In an important spring, Phillies’ Cristian Pache feels ready: ‘My mind is stronger than it was before’

CLEARWATER, Fla. — There was a time, not long ago, when Cristian Pache would overanalyze things he could not control. It’s natural for a young player to do that. He’d think about how much he’d play, and roster spots, and his future. He now knows that this was an exercise in futility. Pache’s thoughts had no bearing on the Atlanta Braves’ decision to send him to Oakland in the Matt Olson trade in 2022, or on the A’s decision to trade him to the Phillies a year later.

They also have no bearing on the challenge he faces this spring. Pache is competing for the last bench spot on the Phillies’ big league roster. He is out of options. It’s the type of scenario that would have sent him into a tailspin when he was younger, but not anymore.

“I can better detach myself from that now,” he said, “because my mind is stronger than it was before.”

Pache, 25, is coming off a difficult season. When he arrived in Philadelphia, he was known as a gifted outfielder who couldn’t hit the ball in the air. A’s manager Mark Kotsay told reporters that the team “ran out of time” in developing him offensively. It wasn’t a ringing endorsement.

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But Pache got in the cage with Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long and cleaned up some of his mechanics. He started to stay back in his stance, rather than leaning forward. He got into his hips and legs more and tried to quiet down his head movements. The results were almost immediate. He went hitless in his first four games, and then proceeded to bat .474/.474/.790 over his next 14.

He wasn’t just hitting the ball in the air; he was hitting it harder than he ever had. Pache felt as if he had unlocked something. But on April 28 last year, his journey was interrupted again. While breaking back toward second base in a game against the Astros, he suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee. He needed surgery and was out for the next month-and-a-half.

Pache returned to play on June 16, only to reinjure himself on July 14 (right elbow irritation). He played a total of 48 games in 2023.

It wasn’t how he wanted things to go, but he looks back on last season with gratitude.

“It helped me a lot,” he said. “As a player, you want to play every day and help the team win, but since I couldn’t play every day, I had to figure out: How can I better myself and help the team when I’m not playing?”

Pache realized that the answer was to strengthen his mind. He began to read books to help him stay present. One of his favorites was El Poder Del Ahora, known in English as The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. He reached out to a friend who is a psychologist and they began to talk regularly about how to improve his focus on the field and go about his day with less stress.

He started to meditate and work on breathing exercises. Pache believes that he is seeing the results of that mental work — and the mechanical work he did with Long — right now. He is in the midst of an intense competition, but he doesn’t feel overwhelming stress. He feels focused and confident in his routine.

It’s showing on the field. Pache has already hit two home runs through five spring training games, while batting .308. He has made a few highlight-reel catches in the outfield, too. It’s a small sample size, but his manager is starting to take notice.

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“He’s right there,” Rob Thomson said on Thursday. “He can defend at any position in the outfield, and the at-bats just keep on getting better. As soon as we got him last year, Kevin got to work with him, and he started hitting left-handers, but now it looks like he has a chance to maybe hang with the right-handers.”

Both of Pache’s home runs this spring have been off of righties, a group that he struggled against last year. In the 33 at-bats in which he did face a right-hander, Pache batted .121/.237/.212 — compared to .314/.375/.549 in 51 at-bats against lefties.

Assistant hitting coach Rafael Peña says that most of Pache’s recent success is the byproduct of time. He’s had a full offseason to repeat his new mechanics. But there has also been an added emphasis on facing right-handed pitching through drills and cage work.

“He’s seeing more right-handed breaking balls off of the machine, I would say, than lefties,” Peña said, “because he’s been doing good against lefties. He’s just adding it to his routine.”

Pache feels good about that routine. It’s not just about his work with Long and Peña, but also his time spent with Phillies veterans. He likes to hang around the batting cage and watch his teammates work.

“I have veterans I can learn from — [Kyle] Schwarber, [Bryce] Harper, J.T. [Realmuto],” Pache said. “Whenever I watch them in the cage, I pick up something new. I like to watch them hit because they’re players who have had so much success, so I can learn from how they work. What they do, what they don’t do.”

Sometimes, it is the veterans who are watching Pache. A few days ago, Harper approached the outfielder after he took some swings. Pache, who is from the Dominican Republic, says that they speak “Spanglish” to each other.

“He said, ‘Pache, you’re looking good,’ ” Pache said. “He told me to keep up the good work. There are a lot of good vibes. Nick [Castellanos] is a great guy, too. I feel very comfortable here.”

There are about three weeks of camp left. Pache’s future is unclear, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he plays. He has the confidence of a player with a guaranteed roster spot. He’s running and sliding in the outfield. His swing looks effortless. He often has a smile on his face.

“I just have to play my game,” he said. “I can’t control the decisions that the front office or the team will make. So, I’m just going to take advantage of the opportunities they give me.”