Patience pays for Providence's Callihan

Patience.

For Tyler Callihan, it's one of the lessons of baseball.

"When I was back in eighth grade, I'd tend to get too quick in my approach ... now, I'm more mature in slowing the game down and waiting to hit my pitch," he said.

He's learned patience can pay off.

This spring, patience at the plate — and baseball-smashing power when he decided the time was right to make his move — helped make the Providence infielder the Times-Union's All-First Coast baseball player of the year.

This summer, patience on draft day ended up netting him an estimated $1.5 million bonus as a third-round draftee of the National League Central's Cincinnati Reds.

At the plate, Callihan delivered a relentless and punishing efficiency that few high school hitters could match, anywhere, batting .456 with six doubles, 12 home runs and 36 RBIs.

But he didn't just excel with a bat in his hands. Callihan found an extra role this year as the closer on a Providence team that went 19-7, marching from the infield to the mound to close down games in the sixth and seventh.

For the season, he saved six games, recording a 1.08 earned run average and 40 strikeouts in 26 innings.

The mindset is simple. The results are real.

"Always hustle," he said. "[Any time someone doesn't] it's disrespectful to all the kids that would have run that ball out if they had the opportunity."

Callihan has spent just about his entire life in baseball — as he recalls, he first began playing around age 3.

What kept him coming back, day after day, was the inner side of the game. When to bat for contact. When to swing for the fences.

Now, when to be patient.

"It's about the mental aspects," he said. "Being able to think your way through every pitch, every at-bat, every game."

Providence head coach Mac Mackiewitz said Callihan always showed he had that winning mindset, ever since he first watched him train with the Stallions' middle school squad in sixth grade.

"His work ethic and effort were always full tilt, every game, every practice," Mackiewitz said. "It always gets your attention when kids are doing that at a young age."

Callihan developed those attributes quickly enough to break into the Providence starting lineup as an eighth-grader — he batted .397 — and find playing time in an infield that had just produced future Division I players in David Boyle, Jay Prather and Mac Wilson.

"Everything was quicker, everybody was older and you had to turn up the baseball sense in your mind and grow in maturity," he said.

From there, he grew into a top two-way producer to help power Providence into the playoffs year after year, even though the 2019 season ended earlier than expected after the Stallions were drawn against eventual Class 4A semifinalist Trinity Christian in a brutally tough district.

He called his chance to wear the red, white and blue of USA Baseball during the winter, when he represented the United States at the COPABE Under-18 Championships in Panama, "the best opportunity I've ever had."

Starting all nine games on the infield, he batted .528 with five doubles, two home runs and 19 RBIs as the American team rampaged through the tournament unbeaten. Callihan was selected to the all-tournament team.

Once he came back from Central America, Mackiewitz said he noticed a different ballplayer.

Patience was taking root.

"When he came back from Team USA, he didn't chase nearly as many pitches," Mackiewitz said. "The younger Tyler hated walks. Now, he'll be patient, take his walks, steal second and then steal third."

That wasn't the only change. For 2019, Callihan brought a renewed athleticism to the team, slicing his home-to-first time and improving his agility in a transformation that his coach called "jaw-dropping."

Ahead of the MLB draft, as more and more analysts projected Callihan as a first-rounder, he spent the days leading up to the draft on a family trip to several of his possible destinations — he said his stops included games with the Phillies, Pirates and Orioles.

"It was breathtaking, knowing you could have the opportunity to play at any of these parks," he said.

But his future team proved to be something different. Despite his first-round billing, he had to watch as team after team passed him by in the first two rounds.

The wait, though, proved to be worth it. Cincinnati selected him in the third round, ultimately offering him a bonus roughly equal to the value he would have received had they chosen him a full round earlier.

For Callihan, who also had the option of continuing on to the University of South Carolina, it was a no-lose proposition. But when the Reds called, he soon knew he was going to set his sights on the National League Central club. He signed his contract on June 13.

"It's such a blessing," he said.

Callihan began his minor league career Tuesday with the short-season Appalachian League's Greeneville Reds, where he collected his first hit and first run Wednesday against Kingsport. He's already started earning accolades for his defense.

"He's much more than just a hitter," Mackiewitz said. "I think the Reds are going to find that out in the first couple of months."