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We're never going to convince the clutch hitting acolytes that their religion doesn't exist, but I think we might have more success with this: even if such a thing exists and there are meaningful differences between players in this ability, the magnitude is still considerably less than the differences in overall ability among MLB players.
For example, Eddie Murray. Eddie is often held up as an example of a great clutch hitter. He had an .879 OPS in high leverage situations and an .808 in low-leverage situations over a very long career.
Whether that was due to random variation, or some kind of magical childhood interactions with John Wayne and General MacArthur we'll never know. But he still had an .808 OPS in low-leverage situations. Even when Eddie supposedly wasn't bearing down because it didn't matter, he was still significantly better than an average MLB hitter of his era.
No matter what your ethos and belief systems are, you're still better off with a good hitter without clutch ability than an okay or a poor hitter who supposedly steps up his game in the clutch. And you're better off with Eddie Murray goofing off than you are with Lenn Sakata having the clutchiest day of his life.
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