Bench Me, Praise Me

He’s been playing for the stat sheet his whole life. Now, he’s playing for an audience of one.

Twenty-four-year-old rookie center fielder Ty West just got the call-up of a lifetime. But under the blinding lights of the major leagues, his anxiety is driving his swing into the dirt. Raised by a father who only offered affection when the stats were perfect, Ty is drowning in a slump and desperate for approval.

Enter Logan Price. At thirty-five, Logan is the team’s veteran catcher, a four-time All-Star, and the most disciplined man in baseball. With a battered body and a career nearing its end, Logan doesn’t have time for a pet project. But he sees exactly what Ty needs: structure, discipline, and a reason to stop flinching.

Logan offers Ty a system: bring him good at-bats and a clean process, and Logan will reward him behind the locked doors of their road-trip hotel rooms. What starts as a ruthless, hands-on coaching system turns into an intoxicating power exchange. Logan takes Ty apart pitch by pitch, feeding him the low-voiced praise he’s been starving for his entire life.

But the system wasn’t designed to handle real feelings. With a pennant race heating up, a secret relationship threatening to unravel the clubhouse, and a career-ending diagnosis looming over Logan’s head, the veteran catcher tries to do the “merciful” thing and clear the blast radius. Now, Ty has to prove that the confidence Logan gave him is real—and that he’s brave enough to take his captain off the pedestal and carry him for a change.

Bench Me, Praise Me is a high-heat, high-emotion M/M sports romance from Chase Power. It features a grumpy/sunshine age gap, veteran/rookie teammates, secret hotel room film sessions, intense praise, and a guaranteed happily ever after.