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John Baker questions a foul ball decision in the first inning of the game against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on August 28, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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Why John Baker left the Cubs to help the Pirates

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Why John Baker left the Cubs to help the Pirates

John Baker sat in front of his computer on Thursday and held his hands roughly six inches apart, like he was describing an oversized chili burger.

The point the Pirates’ new director of coaching and player development was trying to make went something like this: Going from the bottom to the top is always incredibly difficult, and it takes a tremendous amount of buy-in from everyone involved, especially the player.

“The space between is not comfortable,” Baker said. “It’s all about being willing to encounter that discomfort to improve.”

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The physical gesture was a small part of Baker’s introduction, but it also perfectly encapsulated what the former backup catcher will soon encounter with the Pirates.

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After a post-playing life that had been spent exclusively with the big-budget Cubs, with Baker rising from baseball operations assistant to Chicago’s head mental skills coach, the 39-year-old chose to step outside of his comfort zone and again seek a challenge.

Meanwhile, the Pirates can really use someone like Baker, who’s extremely intentional not only about improving himself but also helping players get better, which has been a steady refrain from the team’s new front office and coaching staff.

“Understanding the constraints in Pittsburgh and that we’re going to have to develop from the inside to build a contender, it has all the right guard rails to [spur] innovation and creativity,” Baker said. “I like to chase challenges, and this seemed like the appropriate challenge with the appropriate people. I really feel like we can do some cool things.”

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As for other key points of the 27-minute interview ...

Trust matters

Conquering the space between will be predicated on trust, Baker said. Only when players believe the organization has their best interests’ at heart will they fully commit.

“If you’re asking people to put themselves at psychological or emotional risk, where they may be failing from time to time, and you haven’t created that foundation of trust systematically, it’s not going to work,” Baker said.

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In Chicago, Baker said the Cubs focused a lot on mindfulness, something he hopes to further emphasize in Pittsburgh. As far as relating to players and mixing old-school baseball with data-driven concepts or mental skills, Baker offered one of his better anecdotes.

“I think I was the last generation in college that didn’t have the internet,” Baker said. “I had to ride my bike back and forth to the library. I feel like I have the best of both worlds, and bridging those gaps is important.”

The same for explaining why something is being done.

“If you don’t have a reason or a purpose behind a drill package that you’re trying to introduce, or a place you’re trying to send them that’s better for their development, you’re not going to have that kind of trust,” Baker said.

Choosing this route

Baker never really had concrete plans for his post-playing life. The way he explained it, his skill set involved figuring out when someone might throw a slider, and that wasn’t exactly a big thing when it came to investment banking.

So Baker decided to go back to school and acquire more knowledge that might help in the real world.

“And, man, did I go down the rabbit hole in performance psychology,” he said.

Baker, who’s nearing his master’s degree in that field, loved how he was able to mirror his desire to continually learn with the immediate application of any acquired intel or training to baseball, which he also understood.

“That’s what I think about with a lot of this stuff, ‘What do I wish that I knew then? What drills or training could I have been exposed to that was better or different than what I did myself?’ ” Baker said. “Then applying the same intensity and conviction to those things and cultivating an environment where players are willing to do so.”

Two extremes

There aren’t many more opposite organizations than the Cubs and the Pirates, and Baker acknowledged that right away. It was also why he said it made sense for him to pursue this job after spending several years calling Wrigley Field home.

“Although I loved my team and the people that I worked with, they were at a place where I felt like I was learning from them,” Baker said. “It was almost like watching your kids grow up and go to college. Taking the skills, knowledge and expertise that I learned over the last five years and over the first 14 years of my career as a player and applying it to the younger generation is why I always wanted to be in baseball in the first place. The original job I took with the Cubs was to do some mentorship with younger players. It hit every possible sweet spot, and it allows me to live my life aligned to my values.

“The short answer is that everything lined up, and, man, I’m fired up for this spot.”

Good memories

Yes, he talks about the John Baker game.

The scorecard was actually hanging on the wall over his shoulder during the Zoom call, complete with pictures. It was July 29, 2014. Baker pitched the 16th inning, then scored the winning run. Because baseball can be weird, it’s now considered something of a holiday, with rabid Cubs fans toasting Baker.

“I’m big on just putting pictures of myself everywhere,” Baker deadpanned.

But, no, seriously. His pitching performance does come up when he talks to younger players, the same for his impressive MLB debut — a homer off Chan Ho Park. At the same time, Baker isn’t one to dwell on that sort of stuff.

“It’s a good icebreaker,” Baker said. “But it’s not about me. It’s about them.

“Do I talk about my own playing? Just enough to let them know that I played in the big leagues, but usually it involves a story about how many times I grounded out to second base.”

‘Filed him away’

Whether he wants to admit it or not, Ben Cherington had a lot to do with this.

Baker told a story from 2015, when he attended a SABR seminar shortly after the Red Sox ousted Cherington. Baker expected Cherington to bail, but the Pirates general manager did not. That resonated with Baker.

“Honoring that commitment and being vulnerable, open and sharing his experience with a roomful of people really kind of blew me away,” Baker said. “It was a behavioral example of what it means to be accountable. I kind of filed him away in the back of my head.”

Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, even sounds like Cherington, Baker said. The former Red Sox boss also vouched for Cherington and was actually extremely helpful when it came to enabling Baker to further his career.

“A lot of times in baseball, those things are met with resistance by the organization that you currently work for,” Baker said. “But the things that Theo had to say about Ben just further cemented my desire to pursue this job.”

Changes ahead?

The way baseball is played today isn’t terribly appealing to Baker.

“As someone who grew up watching baseball in the ‘80s, I don’t love the things that I see,” Baker said of the abundance of homers, walks and strikeouts.

That may manifest itself in how the Pirates develop players, although not to the point of doing anything stupid or irrational. Baker said he hopes to bring some old-school concepts back to how the Pirates play, but only if it makes them better.

“The only rule is it has to work,” he said.

How does that occur on the field?

“If I wanted to be as simple as possible, I would say stuff like, ‘I’m going to prioritize putting the ball in play a little bit more often than we have in the past and we’re going to focus on being the best defensive organization in professional baseball,” Baker said. “If those two things happen and my guy pitches well, we have a chance to win the game.”

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Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.

First Published: November 12, 2020, 9:21 p.m.

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John Baker questions a foul ball decision in the first inning of the game against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on August 28, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  (Getty Images)
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