Leadership & Staff Network of Coaches
Justin Echevarria
Hitting and catching
- Toronto Blue Jays Player Development
- San Diego Padres
- Stony Brook University
Justin Echevarria brings a rare combination of professional baseball, collegiate coaching, MLB player development, and specialized catching expertise to Time to Sign. A former professional catcher and longtime coach, Justin has spent his career studying, teaching, and developing the technical, physical, and leadership skills required to succeed behind the plate and at the highest levels of the game.
A Long Island native, Justin played Division I baseball at Stony Brook University, where he became a three-year starter at catcher and helped lead the Seawolves to NCAA Regional appearances in both 2008 and 2010. He developed a reputation as one of the top defensive catchers in the America East Conference, leading the league in throwing out potential base stealers in three of his four collegiate seasons and throwing out more than 40 percent of runners attempting to advance.
Justin's performance earned him two All-Conference selections and recognition on the Johnny Bench Award Watch List, placing him among the catchers nationally considered for the award honoring the top collegiate catcher in the country.
Following his career at Stony Brook, Justin was selected by the San Diego Padres in the 40th round of the 2010 MLB Draft and began his professional career as a catcher in the Padres organization.
After his playing career, Justin quickly transitioned into coaching and player development. He joined the staff at Manhattan College, working primarily with the program's catchers and hitters, before serving as the hitting and catching coach at Adelphi University. He later joined the Fordham University baseball staff, continuing to work with Division I players in hitting, catching, and overall offensive development.
Justin's experience eventually led him into professional player development with the Toronto Blue Jays organization. He joined Toronto's minor-league system in 2021 and served as a hitting coach at the organization's Florida Complex League level before advancing through the system. By 2023, Justin had been elevated to Position Coach for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, one step below the Major Leagues, a role he continued in 2024.
Throughout his career, Justin has developed particular expertise in catching, a position that requires far more than physical tools alone. His instruction emphasizes receiving, throwing, blocking, game management, communication, leadership, preparation, and the ability to work effectively with a pitching staff. His experience as a catcher, collegiate coach, and professional player-development coach allows him to evaluate the position through the same lens used at the highest levels of baseball.
Justin has also dedicated years to individualized player development through the Echevarria Catching Academy, working with athletes on the technical and mental demands of the position. His current development work continues to emphasize receiving, throwing, leadership, and complete catcher development.
At Time to Sign, Justin provides student-athletes with a perspective shaped by virtually every level of the game. He has been a Division I player, MLB Draft selection, professional catcher, college coach, private instructor, and professional player-development coach inside a Major League organization.
That experience is particularly valuable when evaluating young players and preparing them for the next level. Justin understands what separates a talented high school player from a recruitable college prospect, and what separates a college prospect from a player capable of continuing to advance. His approach centers on honest evaluation, attention to detail, position-specific development, and helping athletes understand the standards they will be expected to meet as the game becomes faster and more demanding.
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More of the staff
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New York Yankees | Cressey Sports Performance Eric Cressey
Sports performance, pitching, hitting and defense Read bio
New York Yankees | Cressey Sports Performance
Eric Cressey
Sports performance, pitching, hitting and defense
Eric Cressey is one of the most respected names in baseball performance, player health, and long-term athletic development. As President and Co-Founder of Cressey Sports Performance and Director of Player Health and Performance for the New York Yankees, Eric has spent nearly two decades working at the intersection of strength and conditioning, biomechanics, throwing development, injury prevention, and high-performance baseball.
Eric co-founded Cressey Sports Performance in 2007 and has helped grow CSP into one of the premier baseball development environments in the country, with facilities in Hudson, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. While his work has included athletes from youth sports through the professional and Olympic levels, he is best known for his extensive work in baseball. More than 100 professional baseball players train with Eric and the CSP staff during a typical offseason, with athletes representing organizations throughout Major League Baseball.
Over the years, Eric has worked with some of the most accomplished players in the game, including Cy Young Award winners and Major League All-Stars. His longstanding work with pitchers such as Corey Kluber helped establish CSP as a destination for professional players seeking individualized approaches to physical preparation, throwing, movement quality, recovery, and durability. In 2017, both American League Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber and National League Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer trained at Cressey Sports Performance.
In 2020, the New York Yankees selected Eric to lead a comprehensive restructuring of the organization's Player Health and Performance department. As Director of Player Health and Performance, he oversees areas including strength and conditioning, athlete assessment, performance technology, facility and equipment development, continuing education, and the integration of player health and performance resources throughout the organization. He continues to hold that position with the Yankees while serving as President of Cressey Sports Performance.
Eric's philosophy has long centered on individualization. Rather than applying the same training model to every athlete, his approach examines how an athlete moves, how his body is built, the specific demands of his position, his training and injury history, and where he is in his long-term development. That philosophy has made CSP particularly influential in the development of pitchers and throwing athletes, whose performance requires a careful integration of strength, mobility, throwing workload, mechanics, recovery, and arm health.
His impact on baseball extends well beyond the athletes he trains directly. Eric is an internationally recognized educator, author, speaker, researcher, and consultant whose work has helped shape the way coaches and performance professionals think about throwing athletes. He has authored five books and hundreds of articles on strength and conditioning, shoulder health, athletic development, and baseball performance, and has educated coaches and practitioners throughout the sports-performance industry.
Eric's academic background reflects the same evidence-based approach. He earned a master's degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science from the University of Connecticut and completed undergraduate degrees in Exercise Science and Sports and Fitness Management at the University of New England. He is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
For Time to Sign student-athletes, Eric and the Cressey Sports Performance network provide access to a development environment built around the same principles used with athletes at the highest levels of baseball. From strength and movement development to pitching, hitting, defense, biomechanics, and long-term physical preparation, the emphasis is on understanding the individual athlete and building a development plan around what that player actually needs.
That relationship reinforces a central component of the Time to Sign model: recruiting and development cannot be separated. Exposure can create an opportunity, but continued development determines what a player is ultimately prepared to do with it. Eric's career has been built around helping athletes understand that difference and creating the individualized systems necessary for them to continue progressing from one level of the game to the next.
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Milwaukee Brewers | Team Colombia | Houston Astros Christian Correa
Catching Read bio
Milwaukee Brewers | Team Colombia | Houston Astros
Christian Correa
Catching
Christian Correa brings nearly a decade of professional playing experience, international competition, collegiate coaching, and Major League player-development experience to Time to Sign. A lifelong catcher who now serves on the Milwaukee Brewers' Major League staff, Christian has built his career around the technical, physical, and leadership demands of one of the most important positions on the field.
A South Florida product, Christian attended North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek, where he earned All-County honors from both the Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald and was recognized as a Regional All-American by Under Armour. He continued his career at Chipola College, earning All-Panhandle Conference honors in consecutive seasons and All-State Tournament recognition before transferring to NCAA Division I Nicholls State University.
At Nicholls State, Christian became the Colonels' primary catcher and completed his collegiate career in the Southland Conference. Following his senior season, he signed with the Houston Astros as a non-drafted free agent in 2015 and began what would become a lengthy professional playing career.
Christian spent three seasons in the Astros organization, advancing through the system to the High-A level, and later signed with the Colorado Rockies organization. His career subsequently continued through several independent professional leagues, allowing him to accumulate more than 400 professional games across organizations including the Astros, Rockies, Kansas City T-Bones, Sussex County Miners, Milwaukee Milkmen, Lexington Legends, and Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.
His playing career also took him onto the international stage. Eligible through his Colombian heritage, Christian represented Colombia at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, where he emerged as one of the tournament's most productive offensive players. He hit .455 with six runs and seven RBI in six games while handling the catching duties without an error. In Colombia's opening 6-1 victory over Cuba, Christian collected three hits, homered, drove in two runs, and scored twice. He followed that performance with three hits and three RBI against Nicaragua.
Christian also competed for Colombia in Caribbean Series play and spent time in the Colombian Professional Baseball League. His international experience provided another level of exposure to different styles of baseball, pitching staffs, cultures, and competitive environments.
He concluded his professional playing career in 2022 on top, helping the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks capture the Miles Wolff Cup as American Association champions. Even before his playing career ended, Christian had begun preparing for the next phase of his career. He earned a master's degree in Exercise and Sports Science from Eastern Kentucky University while also serving as a graduate assistant coach with the Division I baseball program.
In 2023, Christian joined the Milwaukee Brewers organization as a Development Coach with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. His transition through the professional coaching ranks was rapid. After beginning the year in player development, he advanced to the Brewers' Major League staff and now serves as one of Milwaukee's bullpen catchers. He is returning to that role for the 2026 season, his third season working at the Major League level.
Working daily in a Major League environment gives Christian a perspective few instructors can offer. A bullpen catcher's role extends far beyond simply receiving pitches. It requires familiarity with pitchers' repertoires and routines, preparation, communication, game planning, receiving, blocking, throwing, and the ability to build trust with some of the most talented pitchers in the world.
At Time to Sign, Christian brings that perspective directly to developing student-athletes. His experience as a catcher at the high school, junior college, Division I, professional, international, and Major League levels allows him to evaluate players with a clear understanding of how the demands of the position change as the game becomes faster and more sophisticated.
For catchers in particular, Christian provides a window into what high-level baseball actually requires. His approach emphasizes the complete position: receiving, throwing, blocking, physical preparation, communication, leadership, game awareness, and the responsibility of managing a pitching staff. His career reinforces a core Time to Sign philosophy: talent creates opportunity, but preparation, adaptability, and continued development are what allow players to keep advancing.
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Fairfield University | Professional Baseball Dean Ferrara
Hitting Read bio
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Fairfield University | Professional Baseball
Dean Ferrara
Hitting
Dean Ferrara brings a highly current perspective on hitting, player development, and the transition from high school baseball to the Division I and professional levels. As a Hitting Coach and resource for Time to Sign student-athletes, Dean works with players to help them better understand their swings, offensive approach, preparation, and the adjustments required to continue progressing as the level of competition increases.
A native of Wyckoff, New Jersey, Dean starred at Ramapo High School, where he earned First Team All-League, Third Team All-State, and Second Team All-County honors. He batted .467 with 31 runs scored, 18 RBI, and 10 stolen bases during his standout high school season and set the Ramapo single-game record with six hits.
Dean continued his career at Fairfield University, where his development over four seasons transformed him into one of the most productive hitters in both program and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference history.
After earning MAAC All-Rookie Team honors as a freshman, Dean experienced a more limited role during his sophomore season before making a significant jump in his development. During the summer of 2023, he hit .422 with a .461 on-base percentage for the Norwich Sea Unicorns, collecting 65 hits, scoring 32 runs, driving in 30, and stealing 17 bases in 43 games.
That breakout carried directly into Fairfield.
As a junior in 2024, Dean earned First Team All-MAAC honors after batting .387 and setting both the Fairfield and MAAC single-season records with 96 hits. He ranked among the national leaders in hits, reached base in 52 of his 56 starts, recorded 29 multi-hit games, and produced one of the most memorable individual performances in program history when he hit for the cycle and tied Fairfield's single-game record with six hits.
Dean returned in 2025 and raised the standard again.
As a senior, he broke his own Fairfield and MAAC record by collecting 99 hits, the fourth-highest total in NCAA Division I baseball that season. He batted .374 with a .435 on-base percentage, eight home runs, 57 RBI, 65 runs scored, and 20 stolen bases while establishing another program record with a 29-game hitting streak.
His performance earned him First Team All-MAAC honors for the second consecutive season, ABCA/Rawlings All-Northeast Second Team recognition, a spot on the MAAC All-Tournament Team, and Fairfield University's Co-Men's Athlete of the Year award.
Dean also finished his collegiate career as a champion. During the 2025 MAAC Tournament, he delivered an opposite-field grand slam in Fairfield's winner's-bracket victory over Rider and helped lead the Stags to the MAAC Championship and an NCAA Tournament berth. He was selected to the MAAC All-Championship Team following the title run.
Over his four seasons at Fairfield, Dean finished with a .354 career batting average, 215 hits, 14 home runs, 112 RBI, 129 runs scored, and 29 stolen bases across 165 games.
Following graduation, Dean continued his career in professional baseball and immediately demonstrated that his offensive production could translate to the next level. His experience competing against professional pitching has further shaped his understanding of approach, swing decisions, preparation, and the constant adjustments required of successful hitters.
For Time to Sign players, Dean provides something especially valuable: a resource who has very recently experienced the same progression they are pursuing. He understands what it takes to move from high school baseball into a Division I lineup, develop into an elite collegiate hitter, compete in high-level summer baseball, and ultimately earn an opportunity in the professional game.
Dean's own development also provides an important lesson for young athletes. His college career was not a straight line. After earning early recognition as a freshman and seeing limited opportunities as a sophomore, he continued to develop and ultimately became a two-time First Team All-Conference selection, an All-Region performer, a conference record holder, and a professional player.
As a Hitting Coach and resource for Time to Sign student-athletes, Dean helps players better understand the offensive side of the game, from swing development and approach to preparation, adjustments, and the mental discipline required to become a consistent hitter.
His perspective reinforces a core Time to Sign philosophy: where a player is today does not have to determine where he ultimately finishes. Consistent development, purposeful work, and the ability to make adjustments can dramatically change the trajectory of a player's career.
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Human Performance Mentors | Mental Performance & Leadership Michael Cooper
Mental sports performance Read bio
Human Performance Mentors | Mental Performance & Leadership
Michael Cooper
Mental sports performance
Michael Cooper brings more than three decades of experience in human performance, mental conditioning, leadership development, and mentorship to Time to Sign. As the Founder of Human Performance Mentors and creator of The Missing Playbook™, Michael has built his career around helping athletes and high performers develop the confidence, discipline, resilience, focus, and self-awareness necessary to perform when the pressure is highest.
His philosophy centers on a simple principle: developing the athlete requires developing the person behind the performance.
Throughout his career, Michael has worked with athletes, coaches, executives, organizations, and families across high-performance environments. His work has reached individuals and programs connected to professional and collegiate sports, including Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA, NHL, Olympic competition, the University of Florida, Purdue University, the Miami Marlins, PGA Tour athletes, and the Rick Macci Tennis Academy.
Rather than focusing solely on motivation, Michael's approach addresses the mental habits and behaviors that influence performance over time. His work emphasizes confidence, emotional control, preparation, goal setting, resilience, accountability, leadership, focus, and the ability to respond productively to adversity.
Michael's perspective was also shaped by his service in the United States Navy aboard the USS Nimitz. The discipline, responsibility, teamwork, and leadership required in that environment became foundational elements of the performance principles he would later teach athletes and leaders.
His continued study of leadership and human development led him to become a Certified LifeSuccess Consultant and a Certified Leader through the Napoleon Hill Foundation. He has since spent decades translating those principles into practical systems for individuals operating in competitive, demanding environments.
Through Human Performance Mentors, Michael created The Missing Playbook, a developmental framework designed to address many of the skills young athletes are rarely taught formally: how to build genuine confidence, manage pressure, maintain perspective, establish productive habits, overcome setbacks, lead themselves effectively, and create an internal standard that does not depend on outside validation.
At Time to Sign, Michael serves as a Mental Performance & Leadership Advisor, helping student-athletes develop the psychological and behavioral skills that complement their physical development and recruiting preparation.
For young baseball players, that work becomes increasingly important as they advance. Failure is unavoidable. Playing time fluctuates. Recruiting creates uncertainty. Expectations increase. Players encounter slumps, injuries, competition, rejection, and environments in which everyone possesses talent. The ability to respond to those moments often separates athletes who continue progressing from those who struggle to translate their ability into consistent performance.
Michael's role within Time to Sign reinforces the organization's commitment to developing the complete student-athlete. Physical ability may open the door, but confidence, discipline, resilience, preparation, and character ultimately influence what a player does once the opportunity arrives.