Clayton McCullough: Why ‘Uncomfortable’ Should Be the Norm #marlins #playerdevelopment #philosophy

Clayton McCullough: Why ‘Uncomfortable’ Should Be the Norm #marlins #playerdevelopment #philosophy

You guys have preached even back in the spring training is that you guys can do player development well at the big league level. Now you guys have also done a lot of experimentation throughout the year as well. Whether it’s the line of construction, your bullpen rolls. I feel like everyone’s had a chance of high leverage opportunities at some point this year. Pitch bunker dugout, you know, we’ll get to that. But how do you think the constant shuffling or experimentation, whatever word you want to use, has impacted player development? I believe it’s positive. I think there’s a lot of facets to player development. It’s the training environment that has created. It’s the the messaging of what we feel like is important. It is the followup um and and meetings, you know, AARs after things happen are part of player development. And as far as you know, bullpin roles and lineup construction, I part of it is, you know, um I I want our guys to that become their norm and that become comfortable with that and understand that whether you pitch in the sixth inning, the eighth inning, the ninth inning, uh we need three outs and like need you to go in there and I feel like right now is either it’s a moment in the game that I feel like we need to go win and you’re the best right now to go win that moment. And um you know when I bring the next person in I feel like it’s their best spot to go have success and so have viewed it that way and think well hopefully continue to view it that way that you know I only know what is happening right now. Can’t I don’t know what the ninth inning is going to look like. I know what right now looks like. So I tried to look at it that way. Let’s just go win right now and next inning will show us where we’re at now. and the lineup. Uh, you know, guys being okay with it being fluid and that we’re going to, you know, move move spots around and try to optimize for handiness or optimize for their starter. And so, I don’t look at that as guy being uncomfortable. I look hopefully that becomes just the norm and we we’re proactive in getting things out in front to them. So, hopefully they have they know what’s going on and Carson Vitali is a huge part of that. And so, uh, nothing’s ever going to be, you know, not guys aren’t going to like everything that happens. Um, but every decision is made for what I think is best for our team in that moment.

“I don’t look at it as being uncomfortable, I look at hopefully that becomes just the norm.”

Miami Marlins manager Clayton McCullough explains his philosophy of keeping players in fluid roles – from constant lineup changes to a different approach to bullpen usage — and why he believes it benefits player development.