Padres Slugger Admits He Lost His Love for Baseball Last Few Years

Reflecting on his tumultuous journey in the major leagues so far, Sheets spoke with the San Diego Union-Tribune's Annie Heilbrunn to share how dark the low points of his career became.

"Yeah, it was tough. You know, 2022 we were right in the mix of things. And then Tony left because of health problems at the end of that year, and him and I were really close. And ‘23 and ‘24 was kind of a whirlwind, for me personally and for us as an organization in Chicago," he told Helibrunn.

"I definitely lost my love for baseball a little bit. It just became a dark cloud showing up to the ballpark every day for multiple different reasons. It was hard. It was hard to produce, it was hard to, you know, to think about, ‘Is this still what I want to do?’ And that was something that I took a step back from this offseason. Got my love back for baseball, and coming here was a true blessing."

In his bounce-back season, Sheeets is batting .291 with an on-base percentage of .345 and a slugging percentage of .465 in 127 at-bats, contributing five home runs and 22 RBIs.

After two seasons of below-replacement-level performance, he has a 0.6 WAR through a quarter of the season and a wRC+ of 128, which is above average.

He is surpassing FanGraphs' projection model by a considerable amount, exceeding any expectations that anyone could have had for the lefty hitter.

Sheets is only 29 years old and is set to enter arbitration this upcoming offseason, becoming a free agent in a couple of seasons.

The Padres have given Sheets a new lease of life in the majors, and it will be up to him to make the most of his chance and continue to repay their faith.

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