Yermin retiring? Nope. Wait, maybe yes? Wait, he's active in Charlotte again.

[mqr]

The only person who knows why he did this right now is Yermin Mercedes. 
 

The finger pointing and narrative chasing is infuriating. 

[chitownsportsfan]

4 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:

For sure.  I was referring to the original TLR/Yermin/Clubhouse thing.  Lotta people made a lot of assumptions and called them facts.
 

 Couple months later…coming out again with all the same “facts” 

 

For the record I don’t like it.  I bet Ozzie doesn’t like it.  I bet Frank doesn’t like it. Etc. 

Frank was a guy that was one a AA from the south and two a guy that was naturally huge and blessed and had to deal with a bunch of bullshit because of those things.  Maybe he can reach out to Yermin and talk to him about how to ignore the circus and just do you.  TA I'd imagine could help as well.  But you know we all carry our own burdens and sometimes reaching out feels like a bridge too far.  I really hope Yermin can find peace.

[ron883]

We're really ignoring the real culprit of this whole situation - Donald Trump

Edited July 22, 2021 by ron883

[chitownsportsfan]

44 minutes ago, ron883 said:

We're really ignoring the real culprit of this whole situation - Donald Trump

Edited July 22, 2021 by chitownsportsfan

[pktmotion]

Yermin is under contract with Big League Advance for a loan he took out with them earlier on in his career. It was documented in Real Sports, can't find the HBO link, but here's a write-up: https://www.southsidesox.com/2021/6/22/22545598/white-sox-yermin-mercedes-hbo-featured-on-hbos-real-sports. In these contracts, these athletes agree to give a percentage of their "total career earnings" for typically one large cash advance. 

I'm willing to bet this retirement fiasco is just a scheme to wiggle out of this, before coming back from retirement and cashing in.

Edited July 22, 2021 by pktmotion

[ron883]

7 minutes ago, pktmotion said:

Yermin is under contract with Big League Advance for a loan he took out with them earlier on in his career. It was documented in Real Sports, can't find the HBO link, but here's a write-up: https://www.southsidesox.com/2021/6/22/22545598/white-sox-yermin-mercedes-hbo-featured-on-hbos-real-sports. In these contracts, these athletes agree to give a percentage of their "total career earnings" for typically one large cash advance. 

I'm willing to bet this retirement fiasco is just a scheme to wiggle out of this, before coming back from retirement and cashing in.

You'd think a loophole that big wouldn't exist in those contracts...

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, ron883 said:

You'd think a loophole that big wouldn't exist in those contracts...

That wouldn’t work unless he left the sport for a minimum of three and more likely 5+ years.

Glad to see you weathered the storm and that Ron isn’t retiring.

[Dominikk85]

3 hours ago, mqr said:

Tony acted like an asshole in the press conference. 
 

Were probably not having this conversation if Tony didn’t give Mercedes every chance to be good

I believe both of this things to be true. 

Yeah, Tony acted Badly there but he also stuck with yermin and kept him in the middle of the lineup almost every day even when yermin struggled. 

[Chimpton]

Any ideas what Yermin was referring to when he apologised for “the fruit of my immaturity.”? And he says he was stepping away from baseball "for a while". Do you think he has done something that has not come to light yet? I hope not for his sake as the first few weeks of this season were like a dream for him.

[kgrittenburg]

The man retired, no trade, no Garcia, get over it

[bmags]

I'm so bored of everything needing to be leveled up to the same story line.

I'm going to give Yermin the benefit of the doubt here. He may be acting rashly, but he also isn't crazy to be at this point:

- Yermin is 28 years old and has been in the minors for 9.5 of his 10 year playing career, and most of that in the absolute worst of what the minor leagues has to offer.

- He was up long enough to be a part of the MLBs pension plan

- He is now looking at an uncertainly long future of being back in the minors, being on a bus living nomad life for crap pay again, the guy never got a big draft bonus or anything.

- He was probably given things to work on for the sox from hitting and defense. He was playing on a team that trusted multiple 1b only players to suddenly try different positions, except him who wasn't even trusted for his "own" position. So he's a bat only player that struggled mightily for 2 of his 3 months.

Again he's 28. He's been really close to the big leagues for 3 years, he got the pension, etc. 

And if you are the sox what do you do? Just DFA him out of politeness? Trade him just because? 

He's pretty stuck in his opportunity right now. Good enough to be depth, still likely passed over.

Adn as for Tony. I'll never let a coach slide for not defending his players. But there is no way that just caused Yermin to crater. He isn't the reason Yermin is retiring. And I don't want Tony worrying about AAA players when he has 26 guys to worry about right now.

 

[ptatc]

28 minutes ago, bmags said:

I'm so bored of everything needing to be leveled up to the same story line.

I'm going to give Yermin the benefit of the doubt here. He may be acting rashly, but he also isn't crazy to be at this point:

- Yermin is 28 years old and has been in the minors for 9.5 of his 10 year playing career, and most of that in the absolute worst of what the minor leagues has to offer.

- He was up long enough to be a part of the MLBs pension plan

- He is now looking at an uncertainly long future of being back in the minors, being on a bus living nomad life for crap pay again, the guy never got a big draft bonus or anything.

- He was probably given things to work on for the sox from hitting and defense. He was playing on a team that trusted multiple 1b only players to suddenly try different positions, except him who wasn't even trusted for his "own" position. So he's a bat only player that struggled mightily for 2 of his 3 months.

Again he's 28. He's been really close to the big leagues for 3 years, he got the pension, etc. 

And if you are the sox what do you do? Just DFA him out of politeness? Trade him just because? 

He's pretty stuck in his opportunity right now. Good enough to be depth, still likely passed over.

Adn as for Tony. I'll never let a coach slide for not defending his players. But there is no way that just caused Yermin to crater. He isn't the reason Yermin is retiring. And I don't want Tony worrying about AAA players when he has 26 guys to worry about right now.

 

I agree and I'll add that if something like that did cause him to crater, he wasn't long for the MLB anyway. The media or another player would have done something even worse eventually as his performance was quickly deteriorating. 

[Balta1701]

28 minutes ago, ptatc said:

I agree and I'll add that if something like that did cause him to crater, he wasn't long for the MLB anyway. The media or another player would have done something even worse eventually as his performance was quickly deteriorating. 

See this part I just don’t buy, it’s not how the human brain works. Every trigger hits a person differently, especially if they do have some other issues. There is a chance he has thought about that incident every moment since it happened and couldn’t deal with it.

There is also a chance it was something else or several other things. Speculation that it can’t possibly have been that incident should get the same reaction as people speculating that it was.

[Dick Allen]

Hopefully he is making this decision with a sound mind and everything is OK from a mental standpoint. He seemed to be having so much fun, now quickly this. This is a guy who stuck it out for longer than most, and got a taste. You would think he knows he can make it back, but obviously something is wrong. I hope he or someone changes his mind.

[hogan873]

There's a real chance Yermin would not have been called up again this season, especially with the success of Burger and Sheets and with Eloy coming back soon.  I could see him deciding to call it quits, but it's a little sudden and dramatic.  And as another poster said, no one except for Yermin knows why he decided to do what he did.  We may eventually know, or he may return, or he may be traded to a team that could have him play every day.  I think the most likely scenario is that we'll never know for sure and we'll be left with the memory of Yermin's one awesome month when he helped this team immensely.

[Balta1701]

5 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

Hopefully he is making this decision with a sound mind and everything is OK from a mental standpoint. He seemed to be having so much fun, now quickly this. This is a guy who stuck it out for longer than most, and got a taste. You would think he knows he can make it back, but obviously something is wrong. I hope he or someone changes his mind.

Every time I see someone today remind me of how much fun Yermin looked to be having in reminded of Robin Williams, the actor and comedian, who by all accounts was the nicest human being you would ever meet, who was always seemingly “on” with a joke or a performance, and who was suffering from depression the whole time. It is a reminder that you don’t know what a person is going through on the inside.

[ptatc]

16 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

See this part I just don’t buy, it’s not how the human brain works. Every trigger hits a person differently, especially if they do have some other issues. There is a chance he has thought about that incident every moment since it happened and couldn’t deal with it.

There is also a chance it was something else or several other things. Speculation that it can’t possibly have been that incident should get the same reaction as people speculating that it was.

I'm not saying it couldn't have been that incident. I doubt it but it could have been. But also that if it was, he really wasn't going to be an MLB regular anyway because if it hadn't happened, if his mental state is that fragile something else would have come along.

Maybe it was and that is part of the reason he never got his MLB chance as everyone knew it was coming.

[ptatc]

11 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Every time I see someone today remind me of how much fun Yermin looked to be having in reminded of Robin Williams, the actor and comedian, who by all accounts was the nicest human being you would ever meet, who was always seemingly “on” with a joke or a performance, and who was suffering from depression the whole time. It is a reminder that you don’t know what a person is going through on the inside.

While all true, although there were reports out that he wasn't necessarily the nicest guy in the world, if he has those issues, something would have eventually "triggered" him and probably often.

Maybe that's why he never really got a chance because people knew it was coming.

It sure was fun, until it wasn't. 

[thxfrthmmrs]

1 hour ago, bmags said:

I'm so bored of everything needing to be leveled up to the same story line.

I'm going to give Yermin the benefit of the doubt here. He may be acting rashly, but he also isn't crazy to be at this point:

- Yermin is 28 years old and has been in the minors for 9.5 of his 10 year playing career, and most of that in the absolute worst of what the minor leagues has to offer.

- He was up long enough to be a part of the MLBs pension plan

- He is now looking at an uncertainly long future of being back in the minors, being on a bus living nomad life for crap pay again, the guy never got a big draft bonus or anything.

- He was probably given things to work on for the sox from hitting and defense. He was playing on a team that trusted multiple 1b only players to suddenly try different positions, except him who wasn't even trusted for his "own" position. So he's a bat only player that struggled mightily for 2 of his 3 months.

Again he's 28. He's been really close to the big leagues for 3 years, he got the pension, etc. 

And if you are the sox what do you do? Just DFA him out of politeness? Trade him just because? 

He's pretty stuck in his opportunity right now. Good enough to be depth, still likely passed over.

Adn as for Tony. I'll never let a coach slide for not defending his players. But there is no way that just caused Yermin to crater. He isn't the reason Yermin is retiring. And I don't want Tony worrying about AAA players when he has 26 guys to worry about right now.

 

As you said, the guy crawled his way to the majors after 10 years in the minors, he has dealt with a lot of adversity and setbacks along the way. I don’t think the TLR incident would have been enough to break him and force him to retire. From the BLA article, he’s struggled financially (no surprises given milb pay) and has a large family to feed. There’s gotta be more to the story then the TLR incident to make him step away from the game.

[Balta1701]

14 minutes ago, ptatc said:

While all true, although there were reports out that he wasn't necessarily the nicest guy in the world, if he has those issues, something would have eventually "triggered" him and probably often.

Maybe that's why he never really got a chance because people knew it was coming.

It sure was fun, until it wasn't. 

Let’s say it this way….if Tony LaRussa had a Hispanic player who had some of those issues, saw him having too much joy in the game, and said “I need to take that away from him and embarrass him in front of everyone”, the player’s mental issues make that decision by LaRussa look even worse. Whether it was a chapter in the end of his career or the only chapter…it was something the coach shouldn’t have done at the time to any player, and doing it to a guy who was struggling with personal things that the manager should have known something about…yuck.

[Dick Allen]

15 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Let’s say it this way….if Tony LaRussa had a Hispanic player who had some of those issues, saw him having too much joy in the game, and said “I need to take that away from him and embarrass him in front of everyone”, the player’s mental issues make that decision by LaRussa look even worse. Whether it was a chapter in the end of his career or the only chapter…it was something the coach shouldn’t have done at the time to any player, and doing it to a guy who was struggling with personal things that the manager should have known something about…yuck.

As shameful as I think TLR was with that entire incident, from walking out on the field to show up his player, to almost applauding Yermin getting thrown at the next night, to think that may have been the straw that broke the camel's back is a reach. 

[ptatc]

14 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Let’s say it this way….if Tony LaRussa had a Hispanic player who had some of those issues, saw him having too much joy in the game, and said “I need to take that away from him and embarrass him in front of everyone”, the player’s mental issues make that decision by LaRussa look even worse. Whether it was a chapter in the end of his career or the only chapter…it was something the coach shouldn’t have done at the time to any player, and doing it to a guy who was struggling with personal things that the manager should have known something about…yuck.

I agree it shouldn't have been done in public. However when he blatantly ignored what the manager wanted him to do for his own selfish reasons, he deserves a reprimand of some sort. If he can't handle that eventually something would have set him off anyway if he wants to be in the microscope of professional life.

It had nothing to do with a player enjoying the game. This is a manager who had the bash Brothers, Ricky  Henderson and the original stand and watch his HRS player in Albert Puljols.

[CentralChamps21]

First of all I really hope Yermin is OK physically and mentally and hope that after some time he comes back, because I think he has a shot to make it back, even if not with the Sox.

Secondly, from an administrative standpoint, does he have to file paperwork or something? He's on the 40 man roster and the Sox have guys ready to come back from the 60 day IL and now they wouldn't have to DFA someone else.

[Balta1701]

9 minutes ago, ptatc said:

I agree it shouldn't have been done in public. However when he blatantly ignored what the manager wanted him to do for his own selfish reasons, he deserves a reprimand of some sort. If he can't handle that eventually something would have set him off anyway if he wants to be in the microscope of professional life.

It had nothing to do with a player enjoying the game. This is a manager who had the bash Brothers, Ricky  Henderson and the original stand and watch his HRS player in Albert Puljols.

 You just cited a bunch of guys who had success at an early age and said “LaRussa was fine with them he should be able to treat a 29 year old who has been beaten up by the game with financial issues the same, and if they can’t swing it, it’s their fault.” Which is sort of exactly the attitude I’d expect from a LaRussa, frankly - he’s the important one, and who out there would expect a manager to support their players or understand their different needs? 

[wegner]

I wish him the best.  Yermin was the great story from the early season.  Let's win it this year and get him a Ring for carrying this team offensively at the beginning of the year.