San Diego Padres slugger Gavin Sheets made Major League Baseball history last week when he became the first player to hit three go-ahead, three-run, ninth-inning home runs in the same season. What’s more, he accomplished the feat before the middle of May.
He continued his hot start to the season by following it up with three home runs over the weekend against the Seattle Mariners, including two in Sunday’s game.
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HOLY SHEETS!!! pic.twitter.com/BXvli2vI4M
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 14, 2026
Oh Sheets, here we go again. pic.twitter.com/qQxHF1WrPZ
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 18, 2026
He tallied a .625 batting average with four home runs and eight RBIs last week, and as a result, the 30-year-old was named the National League Player of the Week.
“It’s a cool honor. You think of all the players in the National League, and to win that for a week is pretty exciting,” Sheets told MLB Network. “But, more importantly, we played really good baseball and had two really good series on the road.”
Since arriving in San Diego before last season on a minor-league deal, Sheets has provided much-needed spark and versatility to a Padres lineup looking to keep pace with the division-rival Los Angeles Dodgers. He made the opening-day roster last year and responded with the best season of his career: a .252 batting average, 19 home runs and 71 RBIs — all career highs. The Padres reached the postseason, but lost to the Chicago Cubs in the wild-card round.
Sheets has picked up where he left off, batting .254 this year with nine home runs and 21 RBIs in 44 games played, and he’s a key reason the Padres are sitting just a half-game behind the Dodgers in the NL West standings. He’s also considered one of the leaders in the clubhouse despite being in only his second full season with the club.
“I think it’s something that’s organically happened,” he told MLB Network. “Last year I came in and built relationships with the guys around here. It’s such a great clubhouse and such a great culture. Everybody just wants to win. I think there’s a respect factor when you go about things the right way and put in the work.”
There was a time earlier in his career when he would’ve let those numbers and that success define him. That mindset crumbled and his perspective shifted entirely during the pandemic-shortened season in 2020.
Sheets was drafted in the second round by the Chicago White Sox in 2017 out of Wake Forest and quickly began ascending the minor league system. He put together his best pro season in Double-A in 2019 and earned an invitation to major league spring training in 2020. Then the pandemic brought everything to an abrupt halt.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is OK. This isn’t the path I had. This isn’t the way my plan was going, but that’s OK. Baseball is going to come back and we’ll be fine,'” he said in a Sports Spectrum “I Once Was” video.
Later that June, baseball did resume — though in an abbreviated, 60-game season without fans. The minor league season was canceled, but some players were asked to report to what was essentially extended spring training to play intrasquad games against teammates. But not everyone would be participating. Some players in the organization would stay home without structured baseball activity for the time being.
A bunch of guys started getting calls about when to show up to the facility and getting relayed logistics about the season and their assignment. Sheets’ phone never rang.
“I had made baseball this idol in my life,” he said in the video. “All of my plans in all my mind, my relationships, everything was in this idol that I’d created, and I didn’t know what to do. It was a mix of emotions — anger and questioning. It was the first time that I’d really searched for God, in that moment.”
It was also the first time he realized baseball would go on whether he was a part of it or not. That was a hard pill to swallow.
“So, this thing that I had put my identity in, I’m sitting at home watching it go on. I’m watching these guys play and I’m not a part of it, and it’s not slowing down,” he said while speaking at a chapel event last month for Christian Unified Schools of San Diego. “I realized I’m putting my identity in something that doesn’t care for me.”
He soon thereafter received a text message from his college coach, Tom Walter, whom he hadn’t spoken to in about a year. The message included a story about a pastor and a farmer that was meant to provide comfort and remind Sheets to trust in God when things happen that we don’t understand.
The text also read: “You’ve always risen to the occasion. This will be no exception. Hang in there. Love you, brother.” Reading it made him break down in tears.
“I just thank God,” he said. “I just felt His presence for the first time where I needed Him the most, where I called out to Him. It was the first time where I felt myself giving my whole path to God, giving my whole future to God, giving my whole life to God and just saying, ‘I can’t do this on my own.'”
Later that summer, while visiting his grandparents, his grandfather fell and broke his leg. Because baseball had been put on pause, Sheets was able to stay home for several weeks and help care for him alongside his grandmother. Then his aunt — whom he described as being like a second mother to him — became ill and passed away later that same summer. He was there with her when she took her final breath.
“Being there and being with my family and realizing that God had greater plans than I could’ve ever imagined,” he said in the video. “The plans that I had for myself were not even half of what God had planned for me.”
That season made him realize he wasn’t using baseball or his platform to glorify God, and that needed to change. Sheets continued training on his own, and used the time to learn how to play outfield in an effort to make himself more valuable to a roster. He made his major-league debut the following year — at a position he had never played before, which he learned while being at home during the pandemic.
“Now I’m here to share my journey and how it all took a turn for a path that was even greater than I expected,” he said.
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