JUPITER, Fla. -- The Instagram bio reads "Here for the guitars."

That would be a fair assessment of reliever John Curtiss, whom the Marlins acquired from the Rays the morning pitchers and catchers reported to camp this spring. After receiving news of the trade sending him from the Gulf Coast to South Florida, Curtiss made sure to pack a few guitars with his other belongings. His main three are a 2011 Martin OMCPA4, a 2015 Fender strat single coil he got in '16 and a Les Paul 1990 Studio he bought cheap and put new pickups on.

"With COVID and stuff, not going out, I don't play golf or anything, and so I just figured better safe than sorry on having stuff to do," Curtiss said.

Curtiss began playing guitar at the University of Texas, where he underwent Tommy John surgery in August 2012. By January, there were issues with his rehab and he could only ride a bike through March. Shoulder and elbow MRI exams came back clean, but Curtiss couldn't write in class, with pain running up through his head. He remembers the doctor telling him that 90 percent of those undergoing the procedure come back fine. Curtiss feared he would be the 10 percent.

So during that trying time, Curtiss picked up guitar and just started playing. He describes himself as undisciplined, preferring amps and effect pedals to mess around with sounds.

"That kind of kept me sane when I was super stressed out, and then from there I just kind of fell in love with it," Curtiss said. "And it's always been kind of my stress relief, and then now at this point I've been playing coming up on eight years, and it's just kind of the main thing I do other than [be with] my friends and family away from the field."

Going to school in the great live music city of Austin, Texas, meant falling in love with blues rock Americana, with Curtiss gravitating to the selection on KOKE-FM radio station. In 2013, William Clark Green's "Rose Queen" album made quite the impression on him. These days, his taste ranges from the late B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan to new-school artists like Marcus King and Joey Landreth.

An inspiring songwriter, Curtiss calls multi-GRAMMY Award winner Jason Isbell "probably the most talented musician in America right now." Though Curtiss doesn't often learn other people's songs, his go-to acoustic cover is Isbell's "Cover Me Up."

Curtiss likes coming up with music and lyrics, singing melodies over it "in your room alone so no one can hear it." But when Curtiss finished off a win over the Orioles to clinch a postseason berth for the Rays on Sept. 17, 2020, the club had him briefly perform in the hotel lounge in a socially distanced setting. He also played on the train from Baltimore to New York.

While Curtiss may have pitched on baseball's brightest stage in last fall's World Series, it's unlikely we'll find him front and center at a music venue.

"I would love to write songs with artists, and I would love to play guitar and I would love to be good enough at guitar to be a good part-time on a session, but that is a million miles away from my actual ability," Curtiss said. "And I realize that they're big league guitarists the same way, you know, that percentage of the population compared to me is like our percentage of the population compared to your average guy going and just taking batting practice. I'm very realistic about what my talent level is."

The right-hander doesn't see much overlap between guitar playing and pitching. Playing chords involves using the hand he doesn't pitch with. Curtiss joked that he doesn't have a changeup to mimic with finger picking. Still, maybe there's something to it from the mental side of the game.

After all, Curtiss picked up the guitar to help him rehab from surgery. With just 18 big league outings to his name from 2017-19 with the Twins and Angels, he broke out with the Rays in '20. He posted a 1.80 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP in 17 regular-season appearances (three starts as the opener). Despite a rough postseason debut in which he surrendered five runs to the Yankees in the American League Division Series, he bounced back by allowing just two runs over the next 9 1/3 innings across eight outings.

Miami took notice, trading for Curtiss, who was born on April 5, 1993 (the date of the inaugural game in Marlins history), to bolster its revamped bullpen. The club plans to use his versatility with multi-inning outings and possible high-leverage situations. Through five Grapefruit League appearances, he has a 1.15 WHIP and a .214 batting average against.

"The only thing I think that I've seen positive impact would be in terms of being in the moment. I get that from yoga, too," Curtiss said. "Anything you can do in life that just puts you where your feet are and brings you to where your breath is and where you are. That's the most important transfer that I've experienced, and then I guess I don't know maybe subconsciously on some other level, rhythm and tempo."