{"id":845149,"date":"2026-09-12T09:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T09:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/845149\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T09:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T09:54:13","slug":"fathers-playing-catch-up-the-perks-and-heartaches-of-being-a-dad-in-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/845149\/","title":{"rendered":"Fathers playing catch-up: The perks and heartaches of being a dad in MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late on the night of Oct. 8, 2021, then-Boston Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale sat thunderstruck at his locker. He had just turned in the worst start of his career, yanked after a five-run first-inning implosion in the American League Division Series. Boston\u2019s bats had bailed him out, but it was Sale\u2019s poor form that would overwhelm the talk-radio airwaves the next day.<\/p>\n

After sitting for a while in silence, Sale turned to Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock and said: \u201cWant to know what the best part of today is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitlock laughed. \u201cThere was a good part?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I get to go home and not be Chris Sale,\u201d Sale said. \u201cI\u2019m just Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tension between the relentless demands of the game and the pull of home is felt in each Major League Baseball clubhouse. One morning last summer, Mauricio Dub\u00f3n was in tears driving to the ballpark. It was a getaway day ahead of a weeklong road trip. It was also Father\u2019s Day. Dub\u00f3n, a new dad, was grappling with leaving his infant son, Luciano, on that day, of all days.<\/p>\n

Dub\u00f3n\u2019s job doesn\u2019t require navigating a truck through the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, as his dad\u2019s did. He doesn\u2019t live paycheck to paycheck. Yet in a line of work that consumes the calendar with travel and time away from family, Dub\u00f3n, a utility player for the Atlanta Braves, thinks constantly about how to balance being a big leaguer and an involved parent.<\/p>\n

He finds himself pulling aside his fellow major-league dads, from Sale to Jos\u00e9 Altuve to Freddie Freeman, and asking a question familiar to so many other parents with demanding jobs: \u201cHow do you do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Most baseball dads have a story about a milestone moment missed: first word, step, lost tooth, ballet recital, Little League game. One that hits hard at this time of year: first day of school. Many major-league families spend summers together but split up at the start of the school year. Some players will rejoin their families in a few weeks. Others won\u2019t be home until after Halloween.<\/p>\n

Before dispensing any advice about juggling parenting and pitching, Milwaukee Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff, like other dads interviewed for this story, would like two caveats printed, please. The first is that he doesn\u2019t even have the toughest job in his own household. His wife, Jonie, had a baby in July. Now she\u2019s home with the couple\u2019s three children in small-town Mississippi. \u201cI praise everything she does,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

The second caveat is that Woodruff makes enough money to make sure his kids\u2019 kids are taken care of, and to make some problems go away. He\u2019s acutely aware of how fortunate he has been throwing baseballs for a living.<\/p>\n

That said, the community of major-league dads summarily rejects that old line from \u201cTake Me Out to the Ball Game.\u201d They most certainly care if they ever get back.<\/p>\n

When Woodruff broke into the majors a decade ago, he didn\u2019t understand why older teammates often brought their families on the team\u2019s road trips.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow,\u201d he said, \u201cI totally get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mauricio<\/p>\n

\n Mauricio Dub\u00f3n, now with the Braves, says of son Luciano: \u201cHe changes a little bit every time you leave.\u201d (Erik Williams \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a thought exercise that has amused Texas Rangers reliever Trevor Williams for some time: What if we kept dad stats? What if the numbers on the back of a baseball card were replaced with diapers changed, bottles warmed, car seats installed, bedtime stories read, children tucked in?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing I want to do when I get home is sit at the chessboard to play my 8-year-old,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBut if he\u2019s been practicing all day and that\u2019s all he wants to do, that dad stat \u2014 played chess \u2014 goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answers to Dub\u00f3n\u2019s exploration \u2014 how to be the parent you want to be while playing in the big leagues \u2014 tend to land on the same point: Be present, wherever you are. \u201cWhen I\u2019m home, I\u2019m home,\u201d Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story said. \u201cThat\u2019s my one job: making the moments matter.\u201d Baltimore Orioles starter Chris Bassitt said: \u201cAround the kids, I\u2019m not a baseball player.\u201d Arizona Diamondbacks catcher James McCann said, \u201cWhen you go home, you\u2019re putting on a different hat. You\u2019re Dad.\u201d Williams wants a dad stat for being present. Let\u2019s call it xFT, he said. Expected family time.<\/p>\n

It seems Williams, his wife, Jackie, and their five kids live progressively farther from his home ballpark each year. The drive helps divide the two worlds. \u201cI needed to shut off my brain,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI needed to separate Trevor, the baseball player, from Trevor, the dad and husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before kids, Sandy Le\u00f3n, a journeyman catcher in the Braves organization, was known to stew after bad games. He\u2019d vent to his wife, Liliana. Now, with three children, Le\u00f3n said, he challenges himself to come home \u201cthe same person\u201d he was when he left. Children have a way of sniffing out when a parent is distracted by a bad day at work. \u201cThey can feel that energy if I\u2019m coming home and being an a-hole,\u201d Woodruff said, \u201cthinking about the slider that got hit for a homer.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dub\u00f3n sought advice from Freeman last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman and father of four said being a parent had made him a better baseball player. The delighted children awaiting him at home were a welcome distraction from whatever happened at the field that day.<\/p>\n

Dub\u00f3n has noticed he dwells less on the highs and lows of baseball now that Luciano is around. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t know you went 0 for 4,\u201d Dub\u00f3n said. \u201cHe just knows Dad is home.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCann\u2019s 8-year-old twins, Carter and Kane, are old enough to know the difference between 0 for 4 and 4 for 4. They occasionally question their dad\u2019s pitch selection. They understand a loss means they can\u2019t venture into the clubhouse after the game. (Dad\u2019s rules.) But McCann finds it refreshing that, for now, his sons don\u2019t care about baseball stats or win\/loss records.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just want to spend time with you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Shown<\/p>\n

\n Stephen Vogt brought his young children on the field for Family Day at Miller Park in 2017, but such togetherness is rare during the season. \u201cIt\u2019s hard,\u201d he said. (Benny Sieu \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Stephen Vogt was eager to spend time with his kids, too.<\/p>\n

During a July 2022 dinner date<\/a> in Chicago, when Vogt and his wife, Alyssa, agreed that the season with the Oakland Athletics would be his last as a player, the veteran catcher went back and forth about whether to take a year or two off before jumping into coaching. Alyssa did not waffle. If you want to coach, she told her husband, do it immediately: Don\u2019t let these kids get used to the idea of you being home all the time, she said.<\/p>\n

The next season, Vogt commuted from the family\u2019s home in Olympia, Wash., to work as the Seattle Mariners bullpen coach. He was still away enough that toward the end of the season his three children hung a rainbow-colored \u201cWelcome Home\u201d banner in the upstairs hallway.<\/p>\n

Then came the offer to manage the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n

These days, Vogt spends much of the year three time zones away from his family. A friend once told Vogt there\u2019s no such thing as work-life balance: It\u2019s work-life harmony. So, Vogt strives to maintain harmony. He ducks into the bathroom connected to his office at Progressive Field to FaceTime his family while they eat breakfast. He calls again an hour before first pitch and after the game. In the first half of this season, Vogt twice took cross-country flights on off days to see his family for a night.<\/p>\n

But the nature of the job is such that time together is brief. Texts and calls are unsatisfying substitutes for everyday conversation with your kids as they grow up. \u201cThat\u2019s the hardest part for me,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cI look at it as: I\u2019m working my butt off to provide a life for them, and I\u2019m a very involved dad. I\u2019m not unaware of anything. I don\u2019t go days without talking to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

For veteran big-league dads, the late-career calculus about when to hang up the spikes can be less about whether their body can continue for another season than whether their family can.<\/p>\n

A question was eating at Bassitt early this season, in the months after he turned 37 and signed a one-year contract with the Orioles.<\/p>\n

Should I be here?<\/p>\n

Not here, as in Baltimore. (Though his kids did prefer his previous bird logo<\/a>.) Here, as in the big leagues. Bassitt is deeply conscientious about the impact that his playing career, and his choice to extend it, has on his children, 6-year-old Landry and 2-year-old Colson. Landry is in school now. She took up soccer. Bassitt has never seen her play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never want to look back in 10 or 15 years,\u201d Bassitt said, \u201cand be like, \u2018I should never have played this year. I should have been with my daughter. She needed me. I didn\u2019t know it at the time, but she needed me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The feeling isn\u2019t exactly guilt, Bassitt explained, but concern. He and his wife, Jessica, have talked a lot about how to know it\u2019s time to retire. It may be Landry who decides. \u201cShe\u2019s a rock star,\u201d Bassitt said, \u201cBut there\u2019s going to come a point in time when \u2014 and I\u2019m saying this positively, not negatively \u2014 I\u2019m going to be done because of her. I want to be there for her. If she needs me every day, I\u2019m going to be there every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life after baseball was on Williams\u2019 mind last week when he was released by the Washington Nationals. He flew to San Diego to help Jackie and the kids pack up their old house ahead of a cross-country move to the forever home they bought in Virginia. Being home together in the stretch run of the baseball season felt like a sneak peek into the next chapter of the family\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Last Tuesday, the day before the movers arrived, the Rangers called. \u201cJackie was like, of course you leave right before the moving truck comes,\u201d Williams said. Off he went again.<\/p>\n

That same day, Vogt\u2019s wife and kids returned to Washington for the start of the school year. At home in Olympia, the \u201cWelcome Home\u201d banner is still on the wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just leave it up,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cIt sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"American<\/p>\n

\n Sonny Gray, then with the A\u2019s, had a blast with his son Gunnar during the Home Run Derby at the 2015 All-Star Game. (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Parenting has turned Red Sox starter Sonny Gray into an early riser. Lately, his mornings have been a lot quieter: The boys are back in school.<\/p>\n

Gray was 14 when his father died in a car crash. He will soon be 37, four years younger than his dad, Jesse, was at the time. He still writes \u201cDAD\u201d in silver marker on the brim of his cap. \u201cThe older you get, you realize that the most precious thing we have as humans is time,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n

His sons \u2014 Gunnar, 11, and Declan, 7 \u2014 spent the summer in Gray\u2019s big-league orbit, bouncing in and out of the home clubhouse at Fenway Park. Now they\u2019re back home, south of Nashville. Gray and his wife, Jessica, have homeschooled in the past to keep the family together all season. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried everything,\u201d Gray said. This year, it\u2019s public school.<\/p>\n

Big-league families are constantly searching for the setup that works for them. That can evolve dramatically from year to year. It gets increasingly complicated as kids get older and have their own activities cluttering the calendar, Gray said. Families with younger children might hire night nurses, nannies or lean upon relatives for extra help. Schooling options<\/a> range from traditional school to homeschool, tutors, traveling teachers and virtual classes. Some families travel to most road series. Others find it\u2019s not worth the hassle.<\/p>\n

When Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Jake Fraley\u2019s son, Jayce, was born in 2017, Fraley was the only dad on the High-A Charlotte Stone Crabs. His wife, Angelica, couldn\u2019t leave Miami for a month. Fraley was miserable. His play suffered. \u201cAfter that,\u201d Fraley recalled, \u201cme and my wife sat down, and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t care how much this costs. You guys are going to be with me everywhere I go for as long as I play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with careful planning and unwavering proximity, Fraley later found himself nearly stepping away from the game for his family\u2019s sake. In October 2023, his daughter, Avery, who was 5 at the time, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow and blood. During the 2024 season, Fraley took Avery to 6 a.m. chemotherapy appointments, then left for the ballpark around noon. \u201cIt was the hardest season of my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Avery completed her two-year treatment program this spring, before the family headed out for her father\u2019s eighth season in the majors.<\/p>\n

Like the Fraleys, the Williams kids are homeschooled. Williams sits down with Isaac, now a fifth grader, for two hours each weekday morning, while Jackie teaches the couple\u2019s two first graders and a nanny watches the two youngest. \u201cThat school time is so precious to me,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Williams has learned to leave his phone in another room when he\u2019s home. His parenting has been influenced by his own father, Richard, a Stage 4 cancer survivor who has spent retirement flying back and forth across the country to watch his son pitch. One night last week, Williams texted his dad that he\u2019d be the Rangers\u2019 opener the next day. Richard booked a flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis superpower has always been just showing up,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Williams hopes his kids will see him the same way.<\/p>\n

Before a recent road game, Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno was on a video call with his family when 2-year-old Gabriel Jr. dropped the Spanish slang term b\u00e1rbaro \u2014 translation: unbelievable. Moreno doubled over laughing. \u201cWhere did you learn that?!\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Junior had overheard his dad and \u201cDomo\u201d \u2014 Diamondbacks infielder Geraldo Perdomo \u2014 saying it in the clubhouse. Junior is his father\u2019s shadow. He wants to catch like him, hit like him, run the bases like him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything he sees, he wants to do,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cEverything he hears, he wants to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lately, Junior has been missing his dad more than ever. He\u2019s always asking to play. Moreno\u2019s wife, Rosmila, has her hands full with a newborn, Gianna. Moreno wishes he were around more. But while his career provides his kids things most will never have \u2014 like access to perfectly manicured fields to use as their playgrounds \u2014 it demands an extraordinary share of his time.<\/p>\n

Many big-league dads struggle with that trade-off. Woodruff sometimes can\u2019t shake the thought that by continuing to chase his baseball dreams, he\u2019s missing his kids\u2019 childhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to look back on those years and enjoy that time with them,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wife and I are living right in the middle of the funnest times with our kids \u2014 and I\u2019m not getting to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the many moments major-league dads miss back home, none is more guilt-inducing than the newborn phase. Players can be placed on MLB\u2019s paternity list for one to three days; they scramble to get to the delivery and are sometimes gone before mother and baby have been discharged.<\/p>\n

Each of Woodruff\u2019s three kids was born during the season. One arrived while he was home rehabbing a shoulder injury. Those were some of the darkest days of his baseball career, he said, and some of the best as a dad.<\/p>\n

The McCanns are expecting their third child in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I\u2019m between playoff series,\u201d McCann said, \u201cand we manage to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCann is 36. This child, unlike the older brothers, will grow up with a former big-league dad.<\/p>\n

McCann and his wife, Jessica, have tried giving their boys the best of both worlds \u2014 big-league life and a normal childhood back home, with school friends and youth sports teams. He has cherished seeing his sons grow up around the game. When they come to the field before games, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t see them for two hours.\u201d They shag early batting practice, watch bullpens, play catch, field grounders with the infielders, then fix themselves a plate of food before going back out for more BP.<\/p>\n

McCann carries those memories with him. He needs them on the days when the only glimpse of his sons\u2019 Little League games is the shaky, out-of-focus videos his wife, Jessica, takes through a chain-link fence. \u201cHearing their excitement when they call me and say they had three hits, or made a nice play, and knowing I didn\u2019t get to see it,\u201d he said, \u201cthat\u2019s probably the hardest part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross Stripling now sees all the moments he used to miss. The right-hander retired last year after nine seasons in the majors. A life that had revolved around baseball came to a standstill. He retired the same day his third son was born. This time, Stripling stayed in the newborn bubble. He was the only dad at his oldest son\u2019s Easter egg hunt and his middle son\u2019s gymnastics class. Some days, he said, \u201cAll I did was be Dad, and I was totally fulfilled.\u201d<\/p>\n

After about a year, he felt increasingly agitated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some instinct habitually that understands that something is out of whack and I need to go do something,\u201d Stripling said one day this spring. \u201cI\u2019m slowly trying to figure out what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pete<\/p>\n

\n Pete Alonso often gets home too late to interact with Teddy: \u201cI\u2019ll look at the monitor and go, man, I can\u2019t wait to see him tomorrow.\u201d (James A. Pittman \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

When Pete Alonso hit free agency last fall, he was preoccupied not by contract projections and negotiations but by diaper changes and swaddles. His son, Teddy, was born Sept. 21, 2025, a week before the end of Alonso\u2019s final season with the New York Mets.<\/p>\n

Alonso is meticulous in all things, so it should come as no surprise that he spent the early days of the offseason analyzing the family operation. He determined cleaning and organizing fell under his purview. \u201cHow can I leave our system intact so that everything has its place?\u201d he recalled thinking.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Alonso watched many teammates become fathers. He picked their brains a bit before realizing most of it wouldn\u2019t make sense until he and his wife, Haley, were in that situation. Now, he understands why so many said having kids would change how it felt to come home.<\/p>\n

When Alonso returns late after Orioles road trips now, he does so on tiptoes. He walks quietly and fights the urge to visit Teddy in the nursery, lest a woken baby ruin everyone\u2019s night. Then one of the most feared sluggers in the sport stoops over to pick up the baby monitor from the bedside stand. \u201cI\u2019ll look at the monitor,\u201d Alonso said, \u201cand go, man, I can\u2019t wait to see him tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Atlanta, Dub\u00f3n feels the same. When he\u2019s home, he\u2019s not a major leaguer. He\u2019s Luciano\u2019s dad. Dub\u00f3n reminds himself to be present. Luciano is 1 now. He loves splashing in the pool and going to the playground. Dub\u00f3n often puts him down for a nap before heading to work. But the time together flies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe changes a little bit every time you leave,\u201d Dub\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n

On Father\u2019s Day last year, Dub\u00f3n stepped to the plate with two outs in the 10th inning of a tied game. He wore blue batting gloves and wagged a blue bat over his right shoulder. He was in one of the deepest slumps of his career: 1 for his last 25.<\/p>\n

Dub\u00f3n timed a cutter at the top of the strike zone and banged it off the wall for a walk-off single. Teammates spilled onto the field to swarm Dub\u00f3n. In the stands, his wife, Nancy, held Luciano and cheered until she cried. During a postgame interview, Dub\u00f3n tried to find the words to describe what he was feeling. His eyes welled up. He still had a plane to catch. He still hated leaving little Luciano. But at least he\u2019d always remember their first Father\u2019s Day together.<\/p>\n

Dub\u00f3n scooped his son into his arms. As Luciano pawed at his father\u2019s necklace, Dub\u00f3n said, \u201cThat was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Zack Meisel contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late on the night of Oct. 8, 2021, then-Boston Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale sat thunderstruck at his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[690,363,99],"class_list":["post-845149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-culture","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}