At this point, it seems like it’s mental
I’m not sure how true that really is, though.
In the case of Goldschmidt, he might just be done. Similar to how Carp was done. A spurt here and there is possible, but the bat and reaction has slowed. That is not mental. He is at an age where guys hang it up if they haven’t already.
Arenado has spent the last couple years morphing into a contact, gap power type hitter rather than a middle of the order power bat. He’s well into his 30s now, and that seems to be where he’s at as a hitter. Again, not mental.
Gorman is in his 3rd year, and he is a .230ish all or nothing hitter who gives you a homer a week and nothing much in between, reminiscent of DeJong. He can produce eye popping exit velo when he ties in, but he has not been a good hitter since coming up. That is not mental, he just doesn’t hit MLB pitching as well as he hit MiLB pitching. DeJong’s downward spiral into total futility was probably mental, and we don’t know if Gorman will follow that path. Hopefully not.
Opposing teams found a giant hole in Walker’s swing after he came up last year and he went back down to work on that, to good effect. But opponents had all winter to figure new ways to get him out, and he also seems to have back slid on not pulling off the pitch fading down and away. He seems to be having trouble keeping up with the ML pitching/defensive strategies thrown at him. I am not sure I characterize that as mental so much as we are being out coached there.
I wouldn’t say Scott’s problem is mental. His K rate is not horrible, but his BABiP is something like .140. They are simply knocking the bat out of his hands. We all assume he will eventually be able to hit MLB pitching, but that is far from certain. The same with whether Winn will sustain success or be back where he was like Walker. They are products of the same system after all.