Tigers Austin Meadows Stepping Away For Mental Health Reasons

The Detroit Tigers have announced that they're placing outfielder Austin Meadows on the 10-day injured list as he deals with anxiety.

According to The Detroit Free Press, it marks the second time in seven months that the 27-year-old has stepped away from the team due to his mental health.

"The Tigers fully support Austin's decision to step away from the team and prioritize his mental health," Tigers' president of baseball operations Scott Harris said in a statement. "As an organization, we have taken many steps to provide and destigmatize mental health resources, and we will do more to help our players tackle the mental and physical challenges they face on a daily basis.

"We commend Austin for confronting these challenges head-on and ask our fans to join us in supporting him through every step of his journey back to the field."

Meadows cut his season short last September and reportedly used the offseason to prepare himself for 2023 from both mental and physical perspectives.

Tigers outfielder Austin Meadows is taking his second break to focus on his mental health in seven months. (Photo by Carl Jones/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Meadows Discussed His Mental Health Struggles Earlier This Season

Just last week, Meadows discussed the adversity he faced last season.

Last year was what it was," Meadows said. "I learned a lot from that perspective of the mental health side. For me, when it comes to pregame and recovery postgame, I'm trying to be back to as normal as possible. Be me and just try to worry about baseball. That's the goal."

Meadows is not the only Major Leaguer to take a step away from the game in recent weeks. Colorado Rockies pitcher Daniel Bard started this season on the IL citing anxiety from his performance in the World Baseball Classic.

Angels superstar Mike Trout has also been open about dealing with mental health issues.

In 2021, he talked about how then-Angels manager Joe Maddon had advised him not to overlook that aspect of his overall health.

Mental health is serious stuff, man,” Trout said at the time. “Nothing to just look over.”

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