All good things come to an end. For many professional baseball players, their careers come to an abrupt end compared to many. Their career timeline is much quicker than most, as their next day on the field is never guaranteed. If they are lucky, even the most successful players are retiring in their later-30s or early-40s. For most, a long major league career isn't in the cards. Ninety percent of players in the minor leagues will have their contracts terminated from an organization at some point. Many of the players taken in the MLB draft don't get even close to making it to the major leagues.
That leaves the question of "What's next?". In one of my most recent articles for Prospects Live, I dove team into players trying to find their identity outside of the game. Many baseball players live their entire life only knowing baseball. They eat, breathe, and sleep baseball. They don't have the resources to find their identity outside of the game during and after their career. It makes it even more difficult to transition when their playing careers come to an abrupt end.
Unfortunately, most MLB teams and their affiliates have not efficiently addressed post-sport-career transitions of professional baseball players. Players are left lost in their life after baseball. Everything they know and love is gone. As Will Middlebrooks said in a recent article by Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic, "I know it's just a game, but it's almost like mourning. It was more than a game to use, it was my life since I was a kid. It's almost like part of you dies."
Developing a Career Transition Program
Dr. Caleb Mezzy, founder and creator of Grit and Glue, is trying to change how we look at athletes' career transitions. He started down this path as a doctoral student pursuing a research agenda for his dissertation, which focused on understanding the career transitions of professional athletes to identify existing career transition models and factors to develop a career transition model for baseball players. Dr. Mezzy's passion for the game led him to create this model.
"I love baseball. The game and the challenge, but I saw there was a need to help players as I got to know some players first," Dr. Mezzy said. "After doing my due diligence and seeing the research around the Olympics, Collegiate athletes, and NFL players, I began to ponder what currently exists for baseball players, and I found next to nothing."
His model breaks down the critical pillars into a four-phase approach: Personal to Professional to Planning to having a Team.
"Consider this the walk from home plate to first, to second, to third, and back to home," Dr. Mezzy said. "To hit a home run, we need to touch all the bases, and in enlisting the four phases, we can be attentive to the transition from player to professional. We can apply strategies in the planning process and leverage our support team (family, friends, peers, etc.) to get us back to our holistic identity, back to home which brings to the plate - the full person!"
Dr. Mezzy touches on something fundamental as we reflect on athletes just being human. Finding their holistic identity and finding out everything that makes them human. Even we, as fans, can forget that players are just human beings. They can be a parent, a sibling, a son and have so many passions that go beyond the game of baseball. There is so much more to them outside of baseball.
Finding Your Identity
The opportunity for a player to find his identity is a massive step in their transition outside of baseball. Many of us can relate to this as we get our identities lost in what we do or our hobbies. An article from Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports interviewed former Boston Red Sox first baseman Lars Anderson about finding out his career was over.
"I don't have sadness or depression over my career as a baseball player. I think I have more anxiety about what lies ahead. I'm not mourning not being able to play. I don't even think about playing baseball," Lars said. "For me, the sadness and the terror and the anxiety and the fear is more based on maybe the loss of identity. Just feeling like you've all of a sudden slipped into anonymity. You're not relevant anymore. It's like a certain death of this projection that you have of yourself. How people identify you."
Lars touches on what many baseball players go through. When they are either released or know that their time in baseball is coming to an end, they feel lost. The fear of their career-ending isn't what brings them anxiety or stress, but the unknown that follows it is what creates that feeling of lost identity.
"When we look at identity, that is a big part in addressing the health and well-being of the person," Dr. Mezzy said. "This ranks as a highly important factor in both the personal and professional shift."
Identity plays a huge role in every individual human life. We are on a never-ending journey to find a sense of self. For baseball players, much of their lives, they feel they have a sense of self thanks to baseball, but then that disappears.
"Identity encompasses a ton of factors, but also looks at the person's strengths, weaknesses, and transferable skills for how they can be utilized during this transition process," Dr. Mezzy said. "Identity encompasses a ton of factors, but also looks at the person's strengths, weaknesses, and transferable skills for how they can be utilized during this transition process.’
'“The identity of a player in their ability to transition needs to be considered, but it also needs to be articulated by the person. It must be in the conversation early and often to set forth how it has evolved and how it will continue to evolve in life." Dr. Mezzy hits on another crucial point.
Your journey to finding your identity starts with you. Taking the time to reflect on what gives you purpose, outlining and defining your values, and making sure that you make your own choices puts you in control of finding your identity. In times of transition, taking control of the things around you can truly help you develop those next steps in life.
Room for Improvement in Major League Baseball
Dr. Mezzy states that the greatest need for baseball players transition out of baseball is to harness the opportunity of playing professionally while simultaneously preparing for the inevitable transition. Their post-baseball career will be longer than their actual career for all players. They will need the resources and understanding of career development/exploration before retirement, enhancing their skills (identifying transferable or employable skills), building a community that holds a support system, and gaining experience in the short off-season. According to Dr. Mezzy, Major League Baseball has worked to provide resources to players to help them with their transitions, but more work needs to be done.
"MLB has offered a few career workshops/seminars for their players embarking on the transition. They offer services from Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) and their other programming through the Player Resource Center," Dr. Mezzy says. "Players and employees are aware of this, but not many can speak to outcomes or clear direction from the resources mentioned. It is not clear to many who should hold this responsibility between the entities: Team, League, Players Association. That is an area that could change in the near future."
Baseball, in general, has made significant progress in treating baseball players as more than just a statistic, but there is always room for improvement. The steps taken in recent years to help ease players with their transition out of baseball are a good first. More needs to be done to ensure that players are aware of these career transition services well before their career is over. Whether through educational and informational campaigns or working with the players right after they sign to help them prepare for life after baseball. Another good step would be to make sure that the resources offered aren't just a one-off course that isn't comprehensive—having comprehensive resources and providing the player with a step-by-step approach to transitioning out of the game. There has been progress to help individuals find their way outside of baseball. With individuals like Dr. Mezzy trying to change the way all of us look at career transitions, there is an opportunity to help these players find a more holistic and meaningful life outside of the game.