Aroon Escobar once was ‘afraid of playing.’ A ‘Mamba Mentality’ helped him become a rising Phillies prospect.

When Aroon Escobar found out he’d play in a Phillies big-league spring training game against the Orioles on March 9, he immediately began to visualize his at-bats. He went pitch by pitch, thinking about how he’d approach a fastball, a breaking ball, and so on.

He thought about sitting in the dugout, walking onto the on-deck circle, and stepping into the box. This continued for a day and a half; he even went through the pitch sequence in his dreams.

The work paid off. In the sixth inning, manager Rob Thomson called on the Phillies prospect to pinch run for J.T. Realmuto. There was a time, a few years ago, when this situation would have filled him with anxiety, even fear. But that no longer is the case.

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“I felt no pressure,” Escobar said. “I felt like I was playing at home, playing loose.”

He cleanly fielded a double play to end the top of the seventh, and in the bottom half of the inning, he took his first career big league spring training at-bat. With two outs, one man on, and No. 97 on his back, Escobar crushed the first pitch he saw — a sinker in — 385 feet over the left-field fence.

As he rounded the bases, he wondered if this was real life or a simulation. He crossed home plate, where Thomson and a throng of Phillies were waiting to give him a high five. As Escobar filtered through the dugout, bench coach Mike Calitri pulled him aside.

“Hey,” he said. “How old are you?”

“I’m 20,” the prospect responded.

Calitri looked at him incredulously.

“Twenty?” He asked.

“Yes,” Escobar responded. “I’m 20 years old.”

It was a sign of growth, not just in his ability to hit for power, but in his mindset. When Escobar made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League, he struggled. Part of this was because of a minor back injury, but he also believes poor confidence played a role.

The infielder hit .238/.389/.343 in 2022, his first minor league season, and .209/.343/.300 in 2023. He’d never faced adversity like that in his baseball career and began to doubt if he belonged.

Escobar still remembers a conversation in which he called his mother and father crying.

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“I was asking, ‘Is this for me?’” he said. “‘Do I really have a shot to make it?’”

A lot has changed since then. During that 2023 season, he began to work with Phillies mental performance coach Manuel Antuña on visualization. Antuña also recommended a book for Escobar: The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, by the late Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

He was hooked. Now, Bryant’s teachings — and visualization — are parts of his daily routine. He says he is as confident as ever, and the results back that up: Escobar, who was named the Phillies’ minor league hitter of the month in April, entered the week hitting .333/.456/.583 with a 187 weighted runs created plus (100 is league average) through 22 games playing mostly second base with low-A Clearwater.

His hard-hit rate, which was below the MLB average in 2022 (38.6%) and 2023 (39.6%), now sits above the league average (40.9%). His contact rate of 90.6% is considered elite. He has five home runs on the season, a career high.

“I used to be afraid of playing because I was afraid of failing,” Escobar said. “But those videos and books, of Kobe, Michael Jordan … I started to study, and I started to learn.

“I learned that there are always more opportunities. If you fail, there will be another opportunity. Another at-bat, another ground ball, whatever it may be.”

Escobar comes from a baseball family. He is distant cousins with Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. — which he describes as “definitely interesting.” His uncle, Kelvim Escobar, pitched parts of 12 seasons with the Blue Jays and Angels.

His father, Nelson, played professional baseball in Venezuela but never cracked the big leagues. Instead, he worked as a fisherman in their hometown of Chuspa, a small village on the coast with a listed population of 3,918 (which Escobar says is an overestimate).

According to Baseball Almanac, MLB has never fielded a player from Chuspa. Escobar is determined to become the first and has put in the effort to try to make that happen.

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The Phillies hold two high-performance camps every year, and the prospect hasn’t missed one yet. It’s allowed him to consistently add muscle — he now stands at 5-foot-10, 219 pounds — and refine his skill set.

The infielder also has worked closely with the Phillies’ director of hitting development, Edwar Gonzalez, who made some drastic changes to his mechanics in August 2023.

“He used to have a big dip on his load, so we got rid of that,” Gonzalez said. “There was too much energy going toward the catcher, when that energy should be used to attack and go forward. So there’s more time for him to be on time and see the ball better, attack the ball.

“Gradually, his swing has gotten more connected. He’s gotten tighter, more efficient. Now, those ground balls to short are line drives in the gap.”

Escobar saw some immediate results from the changes in 2024, hitting .338/.495/.481 through 24 games with the FCL Phillies. But he quickly encountered another setback: a diagnosis of shin splits in mid-June. It was frustrating, but thanks to his work with Antuña, he had the tools to deal with it.

During his rehab, the minor leaguer turned to a specific video of Bryant from 2019. The Hall of Famer was asked about how he was able to hit two free throws in a game against the Golden State Warriors, even after he’d torn his Achilles tendon.

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Bryant used an analogy to explain. He painted a scene of an athlete with a pulled hamstring sitting at home, resting on his couch. All of a sudden, a fire broke out.

In that moment, the athlete forgot about his pain. He did what he needed to save himself and his family.

“The lives of your family are more important than an injury to your hamstring,” Bryant told the interviewer. “And so when the game is more important than the injury itself, you don’t feel that [expletive] injury.”

Escobar decided to apply the message to his own situation. He was diligent with his rehab, cleaned up his diet, and exercised as much as his body allowed. To this day, he thinks of the burning house whenever he feels aches and pains.

“It’s part of baseball,” he said. “Every day, you’ll feel something. But you’ve got to keep posting up.”

Sometimes before games, he will watch videos of Bryant, Jordan, and LeBron James. It has given him perspective as he plays a game of failure; knowing that even the greatest athletes have struggled, and, occasionally, failed.

“I think a lot of the results now come from the work I’ve done on my mentality,” Escobar said. “It’s helped my confidence. I’ve learned that the game has a lot of opportunities. Whenever I have time, I look at those videos, those motivational phrases, and that helps me do my work, day-to-day.”

Escobar is ranked No. 13 on the Phillies’ prospect list and No. 15 on Baseball America’s. ESPN analyst Kiley McDaniel predicted in February that he’d have a breakout season, one that would put him in his top 100 in 2026.

But regardless of where the infielder ends up, Gonzalez still sees Escobar as a player development success.

He came to the Phillies in 2022 with the right tools — an ability to hit for contact, good command of the strike zone, a selectively aggressive approach — and the organization helped add some finishing touches.

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But Escobar’s personal growth tied it together. His maturity, his work ethic, his attention to detail. It’s why Gonzalez wasn’t surprised when his pupil sent one into the stands on March 9.

“The pitcher made a mistake, and Aroon did what he does: He took advantage of it,” Gonzalez said. “I was working on the minor league side, and they had the game on. When I saw it, I said, ‘Hey, that’s my guy. Just a matter of time until he’s there.’”