Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you’ll get smarter, though. That’s a money-back guarantee. Let’s get to it.
This topic never strays far from my mind, as it has driven me absolutely crazy for decades: The suggestion that any Major League Baseball player is somehow “soft” or mentally weak. Yes, they are incredibly physically tough as well — they play 162 games in six months and that isn’t even mentioning spring training or the playoffs — but the mental aspect bothers me a lot more.
It is in the forefront of my mind right now because of what happened in Miami on Friday.
The Yankees acquired three relief pitchers at the trade deadline and all three pitched on Friday.
- Jake Bird allowed four runs on three hits in ⅓ of an inning.
- David Bednar gave up two runs on four hits in 1 ⅔ innings.
- Camilo Doval coughed up three runs (one earned) in ⅓ of an inning, allowing a walk-off.
Hopping around social media, sure enough, I see a bunch of Yankees fans claiming in some shape or form that the players got nervous in joining the Yankees and let that show up on the mound.
First off, get over yourselves. Ten teams have won the World Series more recently than the Yankees, including the Cubs, Royals, Nationals, Astros (twice) and Red Sox (twice). The Yankees were last a dynasty 25 years ago. Players nowadays aren’t intimidated to play for them.
More importantly, though, major-league players wouldn’t be in the majors if they weren’t incredibly mentally tough. It’s just not possible to survive all those levels of the minors and then stick in the majors if something like wearing a certain uniform — in a mostly-empty Miami ballpark, mind you, not a full Yankee Stadium — might scare you into performing poorly.
We could get specific in this case if we want.
- Bird had a 23.40 ERA in his last seven outings for the Rockies with several meltdowns. I don’t know, man. Maybe he was also scared during that all-important Twins-Rockies game in Coors on July 18? Sure, go with that if you wish.
- Bednar has a career 3.26 ERA and was awful in 2024. He had a 1.50 ERA in a 38-outing stretch through July 26. This suggests he was due to start giving up runs. And he did on July 28, when he still pitched for the Pirates. I guess he was really nervous that he might get traded to the hallowed Yankees in that one?
- Doval is plenty volatile. He lost the closer role with the Giants and had a 4.88 ERA in 2024. And his outing Friday was marred by a horrible error in right field.
Again, though, the general point is that players are going to fail all game, every baseball game. It’s the nature of the sport. It’s a series of individual matchups between pitcher and hitter and one of them has to fail. Is the suggestion, sincerely, that in every single matchup the player that failed was mentally weak? C’mon, be serious.
It’s the opposite. Given how often players fail in this game and are tasked with bouncing back, they are absolutely required to be mentally tough, otherwise they would have been weeded out well before making it to the big leagues. The mentally weak players likely don’t even make it to the professional level, but the supremely talented players who are mentally weak will be flushed out in the lower levels of the minors. They do not make the majors.
Distancing ourselves from the specificity of the Yankees situation, another place where you’ll often see fans apply this nonsense of players being mentally weak is when looking at so-called clutch stats. You know, hitting with runners in scoring position, or runners in scoring position with two outs or something like that.
The suggestion is that the player somehow made the major leagues but all of a sudden sees a runner at second base and tenses up. He worked through making peanuts for a salary in the minors for years, had success and then finally made The Show and all of a sudden gets scared to hit with a runner on third base?
Here’s an example: Dansby Swanson has been brutal this season in clutch situations. He’s hitting .177/.230/.265 with runners in scoring position. With RISP and two outs, it’s .154/.228/.173. In “late and close” situations, he’s hitting .163/.255/.163.
Is it a coincidence? Small sample? Is he pressing?
Whatever it is, it sure isn’t a case of Swanson being mentally weak. He dealt with the pressure of being the No. 1 overall pick and hit .302 in a 38-game MLB debut shortly thereafter. He won the World Series with the Braves in 2021. He hit a game-tying home run in the seventh inning of Game 4. He hit a two-run homer in the clinching Game 6.
That guy is now too scared to hit with a runner on second? In a regular-season game?
I could run through players like this all day long.
Failure happens in this game. It happens every single plate appearance in every single game. Sometimes a player is going to strike out. Sometimes he’s going to give up a back-breaking home run. Major League Baseball players are incredibly skilled in a physical sense and they are equally skilled in a mental toughness sense.
The actual answer when a player fails is that sometimes you just get beat. That’s it. It’s just that simple.
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