Fall 2024

From the Archives: In the Clear

Life for professional baseball players isn’t as easy as it may seem — especially for those with families at home. Astros pitcher Collin McHugh is no stranger to this truth.

In McHugh’s first few years in the New York Mets system (the team by which he was drafted), he moved up and down in the system sporadically. If he were still single at this time, this inconsistency of life may have been bearable, but he wasn’t single. McHugh married his wife Ashley in 2009 and had already spent too much time — in his mind — away from his bride.

McHugh was at a crossroads — he didn’t think he could balance his marriage and his professional baseball career any longer. He knew what was most important to him — his wife — and he was ready to make the call and pursue a different career path moving forward.

But his wife encouraged him otherwise — pushing him to stick with baseball. So that’s what McHugh did. The troubles didn’t end there, however.

As his career continued, so did the ups and seemingly more-frequent downs. He hopped from team to team, in and out of the Major Leagues and from city to city. Although McHugh felt nearly torn apart with all of his life’s inconsistencies, he found comfort and contentment in God’s truth.

“For me, it always came back to the promise in Jeremiah, and a promise in my life that He has proved over and over again in every big decision I’ve had to make,” says McHugh. “When God says, ‘Seek me with all of your heart,’ literally every big decision I’ve had to make—where I’m asking God for wisdom for just a clear head about things—it always comes back to, ‘Seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart, and I will be found by you.’

To read the full cover story from our April 2015 DigiMag, click HERE. McHugh is 7-7 through 21 starts this season with the Astros. His 111 strikeouts rank second on the team for the 2016 season — only behind Dallas Keuchel, who currently has 119. McHugh is scheduled to start tonight against the Toronto Blue Jays at 8:10 EST.