Position Changes…How to Deal With Them as a Parent

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

I think the idea of a player being asked to change positions and play somewhere new on the field can be more traumatizing for the parent of the player then the player himself. I just got back from the Baseball Factory’s Omaha Training and Tournament and met with a number of parents where the topic of position changes came up. When a particular player was asked to play a different position on the field (versus his normal primary or secondary position), I heard the following comments:

Parent 1: Why would he be asked to play anywhere other than shortstop? He is the best shortstop on the team.
Parent 2: He has never played the other positions, so it is really unfair to ask him to play somewhere he is not comfortable.
Parent 3: Why would you put a player in a brand new position and one that he is not used to?

One of our philosophies at Baseball Factory is to try and use our events to help prepare players for their college experience. College programs very often recruit center fielders and shortstops and then place them all around the field in certain spots depending upon how their tools play. For the recruited high school shortstops, the best hands and feet usually go to Short and Second (with the better arm playing short). The guy with the most power and limited defensive skills goes to first and the one with less range and strong hitting skills may go to third.

This happened to me in college when I played at the University of Pennsylvania. As a freshman, I started mostly every game at shortstop after having played SS my entire career. As a sophomore, I got moved to third base because we had a transfer student come in with exceptional defensive skills that played short. After a First Team All-Ivy season as a Sophomore at 3B, for my junior year, I was used primarily as a designated hitter, because we had a pretty good freshman infielder come in that year. You may recognize his name since he is the current second baseman for the Chicago Cubs (Mark Derosa). As a Senior, I split time between 3B and DH because we had another exceptional middle infielder added to our club as a freshman that made first team All-Ivy that year. I still wound up earning 2nd Team All Ivy Honors as a Senior.
Players need to be prepared to be moved around the field for a variety of reasons. Maybe your son is a primary pitcher that also plays shortstop in high school. In college, you will never see a RHP/SS. All two-way players that pitch wind up playing another secondary position like OF, 1B, or DH to help save their arm. Maybe his baseball tools have him better served to be a corner infielder than a middle infielder. Maybe someone on his team got injured and in order to get his bat in the lineup, the manager needs to use him in a different spot on the field. Be flexible and he will have a chance to gain more playing time.

For parents, as your son advances up the ranks past high school baseball and into college, start to understand that things may change, including his postion. Try not to get all bent out of shape and understand that as the game speeds up, his tools may play better at another spot on the field. From my personal experience, keeping an open mind and living up to the challenge of playing a new spot on the field was a great learning exercise for me. I enjoyed playing 3B and DH-ing much more than I would have enjoyed sitting on the bench and watching someone else play shortstop!


Rob Naddelman is the President of Baseball Factory. Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.