With the widely-anticipated Netflix docuseries, "The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox," being released in its entirety on Tuesday at midnight, storylines and teaser videos have begun to trickle out from what will be the show-of-record for the 2024 Red Sox season.
One of those storylines comes from 2024 All-Star Game MVP Jarren Duran, who used episode four of the eight-part docuseries to talk about his personal battles with mental health.
In the episode titled “Still Alive,” Duran detailed a prior suicide attempt in the midst of mental health struggles while trying to find his footing as a major leaguer early in his career.
"I got to the point where I was sitting in my room, I had my rifle and I had a bullet, and I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked, but nothing happened,” he told Netflix. “To this day, I think God just didn’t let me take my own life because I seriously don’t know why it didn’t go off. But I took it as a sign of like, ‘Alright, I might have to be here for a reason.’ So that’s when I started looking myself in the mirror, after the gun didn’t go off. I was like, ‘Alright, do I want to be here or do I not want to be here?’
"I looked myself in the mirror and I was like, ‘That happened for a reason. Obviously, you’re [expletive] here for a reason. So let’s [expletive] be the way you want to be, let’s play the way you want to play. Let’s live the way I want to live."
That’s both harrowing and powerful stuff from the 28-year-old, who was courageous enough to tell his story on camera for a documentary that will live on the most watched streaming platform on the planet.
On Monday, Red Sox manager Alex Cora used a majority of his pregame media availability to talk about Duran’s revelations.
“Obviously I was aware of it,” said Cora. “And since I learned about it - me as a person, I’ve given him support, love and just somebody that he can talk to. You know, that door is always open, and the relationship has grown throughout the years.
“Obviously [we’ve had] a lot of private conversations about the subject. I truly believe that him opening up is going to help a lot of people. You know, it takes a person with courage and being transparent and genuine to do that, and I hope that’s how we see it, right? And he will impact others, and he’s gonna save lives with what he did in Netflix.”
While Cora did not want to get into a specific timeline of when he initially found out about Duran’s tragic attempt on his own life, he made it clear that he has known for quite a while, and that he knew about it before Duran opened up about it to the Netflix cameras.
Cora went on to say that while support for players’ mental health was around when he arrived with the Red Sox in 2005, it has grown exponentially in recent years both in Boston and around the major leagues.
“Sometimes players feel like the mental skills and that structure that we have - you know, they work for the organization. No, they actually work for you,” said Cora. “They’re here for you, and I lived it in the past with players. I used them whenever I needed to, you know? And I think it’s something that is a tool and a department that is needed in every professional team, every company, it’s needed. We know that, you know?
“We live in a tough world. We do. And the pressure to perform at this level is unique. Nobody knows what a professional athlete has to go through. And we lived it through Jarren, right? Throughout his career, we’ve seen part of the stuff, right? And I’m glad that I work for the Boston Red Sox, and we take this very seriously. And the people that have worked with our players, our personnel, people in the front office, they’re amazing people, you know? And they mean a lot to us. They put our athletes - they take them to the next level. Being honest, you know? Because without them, [it would] be hard to perform.”
When Cora was asked how players are able to get over possible skepticism that a mental health employee of the organization could have the best interest of the team in mind rather than the player, he said that’s squared away once players are able to talk to that department and see that they’re there for them.
Cora said the difference in goals between what the team is trying to achieve and what the mental health staff is there for are “two different things.”
“One is to perform, one is to live,” said Cora. “And I think this is the most important one. Because at the end of the day, you’re an athlete for a 10-year window, 5-year window, 3-year window, right? That’s what we have right now. 3.3, 4 years. You gotta live, and you need help, and you have to open up to somebody.
“And people are willing to help you, but you have to take that step. And we talk to them all the time about it. We talk to them in Spring Training, during the season, in the offseason. We’re very proactive. We’re not reacting, and that’s the most important thing.”