Major League Baseball franchises are guarded in so many ways.

What goes on in the clubhouse between players is considered sacrosanct beyond the 50 minutes in which the media is allowed inside the dressing area before each game.

Meetings between front office members, the manager, coaches and players are private affairs behind closed doors.

However, MLB wanted fans to see the innerworkings of a team over the course of spring training and the 162-game regular season. The league approached Netflix about the idea of producing a documentary series focusing on one team during the 2024 season.

The Boston Red Sox were chosen from among a handful of teams that were open to the idea. The result was “The Clubhouse: A Year With The Red Sox.

Produced by four-time Emmy winner Greg Whiteley, The Clubhouse premiered Tuesday with the first of an eight-part series.

It is hard to imagine the docuseries could have turned out any better.

Whiteley used his unprecedented access to weave together the story of a season that started with promise before the Red Sox’ pennant hopes faded in September. More striking is how he got players to tell intimate and riveting stories.

“The Red Sox were willing to be very open in all aspects and cooperated fully, which really helped,” Whiteley said. “They were total on board. They thought it would be good for baseball and good for the Red Sox and I’m very pleased with the finished product.”

What easily stands out about the docuseries is Episode 4 in which center fielder Jarren Duran openly discusses his struggles with depression and anxiety, especially during his rookie season in 2022 when he struggled making the conversion from infielder to outfielder at the major-league level.

“Jarren has always been very forthcoming with media about his issues with mental health and he looks at it as almost as a calling that there if there are kids out in this world that are feeling some of the same things that I’m feeling, if they are experiencing some of the things that I have experienced, and if by me being open and honest about this can help them, I’m going to do It,” Whiteley said.

“I think from Jared’s perspective, he spent a long time thinking he was alone in these struggles. And so now that he’s got this platform as a Major League Baseball player, an All-Star, that he wants to use it. So, for me, he was the one who was driving the bus.”

In an amazingly raw moment, Duran admits that he attempted suicide at one point during the 2022 season. Duran said he held a rifle in his hands, but the gun did not fire.

“I couldn’t deal with telling myself how much I sucked every day,” Duran said. “I was already hearing it from fans. And what they said to me, I haven’t told myself 10 times worse in the mirror. That was a really tough time for me. I didn’t even want to be here anymore.”

Whiteley then asked Duran, “When you say, ‘here,’ you mean here with the Red Sox or here on planet Earth?”

“Probably both,” Duran answered.

The Red Sox play in one of the most intense media markets in the country and Duran admitted that the criticism of his play took a toll.

“I remember when I first started struggling, I was like, just send me back down (to the minor leagues),” Duran said. “It honestly felt like there was a dark cloud over me because it’s so easy to look past the positive things for me, and then to grab onto the negative things.”

Booing from the home fans at Fenway Park added to Duran’s stress. He said the players are sometimes looked at as “zoo animals” by the rabid fanbase.

“I feel they cross the line when they start talking about my mental health — making fun of me for that,” Duran said. “Calling me weak. It just kind of triggered me when you start talking about mental health because I feel like that is just part of it — that loneliness. Some people deal with it better than others.”