It was in 2010 when Porcello, then with the Detroit Tigers, joined Team Joseph, a non-profit charity whose mission is to find treatments and cures for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Duchenne is the most common degenerative genetic muscle disease in boys.
"There is no cure," said Porcello. "It's a fatal disease and it basically breaks down the muscle tissue in young boys and builds up scar tissue to the point where they can't move and can't walk, and get put into wheelchairs. Ultimately, worse things happen, as far as cardiac arrest, and they end up dying from it.