This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

JUPITER, Fla. -- Bats and gloves are a baseball player’s most important pieces of equipment.

When it came time to customize his latest A2000 1785 Wilson glove in December, shortstop Xavier Edwards asked for input from his fiancée Emily, whom he had proposed to in the Cayman Islands on Nov. 23.

Xavier and Emily spent around 30 minutes on Wilson’s website choosing everything from the fonts (“milkshake” and “Benton”) to the colors. Like Xavier’s previous gloves, they stuck with gray lacing and trim.

“She had a big say in how the glove turned out,” said Xavier, who has used the same model for the past four years. “It was time for me to create one, because I had to put a Wilson order in so I could get it in time for Spring Training. We were sitting on the couch and I was like, ‘You want to help me design gloves?’ She kind of helped me, with some guidance from me and a little pushing. I was like, ‘I don't want that color.’ She was a big part of the process, and now I've got a blue and gray glove.”

Unlike Xavier’s other gloves, the leather on the fingers, wrist, thumb and web is blonde. The palm is coal, while the thread color for his initials (“XJE” for Xavier James Edwards) on the thumb strip is Columbia blue.

“Blue is my favorite color, so I think that had something to do with it,” Xavier said. “And I didn't want any crazy, funky colors. I didn't want a pink glove, which I'm sure she would have loved to do.”

Added Emily in a message to MLB.com: “Super fun helping him design his glove, as I usually like to experiment with colors and designs. X is definitely on the more conservative side when it relates to what he’s wearing, so I try to push his boundaries a bit. … As for the color, I initially told him to do a teal color, but we decided on gray so that it wouldn’t clash with any of the uniforms.”

Xavier also had the idea to put a special inscription on the ring finger.

It’s not uncommon for guys to pay tribute to important people in their lives on their gloves. Ace Sandy Alcantara, for example, has “RIP Mom & Lexi" in honor of his late mother, Francisca Montero, and his brother, Alexander (nicknamed "Lexi").

So Xavier and Emily settled on her future initials (“EE”) -- with “:3”, a typographical representation of a heart, in her favorite color pink.

“Naturally we entered ‘ER’ [my maiden initials] and then did a little backspace and entered ‘EE’ since we had just gotten engaged and I plan to change my last name,” said Emily, who has been with Xavier for five years. “The ‘:3’ was honestly just a random touch since we frequently use it through text.”