevity & durability are critical to success: You may have heard the term “your best ability is availability.” The 6-week grind of Spring Training makes you realize how important it is to take care of your body as a baseball player. This is just the build up to a 5+ month season. If you take care of your recovery in the spring, you leave camp feeling your best. If you don’t, you might start the season already exhausted.

• The environment helps you grow: Being around 60+ other talented pitchers and competing for roster spots pushes you to make the most of every opportunity and do everything you need to do to perform at your best. Competing against hitters from all the minor league levels also shows you how to use your pitches best to attack different types of hitters.

• Competitive yet friendly: The obvious elephant in the room is that every single one of us is grinding to become a Big Leaguer one day, and only a select few of us will be able to do so. With that being said, you would think that people might be very reserved or cold towards each other, since they are competing for the same opportunities. But it’s actually quite the opposite. The players I spent time with were all great guys who treat you like a friend, and will have productive conversation with you all the time. It has made my experience that much better and really helped me settle in. But I can’t speak for other organizations, maybe the Phillies just have some really great people.

Best Advice I Recieved:

• Take care of your body: Already mentioned this above, but driving home how important it is. At this level especially, with a 120+ game schedule, it can take a toll on your body if you aren’t staying on top of things. Do everything right now so you’re not falling apart in August.

• Eliminate the noise: I was fortunate to receive advice from some older more experienced players, and they told me how with so many players in the organization and so much movement up and down, there will always be so much noise. It’s very important to simply be where your feet are, give your all to the opportunity you have, and focus on what you can control.

• Stick to your strengths: Understand what makes you a good player and lean into that. Do not go out there and try to be somebody you’re not. Your strengths as a player got you to this level, so embrace them.

• Remember you belong: If you got the opportunity to put on the jersey today and take the field, that means you belong.

Final Thoughts:

Once I found out I was breaking camp with Single-A Clearwater after a successful Spring Training, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude and excitement.

Less than two years ago I was in the transfer portal with very few D1 offers.

And now here I am going toe to toe with the best.

I am so excited to get to work and give it my all. There is nothing else I’d rather be doing. I wake up early every day with a fire and excitement to attack the day.

I am truly grateful that God has blessed me with this opportunity. It has introduced me to so many amazing people I now call friends. It has transformed the way I view life.

Getting to this position against all odds has led me to believe that life really is a blank canvas, and what you are willing to paint is really up to your level of boldness, audacity, and vision for your potential.

I just moved over to the Clearwater Threshers Clubhouse, the same one the Big Leaguers use for Spring Training. Check it out:

Lots more good stuff to come. I hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned.

- MT

But that was ceremonial. This is the real thing.

I walk through the complex towards the clubhouse, overwhelmed by a combination of excitement, anticipation, and nerves (the…

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