John Smoltz Exposes Baseball’s Rest-Day Culture: “They’re Being Babied”

“They’re being babied. They’re being coddled. They’re given the keys to everything,” John Smoltz said while criticizing modern baseball’s approach to player development.

In a Brice Butler Studios interview published September 29, 2026, Smoltz criticized player incentives and analytics-driven rest.

“I cannot blame the player because if there’s no repercussion or risk, then what are you going to do? Like you have to have a special mindset and mentality to rise above that,” Smoltz said.

He described a hypothetical exchange in which a player wanted to play every day but was overruled by an analytics-driven rest schedule.

Smoltz also questioned how player development affected feel for the game.

“They’re building tremendous athletes that look like Adonis but don’t have the feel because they’re not teaching the feel,” he said.

He said “people who are making decisions who have never played our sport don’t understand the heartbeat, don’t understand the engine.”

The pitchers he singled out

Asked which pitchers shared qualities with his former Atlanta teammates, Smoltz named Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Charlie Morton, Zack Wheeler, Max Scherzer and Nathan Eovaldi. He said Gerrit Cole could “probably” be included.

He described those pitchers as having experienced two eras and said “they know how to pitch without their best stuff.”

Smoltz predicted that “when those players leave our game, we will never see that kind of pitcher ever again.”

Watch the original Brice Butler Studios interview clip.