BOSTON – Red Sox right-hander Garrett Whitlock fell in love with his college sweetheart, Jordan, during their days together at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
What he knew fairly quickly back then was that she would, in fact, be the one. They were married by 2019, two years after Whitlock was selected by the Yankees in the 18th round of the Draft.
However, what Whitlock didn’t anticipate was how much his love and respect for Jordan would grow as they became a married couple and, later on, the parents of two boys, the most recent of whom was born on April 2.
On Mother’s Day, Whitlock will be in the bullpen for the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Jordan will probably be in the stands or the family room, with baby boy Tucker on her lap and 18-month-old Brooks bouncing all over the place.
Garrett knows that Jordan will have everything handled.
“Being a mom in this [baseball] life is a full-time job, because I'm gone,” Whitlock said earlier this week, while the Red Sox were in Detroit. “She’s there with two kids right now. At this point, it’s like, it’s just her and so it’s like watching the patience, the perseverance, the work ethic, the determination. ... Watching her mold our children, too, into what we want our kids to become is amazing.”
Whitlock has been so blown away by the arc of their relationship that he tried to put it into words in a Mother’s Day card to Jordan, which he summarized to MLB.com.
“I wrote on her card that it’s been cool watching our entire relationship,” he said. “Obviously, we start dating and everything, and then, you fall in love. At the beginning of when you fall in love in your relationship, you think you know that's what true love is. And you think you know that's what love is.
“Someone told me, one of my mentors told me when I was young, love isn't two young kids falling in love and getting married and everything. Love is two 80-year-olds that have been through everything in life, the ups, the downs, the trials, the successes, everything, and are sitting holding hands after 50 years of marriage. That’s love. I told her, I thought I loved you then. That's an old, famous song too.
“Then we got married, and it's like, ‘OK, my love grew deeper. Now, I love you as a wife. Because l now I get to see what you're like as a wife, everything like that.’ And she graduates, then we have our first kid, and now I get to see her as a mother, and it's like, ‘Wow, now I love you even more seeing you as a mother.’
“You don't know that there is more to your love, except for when you experience it. It’s just cool to see as the relationship goes on and everything. How you can grow to love someone more and seeing her now as a mom of two, it just makes me love her even more. Just again, continually seeing and having our relationship change, our marriage change and everything like that, just to see what it really means to have love grow truly deeper.”
While this Spring Training was in many ways a highlight for Whitlock, as he got to pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, it was also a tough one, because Jordan flew back to the couple’s hometown in Alabama, where she would remain until the birth of the child.
Logistics were easier when they had their first child in 2024, because the couple was settled in Boston for the season and Whitlock was out for the year due to an internal brace procedure on his right elbow. The silver lining in Whitlock’s season-ending injury is he got to be with Jordan through nearly every stage of the pregnancy.
This one was harder.
“That was hard just because I was away from, not only her, but my son too,” Whitlock said. “It’s one of those things where it's hard, but at the same time you just respect her so much, because she held the fort down. She was doing everything, full-time mom and everything. And it was hard to be away, but at the same time, it makes you appreciate your spouse and your wife even more because, it's just like, ‘Hey, like, I have this love, I have this trust, I have this relationship with you, that even when we’re physically apart, we're always together, because we communicate and everything like that.’ So it's awesome.”
On the first road trip of the season, Whitlock had his “go bag” ready for whenever Jordan went into labor. The timing worked out nicely, because after the Sox completed a three-game series in Houston on April 1, there was an off-day the next day. Whitlock got to Alabama for the birth of Tucker and used his three-day paternity leave to spend the weekend with his expanded family.
“To see my oldest son and also be there for the birth and everything, it was great, but it was hard to only see my son for two days and then not get to see him again until he was a month old,” said Whitlock. “But that’s part of the job and it’s one of those things, you respect her even more because now she’s going through post-partum and she just gave birth. She has an 18-month-old she’s taking care of and a newborn she’s taking care of. I am however many states away, however many thousands miles away. And she’s doing it herself. And she’s a trooper.”
But a big event came at the beginning of May, when Jordan flew with both boys to Boston, where the family will be back at their home base for the remainder of the baseball season.
“It was great to be like, ‘My family is here, we’re back together,’” Whitlock said. “It helps put things at ease. It’s so nice to be there with the family. When guys put their identity into this game, it’s terrible for you. When you’re like, 'I’m a dad way before I’m a baseball player,' that’s how you do it best.”