Astros Prospect Jon Singleton Is Searching for Inner Peace and a Breakout Season

There is a stigma unique to baseball prospects that do not blossom, a distinctive stain that's hard to miss. These players are blessed with talent, youth, and pedigree, and usually have a few consecutive seasons of minor league dominance in their back catalog. And then…it stops.

You can see this stain on Jon Singleton. He is still just 24, but his career has already been bruised. He has a major league contract from the Astros but not the production to merit it. He has felt the sting of MLB's uneven drug-testing program, and grown from it as a person. But he remains a prospect—still unproven in Houston, and facing the daunting challenge of bridging the gap between his potential and the present.

"When I was younger I thought—I don't want to say easy—but the road would be a lot different," Singleton said at Houston's spring training facility last month. "A little bit of a smoother road, so to speak. That's just pretty much it. A smoother road, an easier ride. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

When he said that, Singleton was still caught in the uncertainty of a spring training position battle with A.J. Reed and Tyler White. All he hoped for, Singleton said, was for a successful 2016 season, wherever it might be. On Wednesday, Singleton learned it would begin in Triple-A; Houston sent down both Reed and Singleton. White, a 25-year-old rookie who was a 33rd-round draft pick out of Western Carolina in 2013, had won the starting job.

This is just the latest indignity to strike Singleton, a former top-50 prospect in the sport who carries a .171 career average in the majors. Built like a linebacker, with a booming musculature, he has 14 home runs in 420 plate appearances over two stints with the Astros, but has also struck out 151 times; he played in just 95 games in 2014, but committed more errors than any first baseman in the majors. This spring, Singleton had just eight hits in 53 at-bats. "Singy is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders," A.J. Hinch, the Astros manager, said when the team was still debating their options. The pressure of past expectations has appeared, at times, to be crushing.

"I think it's still early in his career," Jeff Luhnow, the general manager, said. "He's had a lot of success in the minor leagues. Has not been able to translate that success in the system to production at the major league level, but he's still in his mid-20's and he's got tools and he's got a good work ethic and I think the future is bright for Jon."

The Astros certainly thought so when they gave him an unprecedented five-year contract in 2014 worth at least $10 million. He had not even played a game above Triple-A. It was a gamble, and buying out Singleton's arbitration years had the potential to be a boon for the club, but so far they have seen little return.

Singleton knows that the deal has become a double-edged sword. It has given him stability and peace of mind but only increased the weight upon his shoulders. And it certainly has not aided how he is viewed.

"Their perception of me? Probably not," he said. "I know for me personally it was because I wasn't so concerned about my day-to-day actions. At the end of the day, I was still okay with myself. It was a little bit different when I was younger. When you had a bad day it was kind of very depressing, very hard on yourself. I guess when I did get the contract it kind of made things a little easier for me with handling failure. I'm still not where I want to be."

Before it became something more complicated, that contract was a means for Singleton to mitigate stress. Before it, he burned himself up with scrutiny. His struggle to manage stress has gotten him in trouble in the past. Before the 2013 season, Singleton was suspended after a second positive test for marijuana as a minor leaguer. He says he hasn't smoked since that year. Initially, fighting the urge was a day-to-day struggle, and Singleton strugged to find other ways to decompress.

The Astros put him into an internal program for players who have failed drug tests, and Singleton went to rehab for a month that year. "I kind of learned a lot about myself," he said. "I do have an addictive personality. Once you get rid of your bad habits it's trying to find something productive to put your energy into… I don't want to say it's a struggle, but you definitely have to refocus your energy."

Now, it's directed towards weight-lifting and video games. Singleton spent the winter training in Houston. Cederick Johnson, his trainer, says Singleton put in heavy hours, but his issue has always been more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

Singleton is an introvert by nature, Johnson says, which could lead to erratic behavior. Singleton would ignore phone calls from former manager Bo Porter, not calling him back until Porter would then reach Johnson, who would badger Singleton into calling him. Quinton McCracken, the Astros' director of player management, would get the same treatment. The behavior mystified Johnson. "These guys are trying to get you to play professional baseball," Johnson says he would tell him. "Answer."

Johnson believes that his pot use contributed to Singleton's flakiness. Johnson says that Singleton didn't agree; they would talk about it regularly. Johnson is a former undercover police officer, and regaled Singleton with horror stories in an attempt to scare him straight. Even after Singleton stopped smoking, Johnson thought he needed to be more aggressive with his career, that he had taken his skills "for granted." He thinks that it finally clicked last summer. After the season ended, he told Singleton to find him in the offseason. When Singleton did call, "that was like, 'okay, he's finally trying to wake up and understand what he's got going on.'"

Johnson saw how Singleton had changed. At the gym, he was more personable. Where Singleton used to stay to himself, now he shakes hands and take photos. This is the maturity Johnson has been waiting for him to find. "He grew up," he said. "Everybody is telling him you have so much talent. 'Okay, I do. I gotta do something with it.' When you're playing at the professional level, you're not the big kid on the block. Everybody is big."

Singleton is still young, even for a baseball prospect trying to prove himself. George Springer, his teammate, was 16 days older than Singleton is today when he made his major league debut in 2014.

This year, Singleton is trying to find the consistency that has eluded him in the past. Bogged down by the success and failures he'd experience daily, he'd become anxious, then try to fight through the nerves. Now, instead of dwelling, or worrying about what other people think he's trying to keep an even-keel. The game is hard enough as is.

If he needs to refocus, Singleton doesn't need to look far. When he was younger, he had "faith" and "hope" inscribed on his chest. Some youthful tattoos age worse than others, but Singleton's work like a mantra in ink, and a reminder to slow things down. "I always believed you gotta have faith and you gotta have hope on a day to day basis," he said. "You gotta believe in something that's not necessarily there. Hope, you gotta have a goal in the end. You gotta have faith for that goal. You've got to be hopeful."