Matt Barnes DFA made sense logistically
As strong as he finished 2022, Barnes was weakest link in otherwise strong Red Sox bullpen.
Thousands of Boston Red Sox fans anticipated the announcement of outfielder Adam Duvall’s contract meant the end of right-handed reliever Ryan Brasier’s tenure with the team.
However, CBO Chaim Bloom had other plans and shocked the fan base by pushing 2021 All-Star reliever Matt Barnes out the door.
Until Tuesday, Barnes was the longest-tenured Red Sox; a title held officially for 47 days, now belonging to left-hander Chris Sale. His designation for assignment is, sort of, the cherry on top of a roster turnover sundae for Boston.
Nostalgia aside, this move was met by shock and brushback: Barnes finished the season so well. He’s making over $8 million this season, why DFA him? What did Ryan Brasier do to earn this kind of job security?
Now that the dust has settled, this move makes a lot of sense logistically and probably should’ve been seen coming.
Last season was, overall, a forgettable one for the 2011 first-round pick. In 44 outings, he posted his worst full-season numbers across the board since his rookie year. From a strikeout standpoint, it was his worst overall.
While he saved his season from disaster with a strong finish after a lengthy stint on the injured list, it wasn’t enough to save his job.
From a roster construction standpoint, it shouldn’t have. While, at face value, it seemed Brasier was the obvious candidate, he had a much stronger 2022 campaign than Barnes –– from wire to wire.
Whether you believe in a 35-year-old Brasier to bounce back or not is up to you. However, when Bloom said, “(He) finished the season really strong. He showed a lot. When you project it out ahead, it’s really encouraging,” he’s telling the truth.
Across 13 outings in Sept. and Oct., Brasier posted a 2.25 ERA, a 2.93 xFIP and a 26.2 strikeout-to-walk rate. While Barnes didn’t allow a run across his 11 outings in that same span, he did that while sporting a 4.92 xFIP, an average exit velocity against of 93 mph and a 9.8 K-BB rate.
The results favored Barnes, but the underlying data was discouraging.
That underlying data magnified an issue with the 32-year-old that’s persisted since Major League Baseball cracked down on the use of spider tack and other sticky substances.
From the start of 2019 –– when Barnes became a leader in the Red Sox bullpen –– until June 23, 2021, Barnes ranked in a fourth-place tie among 90 qualifying relievers with a 38.9 strikeout rate. He also tied for ninth in K-BB rate (26.9) and 13th in FIP (3.19).
That said, he ranks tied for 155th among 233 relievers with at least 50 innings pitched in strikeout rate (22.7) since. He also is tied for 188th in K-BB rate (11.2) and tied for 179th in FIP (4.31).
Though it’s not concrete Barnes used substances to get a grip on the ball, there’s optimism for him to elevate his strikeout numbers with leniency on the enforcement of the sticky stuff rules in the future. However, would it be enough to offset the walks?
That’s a question Bloom had to answer with this decision and he determined no.
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