With the start of a new baseball season upon us, players and coaches alike are as excited as ever to hear the sweet diamond music like the crack of the bat and the pop of glove. Players across all levels will envision themselves being a vital cog in their team’s success, while coaches will draw up a plan for those players in the coming weeks and months aimed to aid in a championship in the end. I hate to be Darren Downer here, but most things in life don’t play out like we expect them to. Baseball is no different.
A baseball season is an ever-changing puzzle, with a club’s players and coaches acting as its pieces. While nothing is foolproof when it comes to uncovering the secret to success on the field, there is one aspect that can help make for a smoother drive as a team rides over the many peaks and valleys throughout the year. With between 30-40 players on a college roster, or the 26 that make up a Major League club, there will always be more players not playing than those who are. And that can present a problem; potentially a major one that can leave a wake of destruction amongst the team if not addressed before it happens.
In the weeks and months leading up to the start of the season, few players picture themselves sitting on the bench on Opening Day. When the lineup comes out for that first game, many are shocked to not see their name penciled in. They are shocked because their coaches never took the time to tell them where exactly they stood on the depth chart. Those players never got role clarity.
Every Spring Training with the Red Sox, we hold what we call Player Plan meetings with every single one of our roughly 200 Minor League players. It is a daunting task considering the sheer numbers that make up our system, but a necessary one that allows players to get a clear view of where they stand in the organization. In these meetings, we discuss every part of each player’s game, from their strengths and weaknesses, to how they see themselves compared to how we view them. We finish each meeting detailing the expectations and what job (level, role, etc.) they are working towards (with specific areas for improvement) for the upcoming season. It’s slightly different from what an individual team will do since we are playing the long game of reaching the Major Leagues, but serves a very similar purpose.
No player should be happy about sitting on the bench when they want to be starting. By providing players with a road map of how to get from where they are to where they want to be, it makes a challenging situation a bit easier to deal with, both for them and us as coaches. One of the hardest things to do in coaching is making a player feel like a valued member of a team when the stat sheet says otherwise. That value comes in the form of role acceptance, which is impossible to attain without role clarity.
When you tell a catcher that he is fourth on the depth chart, it can be a disappointing reality for the player to hear. The fourth string catcher may spend the majority of the season in the bullpen, warming up pitcher after pitcher to go into the game. On the surface, it’s a hapless job that, without role clarity, can be a deflating one. But when that role of bullpen catcher comes not only with specific expectations and points of emphasis to improve upon but also links the role to the team’s success, all of a sudden, a player who isn’t playing in the game can really engage and buy into what he’s doing knowing the importance of getting pitchers ready to go in.
Sometimes a backup player is good enough to play but finds himself behind a star player. It may be the first time in his life that he’s not in the lineup every day and he has no clue how to handle that. By detailing his role as a backup (right now) while also helping his envision being on the field (in the future), he can focus on specific parts of his game to work on without the pressure of having to perform in the game. It’s a challenge, of sorts, for backups to use practice and all of the pre-game work to serve as their game for the day; a challenge that I have found to be incredibly motivating and successful.
If we are consistent with how we communicate the things that we value as coaches, over time, our players will learn to value those things as well. And that includes the value of players who aren’t showing up in the box score. You’d be shocked to see how much something as little as commending the bullpen catcher does for his morale. You give meaning to a “meaningless” outing by pointing out how the innings that a relief pitcher threw in a blowout loss yesterday kept other bullpen arms fresh for today’s close win. With that kind of consistent recognition, slowly but surely, everyone on the team will appreciate everyone else’s role, because those players have accepted them and have excelled at them. All because you provided them with role clarity.