Here’s why Jarren Duran spent the summer re-thinking who he is as a player
"Last year, I know that’s not who I am and who I want to be."
Red Sox prospect Jarren Duran spent the summer trying to figure out why his MLB debut didn’t quite go as planned.
Duran was a highly anticipated prospect after an impressive showing with the Worcester Red Sox, but when the Red Sox called him up, he struggled — slashing .215/.241/.336 in 33 games and 112 plate appearances with the big-league club.
Duran said he felt pressure to play a certain way once he traveled 45 minutes east to Boston.
“In the big leagues, it just felt like more,” Duran said, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “Instead of taking it as ‘It’s just still a game,’ I took it as, ‘This is the big leagues. I have to be smarter. I can’t play with my hair on fire like I did in Worcester. I can’t scream and yell at my teammates.’ But I can do that. They want me to… I made it way bigger than it needed to be. It’s literally just going out with the same group of guys and having fun.”
In Worcester, Duran rose up prospect boards due to his lightning speed and his power — blasting 16 homers and stealing 16 bases before his call up. But in Boston, he rarely reached base and when he did, he didn’t want to steal in case he got caught and cost a teammate an RBI.
“I played tight,” he said. “I didn’t play loose. These guys want me to steal, then if they get a flare or something, I score. I had all this negative thought like, ‘I don’t want to steal and get out, then they hit a ball in the gap and I score for them or score for the team.’
“That was (something) that blocked me mentally to not play the way I wanted to play.”
This summer, however, Duran had a breakthrough when visiting Long Beach State — his alma mater — as well as his old high school, where trash-talking with old teammates reminded him of something important: Baseball can (and should) be fun.
“Just hanging with the guys, having fun, having competition, I was like, ‘Wow, this is what it was like when I was younger. Why am I not still doing this?’” Duran said. “So it was kind of eye-opening to go hang out with all the young guys, just mess around, talk s— and have fun.
“It kind of opened my eyes again. These guys are enjoying it and I’m taking it like a job.”
This season, Duran is focused on having fun again. On Thursday, he tried to bunt his way on base during his first at-bat — spurred on by Alex Cora, who promised him a free dinner if he pulled it off (he didn’t) according to MassLive.
Duran spent the summer trying to adjust his mentality.
“Last year, I know that’s not who I am and who I want to be,” Duran said. “I took a lot of self-talk and motivation in the off-season to re-think who I am as a player again. I think that I am getting higher in my confidence, which is a good thing. I’ll never show it, because I don’t want to be that guy. But inside, I’m feeling more confident in myself.”
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