Blue Jays newcomer Cody Ponce takes page from playbook of his brother-in-law, NFL star George Kittle

TORONTO (AP) — After a short and unsuccessful stint in the major leagues, Cody Ponce was pitching in Asia and still trying to find a mental approach that worked for him on the mound.

So he started emulating his brother-in-law, NFL star George Kittle. That led to a huge turnaround for Ponce and a $30 million, three-year contract with the AL champion Toronto Blue Jays this offseason.

“He helped me bring out my inner child again,” Ponce said Tuesday night on a video call with reporters. “And that was something that I felt like I was lacking for the two years prior while I was in Japan.”

A journeyman career changed dramatically in 2025 as Ponce went 17-1 over 29 starts with the Hanwha Eagles in South Korea. He had 252 strikeouts and a 1.89 ERA, helping him win the MVP award in the KBO.

Ponce gave credit to his wife, family, teammates — and Kittle, the spirited San Francisco 49ers tight end. Ponce is married to Kittle’s older sister, Emma, and he noticed how her not-so-little brother keeps things playful on the gridiron at times despite the sport’s obvious physicality and intensity.

“I saw the way he was playing the game of football and was not in awe, but (more) in this view of, wow, you can play such an angry game and be having fun at the same time. But yet still have this type of tenacity, this type of drive, this type of competitiveness, and be doing it all at the same time.

“I was like, that is something that I want to try to figure out."

Ponce said he's adjusted his approach so he feels more like a Little Leaguer again. He has made it a point to watch “Star Wars” — sometimes the movies, sometimes the TV series — before every start.

The 6-foot-6, 255-pound right-hander, who signed with the Blue Jays last week, is also focused on his body, putting in three to four hours a day of recovery work, activation, alignment and training.

On the mound, he credited former teammate — and former Blue Jays pitcher — Hyun Jin Ryu with helping him expand his arsenal by not relying on one type of off-speed pitch.

“Two types of cutters, two types of curveballs, two types of changeups,” said Ponce, who also throws a splitter and a mid-90s (mph) fastball. “Creating different pitches, and just the pitchability.”

Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease, who recently signed a $210 million, seven-year contract with the Blue Jays, will anchor a Toronto rotation that appears to be one of the deepest in baseball.

Ponce joins a mix of starters that also includes Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos. Bowden Francis, Eric Lauer and others could also factor in.

“I want to win baseball games,” Ponce said. “I want to win a World Series. So anything that I can do to be the best help that I can to this team, that’s what I’m going to do.”

The 31-year-old native of Pomona, California, said he got a chance to watch some of the Blue Jays’ playoff run last October. Toronto made it to the World Series before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.

“The competitive nature of the team, the atmosphere that you can see on the bench during games — everybody was very lighthearted, but everybody was still very dedicated to wanting to win a ballgame each and every single night,” he said.

Ponce was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the second round of the 2015 amateur draft. He made his big league debut with Pittsburgh in 2020 and went 1-7 with a 5.86 ERA over parts of two seasons with the Pirates.

Ponce split time in Japan between the Nippon Ham Fighters and Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2022-24. He was 15-24 with a 4.54 ERA over three seasons.

He also spent several months in Japan’s minor leagues before his breakout season in South Korea.

“I just wanted to go out there and perform the best I could and try to (create) a possibility of coming back with at least one offer,” he said. “And then this kind of all happened.”

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San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle jumps to touch the goalpost before an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) breaks a tackle by Tennessee Titans safety Kendell Brooks, left, during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) celebrates his touchdown with center Jake Brendel (64) during the second half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) celebrates a first down catch during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) celebrates a first down during the second half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

FILE - Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Cody Ponce throws to a Washington Nationals batter during the third inning of a baseball game, Sept. 10, 2021, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In 2018, German artist Michael Triegel asked a homeless man in Rome to pose for a drawing, thinking that he would make an ideal model for St. Peter if he ever needed to paint the first pope.

Seven years on, the man’s likeness has gone on display in the Vatican, a reunion of sorts that came about by improbable chance.

This is a story both big and small, of art and faith and a human tragedy that caught the attention of Pope Francis: homeless German man Burkhard Scheffler died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter’s Square.

The saga began in Germany, where Triegel in 2019 won a commission from the Protestant cathedral in the city of Naumburg to create a new central panel for its altar by Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder. The panel would replace an original that was destroyed in 1541 during the Reformation, the upheavals that convulsed parts of Europe as Protestantism emerged in the 16th century.

Cranach’s two side panels survived. Triegel, a Catholic convert, leapt at the prospect of a “collaboration with Cranach.”

“They had the idea of completing this altar again, in what I find a beautiful gesture — not to undo these wounds from the 16th century but to mitigate them, to heal them,” he said in an interview in his studio in Leipzig.

Triegel planned out his painting and drew on that encounter he had in 2018 with the homeless man in Rome.

The man took his place as St. Peter among the saints gathered around Mary and the infant Jesus. Triegel said it was important that his subjects not be idealized archetypes but figures the viewer would feel were people “who could have something to do with me in the here and now, who are not just historic.”

St. Paul was based on a rabbi Triegel drew in Jerusalem, while Mary was modeled on the artist’s daughter. In the back was Protestant pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an opponent of the Nazis who was executed in 1945.

Triegel’s St. Peter is bearded, wears a red baseball cap and holds a small key — a reference to the biblical keys of heaven that are often associated with the saint.

The artist found his saint sitting at the entrance of a Roman church begging. As he was about to give the man money, Triegel recalled, “he looked at me and at that moment I had the feeling, if you ever need a Peter for a picture, he would be your Peter — that flowing beard and those alert eyes.”

Triegel asked the man in Italian whether he could draw and photograph him, and the man just nodded — “so I had no idea what nation he was from.”

Unbeknown to Triegel, his St. Peter had a rough time after their 2018 encounter.

The man, Burkhard Scheffler, had suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Italy's harsh lockdowns, fewer and fewer people ventured out to provide handouts and food to those in need.

Scheffler was arrested in May 2020 after he apparently threatened someone with a knife for refusing to give him change. He was sentenced to three years in prison and released in late 2022.

Known to many in the Vatican, Scheffler had grown weak in prison. “His hands, which were always warm, had grown cold,” a Vatican journalist, Gudrun Sailer, would later recall.

On the night of Nov. 25, 2022, Scheffler died from the cold.

His death caught the attention of Francis, who had made a priority of caring for the homeless people around the Vatican. Under Francis' watch, the Vatican installed showers, a barber shop and clinic in the colonnade of St. Peter’s. Francis' almsgiver went out on cold nights to distribute sleeping bags.

Hours after Scheffler died, the Vatican spokesperson issued a statement saying he had been cared for by the Vatican’s charity office but “unfortunately, the rain and cold last night contributed to aggravate his fragile condition.” The spokesperson said Francis remembered in his prayer that day “Burkhard and all those who are forced to live without a home, in Rome and the world.”

Shortly after, Francis said in his weekly Sunday prayer: “I remember Burkhard Scheffler, who died three days ago under the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square: died of cold.”

And the pope returned to the theme in his Palm Sunday homily in April 2023. “I think of the German so-called street person, who died under the colonnade, alone and abandoned. He is Jesus for each of us. So many need our closeness, so many are abandoned.”

Francis asked that Scheffler be buried at the Teutonic cemetery on the grounds of the Vatican, alongside many German-speaking priests, pilgrims and notables. His simple tomb is in the small pilgrim section, in the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica and just a few yards from the tomb of the real St. Peter.

Back in Germany, Triegel spent three years working on the altar for the Naumburg Cathedral, but a problem arose.

There were concerns that the Triegel-Cranach altar could cost the building its place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. UNESCO experts felt that it hindered the overall view of the west chapel, including famous statues. In July, regional authorities said the verdict was that the altar could stay — but would have to be shown elsewhere in the cathedral.

While that discussion played out, the idea arose of lending the altar to the Catholic chapel of the Teutonic pontifical college at the Vatican, a residence for German-speaking priests adjacent to the cemetery. The chapel has an altar of its own from the period of Cranach’s original.

And it was then in the Teutonic chapel that a Vatican-affiliated art expert recognized Triegel's St. Peter as none other than Scheffler.

“Someone said, 'This guy with the red cap, we know him because he was living here at St. Peter’s Square,” said Monsignor Peter Klasvogt, rector of the Campo Santo Teutonico, as the complex is known. “That was a moment you never forget.”

The altar is now on a two-year loan to the chapel, a stone's throw from Scheffler's grave, itself just steps from the tomb of St. Peter.

When Triegel learned that his altar might end up next to Scheffler's grave, he recalled thinking, “there can't be so many coincidences.”

With the arrival of the painting, “the story gets another outcome and another exit, and this is so wonderful to see,” Klasvogt said. “We honor him with the altar, we honor him with his grave and we pray here in the church for him.”

After the argument about the altar’s placement in Germany, the coincidence also appeals to the artist.

“If this whole dispute was necessary for this picture to go to Rome and for this man to be seen again, for him to get a name, for ... people to take notice of him and remember him, then this whole Naumburg project was really worth it for me,” Triegel said.

Geir Moulson and Kerstin Sopke reported from Leipzig, Germany. Pietro De Cristofaro contributed from Leipzig.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Painter Michael Triegel poses for photos during an interview with The Associated Press at his studio in Leipzig, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Pietro De Cristofaro)

A photo shows the tomb of Burkhard Scheffler, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 and portrayed in 2018 as St. Peter by German artist Michael Triegel, in the Teutonic cemetery at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Mons. Peter Klasvogt, the rector of the Teutonic College talks during an interview with the Associated Press next to a painting exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College by German artist Michael Triegel, who portrayed as St. Peter Burkhard Scheffler, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Mons. Peter Klasvogt, the rector of the Teutonic College, talks during an interview with the Associated Press next to a painting exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College by German artist Michael Triegel, who portrayed as St. Peter Burkhard Scheffler, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Mons. Peter Klasvogt, the rector of the Teutonic College poses for a photo next to the tomb of Burkhard Scheffler, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, and portrayed as St. Peter in a painting by German artist Michael Triegel, exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Mons. Peter Klasvogt, the rector of the Teutonic College poses for a photo next to the tomb of Burkhard Scheffler, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, and portrayed as St. Peter in a painting by German artist Michael Triegel, exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A painting, the central of the triptych, by German artist Michael Triegel who portrayed in 2018 as St. Peter Burkhard Scheffler, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022, is displayed in the chapel of the Teutonic College at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Burkhard Scheffler, second from right, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, is portrayed as St. Peter in a painting, the central of the triptych, by German artist Michael Triegel and exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Burkhard Scheffler, second from right, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, is portrayed as St. Peter in a painting by German artist Michael Triegel and exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Burkhard Scheffler, second from right, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, is portrayed as St. Peter in a painting by German artist Michael Triegel and exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)