DENVER -- It was 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon at Coors Field, more than three hours ahead of the Reds’ series opener vs. the Rockies. Center fielder TJ Friedl's workday already began a few hours prior, per his usual routine. None of it involved baseball activity yet.
"I got here at 1 o’clock, and I haven’t even picked up a bat yet," Friedl said.
While Friedl noted he uses some of the time to eat, relax or do crossword puzzles, much of it is also dedicated to preparing his body to play. That means Pilates, yoga and other forms of stretching his muscles.
Friedl, 29, had three stints on the injured list last season. Although a fractured right wrist and a left thumb fracture were contact injuries, he also missed a month midseason with a right hamstring strain that impacted his speed on the bases and his defense.
Perhaps aided by his 2025 routine, Friedl has been healthy and producing from the leadoff spot. In 27 games, he is slashing .286/.347/.384 with one home run and 12 RBIs. He already has two four-hit games and one three-hit game.
"Obviously, being on the field is the best thing you can do as baseball players," Friedl said. "Continue to be out there and continue to get reps on the field and let the rest take care of itself. But in order to do that, it’s the behind-the-scenes [work] of making sure your body is ready each and every day, hitting your checkpoints."
That's not easy during a 162-game schedule with trips that often crisscross the country.
"If you’re a little tight, a tough travel schedule, maybe a four-hour flight -- things like that. [It's] being aware of that once you get to the field," Friedl said. "Whether that’s a massage, activation, Pilates, yoga [or] stretching workouts. All those kinds of things are entailed to make sure my body is ready to go out and play every day.”
That's where Reds movement and mobility specialist Robyn Cohen comes in. Cohen started with the club in 2019 before eventually working toward traveling full-time and being available to the players on the road. Not only is her position a rarity in Major League Baseball, she believes she is the only one to have a Pilates reformer that's portable and goes on team flights.
“[Cohen] is incredible," Friedl said. "I first went to her in 2020, during COVID at the alternate site.
"I maybe did one or two things of Pilates with her in the two months I was there. Last year was the change for me in terms of consistently getting a routine and [working] with her as often as I can to address certain things in my body."
Another push toward Pilates for Friedl came after a three-hour body scan assessment in October. It did a deep dive on his muscle mass, showing where he had muscle deficiencies.
An offseason routine was created to address those deficiencies.
"It’s everything from the shoulders down," Friedl said. "It checks trunk rotation and how that can play into your body pulling from different areas. Over the longevity of a baseball season, if you keep pulling from somewhere else that’s not supposed to, then that can create overcompensation.”
The effort to continue preparing and working Friedl's muscles continued into Spring Training and this season as he works with Cohen.
"She knows me really well, so she knows when I need certain things. Or if we’re doing stuff on the Pilates reformer and she sees something as tight, she has things that can address that, stretch and work it out," Friedl said.
Cohen, who works with half of the players on the Reds' roster and manager Terry Francona, has seen improvement with Friedl since he became more dedicated to Pilates and yoga.
“I’ve noticed a huge difference," she said. "I feel like when he touches a weight, he can get big pretty easily. He develops muscles very easily. ... I think he had a combination of tightness and weakness. Through strengthening his hamstring and finding the mobility within the capsule of his joints, that freed up a lot of things for him."
Friedl's pregame work before taking the field has helped him step into the batter's box without health concerns.
"Knowing that I’m doing everything I can to take care of that on my end and prepping my body every day to go out there and play, then I have peace of mind that the rest will take care of itself," he said.