Instead of Roasting Colby Rasmus, We Should Hope He Finds Peace
For the second straight season, MLB outfielder Colby Rasmus stepped away from the game abruptly. Last year with the Tampa Bay Rays, this year with the Baltimore Orioles. Manager Buck Showalter told The Baltimore Sun that the team would “honor” Colby’s privacy in reference to his reasoning, but also that Rasmus knows “there’s a lot more to life than baseball.”
Yes, he was hitting .133 with Baltimore this year. Last year, though, before leaving the Rays, he was hitting .281 with an .897 OPS. This isn’t solely about numbers. If Colby Rasmus is not finding peace in Major League Baseball, we should let him go without the ceremonial Twitter roast. I mean, it’s not like there’s a shortage of dudes who want to throw on an MLB jersey. The league will move on just fine without him.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Disptach spoke with Rasmus prior to the 2018 season. In the interview, he passively refers to the MLB life as “this rollercoaster”. If that doesn’t speak volumes about why he stepped away again, I don’t know what does. Clearly, something happened within him or to him that led to a low-point on the ride and he had to get off.
From Goold’s article:
“Man, it wasn’t fulfilling me with all the happiness in the world,” Rasmus told the Post-Dispatch as he waited his turn during O’s batting practice. “It’s always been that love-hate relationship. That’s how it is with every player. All of my life it’s all I’ve been around. I realized that even more when I went home. That’s about the only thing I’m good at. Or, that I could get lost in.”
Judging from what I’ve read, Colby Rasmus — a guy with 891 career hits and 166 home runs — came back to baseball this year to find inner peace and attach himself to the community feel of an MLB clubhouse. For some time, he must have found it. I mean, he went on the DL early in the season after hitting .095 in eight games. If he wasn’t feeling great at that point, it would have been much easier for him to walk away. Yet, he returned after missing two months and even homered in his first game back. After nine more game appearances, he met with Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter to deliver the news of his departure. Could part of his exit be due to his performance? Sure. And as a former college baseball player, I know those lows can get pretty steep. If he was at a point where he was already fragile and couldn’t cope with struggling, then please, Colby, it’s not the end of the world to step aside. Baseball is great, but baseball isn’t everything. Legitimate happiness is paramount and it seems he wasn’t getting it in Baltimore.
No one will know the exact play-by-play that led to his abrupt exit from the last-place Orioles. Not until he (hopefully) shares them at some point. Whatever they were, though, they put him in a place where Major League Baseball wasn’t enough. He knew the reactions and tweets he’d get, yet did them anyway. But for those beating him down, realize that this situation is a lot better than the other end of the spectrum. It’s probably not the right time to poke fun at him. Not until we know his reasoning. If he comes out and says he just didn’t care about baseball anymore, that’ll be different. For now, let’s hope he finds peace in whatever he does next.
Joey Rickard (.247 career BA) was called up to take Colby Rasmus’ roster spot.
The Baltimore Sun released an article today which lays out the Orioles’ players thoughts on Rasmus. You can read it here.