This story was excerpted from Justice delos Santos’ Pirates Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

When Connor Joe was drafted by the Pirates out of the University of San Diego in 2014, his dreams of playing in the Majors were rooted in Pittsburgh. Joe envisioned one day living in the city. He envisioned a daily commute to PNC Park. He envisioned donning the black and gold.

The original vision never quite materialized, but now, nearly a decade later, Joe will finally have the opportunity to live in the city, to make that commute to PNC Park and to don the black and gold every day.

“It’s definitely a full-circle-type moment, right?” Joe said.

Much has changed since Joe was traded from the Pirates to the Braves in 2017. He has gotten plenty familiar with the business side of baseball. Joe’s been traded. He’s been taken in the Rule 5 Draft. He’s been designated for assignment. But those bumps and potholes solely resided in the realm of baseball -- and pale in comparison to what Joe has endured as a human being.

On March 18, 2020, Joe announced that he had started treatment for testicular cancer and opted out of the season.

Joe described taking an athlete’s mentality into the recovery process: setting goals, drawing roadmaps, exhibiting a willingness to grind. He said the lessons he learned in baseball helped in his battle. On July 20, 2020, Joe announced that he was cancer free.

• How Joe honored a young fan with cancer

“I think having the game taken away from me put everything in perspective,” Joe said. “I saw the game in a different view, I think. I started playing the game with more joy, enjoying the little things of a baseball season that people in the clubhouse could really complain about or find mundane.”

Despite missing 2020, Joe enjoyed the best season of his career upon signing with the Rockies. In '21, Joe hit .285/.379/.469 with eight home runs and a 116 OPS+ in 63 games, exhibiting the breadth of his offensive skill set in his first taste of consistent Major League playing time.

Joe couldn’t quite replicate that success in 2022, his first full season. Across 111 games, Joe hit .238/.338/.359 with seven home runs, six steals and an 88 OPS+.

Joe described 2022 as “longer than any season I’ve played previously.” Over the course of the year, he described picking up on the nuances of a full season -- how to optimize recovery, how to proactively use the training room, how to lean into analytics -- and Joe hopes he can use those experiences to take a step forward next year.

“[These are] all things that I don’t have down perfect,” Joe said. “It’s just one big league season, but [I have] a good understanding of that moving forward.”