Former Texas Rangers rising star details suicide attempt in coming ESPN documentary
Former Texas Rangers rising star Drew Robinson attempted suicide with a gun on April 16, 2020, according to a coming documentary on ESPN’s E:60.
“Alive: The Drew Robinson Story” is available to stream now on ESPN+ as part of ESPN’s E:60 documentary series. It details Robinson’s decent into a mental health crisis after he made the Rangers’ Opening Day roster in 2017. He played in 48 games in 2017 and 47 games in 2018.
Robinson, 28, details his journey fighting mental illness and his ongoing rehabilitation and therapy with ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
“Drew Robinson is the person who everybody knows, the person who everybody loves and the person who in the end, I think, everybody can see a little bit of themselves in,” Passan said on an ESPN podcast. “That is why when I was first told about what had happened to him, I understood this was going to be unlike any other story I’d ever done.”
Robinson struggled with the shuffle back and forth between the Rangers’ major league roster and the minors after earning that Opening Day start in 2017. He was also struggling in a relationship with his longtime girlfriend.
Robinson was drafted by the Rangers in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB Draft. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in December 2018 and was released in August 2019. He signed a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants the following January, but he was still struggling with mental health issues.
While home in Las Vegas during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinson purchased a gun on March 30. He wrote a suicide note to his family.
“I woke up like normal and thought, ‘I’m going to do it today,’” Robinson says in the documentary. “It was around 8 o’clock and I’m laying down and leaning to the side a little bit. Picked up the gun, put it to my head and pulled the trigger.”
The shot only wounded Robinson. He waited more than seven hours, thinking he’d eventually die. He contemplated trying again, but instead chose life and called 9-1-1.
He lost his right eye from the wound but is attempting a comeback while undergoing intensive rehabilitation and mental health therapy.
“Suicide is a terrible thing and Drew’s reason for talking right now is to elucidate that message as clearly as possible,” Passan said.
The Giants signed Robinson to a minor league deal in October.
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 12:07 PM.
