Melissa Lambert ’07 is MLB’s first dugout psychologist

Melissa Lambert ’07 joined the dugout of the Kansas City Royals baseball team this season as Major League Baseball’s first dugout psychologist and the first female to join the Royals’ on-field staff.

As director of behavioral science for the Royals, she coaches players on their mental performance and helps them deal with the stresses of being a professional athlete in the world’s premier baseball league.

“The dugout is also a place to have conversations in the moment and talk about the game as it’s happening,” said Lambert. “I would say the two most common issues that come up are around stress tolerance and perfectionism. When I’m in the dugout and on the field, players feel like I can better relate to some of the challenges that they are going through.” She added, “I’m often seen as another coach and can decrease the stigma of talking about psych-related issues.”

Lambert, a native of Montville, earned her psychology degree at Eastern, where she played soccer for four years. She made first-team All-Little East twice and played on two teams that won the Little East Conference regular-season championship and two that won the Little East tournament. She earned a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from Springfield College in 2009 and is a licensed professional counselor. Before joining the Royals in 2020 as the assistant director of behavioral science, she was a mental-skills coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

“A smaller school allowed for more time to build relationships with the psychology department,” she said of her Eastern experience. “The professors all played a significant role in my development and prepared me for furthering my education in clinical psychology. When my career shifted into working as a therapist in sport, my athletic background and experiences in soccer have helped in my ability to relate to players.” 

Besides coaching in the dugout, Lambert makes sure that players have mental health resources and support on and off the field, and she oversees the return-to-play psychological protocol for players who have been in rehabilitation. Her work also extends to Royals-affiliated minor league teams and to community programs on mental health and substance abuse in the Kansas City area. 

MLB data show that the most common mental health problems for players are anxiety, depression and substance abuse. The MLB requires that players have access to mental health counseling at all times. 

But she is the first mental health professional in the dugout. 

“I always felt like I was part of a team and community at Eastern, which has been one of my favorite parts of working in professional sport,” she said. “I love working with an interdisciplinary team and collaborating on the needs of our players.”