For Clearwater Threshers shortstop Nick Maton, it’s baseball or bust.

You could say his career in baseball was already predetermined thanks to his older brother Phil.

“He hit the road, he started playing and everyone followed in his footsteps.  It was crazy,” recalled Nick.

Phil was drafted by the Padres in 2015 and spent less than two years in the minors.  In this baseball family, Nick’s path was already chosen for him.

“You see him succeed so much and you want to do that yourself.  It was fun having an older brother who played a lot and it’s fun watching the younger brother play too,” Nick said.

His youngest brother, Jacob was drafted right out of high school last year by the Seattle Mariners.  Instead, he chose to play college ball at Coastal Carolina, and benefitted the most from having two older brothers play the game ahead of him.

“Since my brother Phil went through it first and he started teaching us on how he did, then there was a little more experience with me.  And my youngest brother, who’s probably the better one of all of us, he’s got the most knowledge pushed toward him so it’s definitely a plus having brothers playing," explained Nick.

Three brothers at three different levels of the game. For Nick, a 7th round pick of the Phillies in 2017 out of community college, he’s still adjusting to his first year of High-A ball and playing every day.

“I’ve definitely grown a lot since coming in professionally and being in the minors.  I’m definitely a completely different player than I was too, but there’s a lot of great people around you teaching you how to play and showing you new things every single day,” Nick said.  "Don’t try to do too much, try to stay within yourself and good things will happen if you do things the right way.  And if you start pressing then that’s when stuff gets bad."

That’s where having two brothers in the same game can be comforting for Nick, as he tries to deal with the ups and down of minor league life. The three boys stay in touch constantly about their baseball careers, talking each other out of slumps and some of the rough patches that come with the game.

The journey to the majors is never easy, but in the case of Nick and his brothers it’s nice to have company along the way.