Associated Press
    For Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer, Josh Lifrak is just like hitting coach John Mallee or pitching coach Chris Bosio.
    Lifrak is the director of the team's mental skills program, while Mallee and Bosio are two key members of Joe Maddon's coaching staff. While Hoyer looks at each of them in a similar way, he also knows what that means in terms of a shift in thinking when it comes to mental health and major league baseball.
    "I think that it used to be the kind of thing that people would talk to people, they didn't, like, advertise it," he said. "Some guys were ashamed of it, and some people didn't want to have any part of it. I think now it's almost impossible to find someone who doesn't understand that your mental skills coach is no different than a hitting coach or a pitching coach. He's a guy that can really help your players get better.
    "That's a shift from like, partial acceptance to like, total acceptance in a very short amount of time."
    Long gone are the days when mental health was a taboo subject in major league locker rooms, and the days of a lone sports psychologist even appear to be waning. While individual players have sought help with the mental side of the game for years, teams are responding to the changing attitudes by offering more assistance to their players in the area.
    At least three teams - the Cubs, Red Sox and Nationals - announced major changes this year to their approach.
    "I think as a whole, the industry is far more comprehensive," said Doug Harris, an assistant general manager for the Nationals who also serves as their vice president of player development and pro scouting. "People are being more creative now, trying to help their players in any way they can."
    Harris played a key role in Rick Ankiel joining the organization in January to work with minor leaguers as a life skills coordinator. He first broached the idea with Ankiel at a spring game last season, and the two had a running conversation that eventually pivoted to more specific details.