Nelson Cruz is threading the needle in the early morning sunlight behind the weight room at Seattle's Spring Training facility in Peoria, Ariz. And no, this has nothing to do with poking a seeing-eye single between two well-placed infielders.
Instead, the Mariners slugger is on his hands and knees on a sticky black mat, with his left arm laced between his right hand and right knee. Cruz's eyes are closed against the sun, and he's breathing, deeply, to the cadence set by his yoga instructor, Leigh Ann Lesho, as he raises his right arm to the sky.