He is The Catcher in the Wry.
Stockton Sunset Little League, Princeton, W.Va., Bowling Green, Ky., Montgomery, Ala., Port Charlotte, Fla., Surprise, Ariz., Sugar Land, Texas, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, El Paso, Texas, San Diego, Taichung, Taiwan, Tokyo, Japan, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Denver.
Brett Sullivan could not take a hint. Now, 11 years after he was drafted out of the University of the Pacific, he is a hit.
“I am delusionally confident,” explained Sullivan. “I truly never let the idea of quitting enter my head. I just would not let my mind go that way.”
As Sullivan looped a single into left field Wednesday to walk off the Orioles, he stood at second base, arms open wide. Five rookies embraced him. He could live forever in that snapshot, a moment that showed how his patience and perseverance have paid off.
Known only to family, friends and teammates during his decade-long trek through the minor leagues, winter leagues, fall league and World Baseball Classic, Sullivan has emerged as a team leader in his first season in Colorado.
So much so, that if the Rockies avoid 100 losses for the first time in four years — they must win nine of their final 22 games — he will be a huge reason why.
“The boys love him inside the clubhouse, the way he helps bring people together,” pitcher Kyle Freeland said. “He keeps guys’ heads up. It is not forced. You can tell it comes from a genuine place. And it shows his true colors. He cares about his teammates, and he cares about the game.”
Sullivan joined the Rockies as a free agent this offseason. They needed depth behind Hunter Goodman, and Sullivan, like most winters, was looking for a job.
“He was a solid option we liked,” Rockies general manager Josh Byrnes said. “And we quickly realized how good he is at game planning and his attention to detail.”
The Rockies thought they were getting a viable backstop. They did not realize they had landed the ultimate Vibes Guy.
Sullivan wears a smile easily. You don’t enter a season as a 32-year-old with 43 major league games on your resume without loving the sport in an almost unhealthy way.
Sullivan is more Ned Flanders than Ned Yost. A decade as a mascot for MapQuest could have made him bitter. Instead, it made him better, hungrier, and oddly, happier.
“Of course, there are bad days,” Sullivan said. “But that’s when I step back and think about what I actually get to do for a living.”
Outfielder Mickey Moniak knew of Sullivan’s unbending optimism long before he joined the Rockies. He began training in 2017 in Southern California with Sullivan and his brother Tyler, a former pro player. They became fast friends. Moniak attended Sullivan’s wedding.
It is who Sullivan is. People gravitate toward him.
“Brett is so outgoing. He gets along with everybody. It is funny, the running joke is that Brett knows everybody because every time we play a team, he says, ‘Whatap up to four guys over there,’^” Moniak said. “Things can get monotonous for us. You get into stretches where you don’t feel good. You can turn inward, but you have a guy like Brett to pull you out of it and let you know that everything is going to be OK.”
Sullivan’s personality led Moniak and Freeland to cast him in an outsized role behind the scenes. They needed a leader in the room, someone with experience, someone who could use humor to bring laughs and foster accountability.
During the opening-week series in Toronto, Sullivan decided it was time to fill the void of silence.
After wins, he brings the team together in the clubhouse and “runs it down.” He picks a game MVP, identifies moments of excellence and pokes fun at mistakes in a lighthearted way that conjures images of the old days of kangaroo courts.
“It is straight off the top of my head. It is the big things. But it is really the little stuff, those details you want to recognize to pump them up. A bunt, a stolen base, it’s about letting them know that is how we are going to win games with this group in this park,” Sullivan said. “It’s like, ‘Hey nobody else saw it, but we saw it.’ It brings us together. We have little chants for certain people now. If someone is a dawg during a game, we are barking.”
A major league season is longer than the last day of school. It requires concentration, professionalism, but players cannot obsess over numbers like CPAs and keep their sanity.
“Every team I have been on seems to have a guy that lightens the mood,” said pitcher Nick Frasso, one of the rookies to greet Sullivan at the second base party on Wednesday. “It really helps.”
Some of the recent Rockies who have taken on the assignment include Ryan Spilborghs, the comic duo of Gerardo Parra and Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan McMahon and Kyle Farmer.
It must be organic. Spend a few minutes with Sullivan, and it is easy to see how he fills the niche. It goes beyond the clubhouse. On the bus from the airport to the hotel when arriving in a new city, Sullivan takes the mic.
“He has some fun. He goes over the upcoming series. Talks about what guys need to know and what we are doing well. And lets them know if they did something dumb,” Moniak said. “He will have new guys come up and sing karaoke. He will ask them about themselves to help teammates get to know them. Brett is the guy who facilitates all of that.”
Let’s be honest. Sullivan could be equal parts Kevin Hart and John Mulaney, and none of it would work without baseline talent.
Sullivan can play. Few backup catchers — a position he switched to three years into his minor league career — have been more productive.
He has 21 extra-base hits in 190 at-bats and has reached base in 22 of his last 27 starts, hitting .297 during that span. And thrown out nine base stealers.
He also joined Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani as the only player to hit a home run in the same game he pitched this season, logging a scoreless inning on May 26 before going deep off infielder Miguel Rojas.
“We definitely didn’t know we were getting that,” Byrnes joked.
Sullivan ranks second in position player appearances on the mound this season, posting a 4.70 ERA in seven outings.
“When I heard that stat about Ohtani, how could you not be impressed?” said Freeland of Sullivan, who averages 61.4 mph on his pitches, maxing out at 75.6 and bottoming at 48.8 . “That’s pretty special.”
Sullivan represents part of baseball’s charm that is easier to appreciate than understand. The game gets into the veins. It is hard to shake even when it takes more than 700 minor league games to reach the big leagues.
“I always believed in him,” said wife, Hunter, who met Brett when he was playing Double-A ball in Montgomery. “It has been a journey. I think it is important he always had support at home. I knew he could do it. Maybe I am delusionally confident as well.”
Sullivan refuses to let baseball’s failure infect him. He provides pep talks that border on, breaks slumps by using a teammate’s bat and follows a daily routine that allows him to enjoy his wake-up-pinch-self occupation.
“In the clubhouse, it is about making sure there are two sides. We have 162 games. And that is serious. But you have to have ways to decompress,” Sullivan said. “If thatap (trash) talking, playing some games, throwing some (challenges) around, I am here for it. I love all of it.”
Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.
