The Rangers have granted the releases of both infielder Darwin Barney and righty Erik Goeddel, the club announced today. Both will return to the open market in search of a better opportunity with another organization.
Barney, 32, was left without much of a path to the Rangers roster when the team decided to hold onto Jurickson Profar as a utility infielder. Though he has spent most of his career at second base, where he’s a decorated defender, Barney has also seen action on the left side of the infield in recent seasons. The eight-year MLB veteran is a career .246/.294/.341 hitter.
As for Goeddel, 29, he has shown an ability to get some swings and misses in the majors, reaching a 15.2% swinging-strike rate in 2017. But he has also run into increasing problems with the long ball in recent years. Last year, he allowed more than two homers per inning at both the Triple-A and MLB levels.
Darn, as I said in the “Rangers sign Barney thread, wanted Barney signing to work. Great defense: +53 DRS, +37.3 UZR 5113 Innings of 2B. He’s 32 years old.
And couldn’t hit water of he fell out of a boat.
Nope. But he just needs to have a slightly below average bat to be useful. He’s great in the field and seems like a good clubhouse guy
It’s baffling to me why people think defensive utility guys gotta be above average hitters or they’ll terrible in people’s eyes. Backup MI guys aren’t suppose to bat .300 and have a .900 OPS if they did they’d be starters.
At a minus WAR he is not worth rostering. So not surprising he is not on a team. Good clubhouse guy or not.
No they don’t have to be amazing but they should be at least replacement level or they will be replaced. This is an example of that
@Ellis Burks Career .246 is close to 1 hit every 4 at bats. That’s some spread out water that he can’t hit.
And the career .095 ISO suggests that any water he does happen to hit won’t even cause a ripple.
Darwin Barney is one of the few MLB players who has a career dWAR that nearly matches his oWAR, not an easy thing to do with the manner in which each metric is calculated. At 32, Barney’s glove is nowhere as valuable as it once was while his anemic offensive output also continues to slip.
It was remarkable that Barney was able to achieve an overall 4.6 WAR with a triple slash of .254/.299/.354 as the Cub starting 2B back in 2012. He definitely deserved his Gold Glove with a remarkable 3.6 dWAR that season.
I meant to say that Barney is one of the few MLB players who has a career dWAR that nearly matches his overall WAR. Barney’s career dWAR of 8.8 is significantly better than his 2.7 oWAR. His overall WAR currently stands at 9.4, and is clearly driven by his defensive acumen.
I believe that shoyld read “…more than 2 homers per nine innings”.
should
I just choose to imagine him giving up 2 homers an inning and still having a job
I never liked that purple dinosaur anyway.
You might like him more now. The actor that played Barney for 10 years in now a tantric sex therapist! Regardless of your opinion of him, Barney would still say you are “super dee-duper” and that he will always “love you”. lol
Does anyone else remember when Jurickson Profar was a highly touted surefire prospect? Now he is 25 years old and trying to hold onto a utility role in the Majors. The Rangers really shat the bed on that development project. I realize that the responsibility for an individual player’s development is probably lies 80% on the player and 20% on the franchise, but come one now, Profar has only been the subject of trade rumors for about a decade and still hasn’t been given a chance to hold down a major league role to prove himself.
They kept him in the minors last year even though he was mashing AAA, to extend their team control through 2020.
He will get traded. (Even though he is out of options) Simply a Matter of when. Agreed to a $1.05 million salary for 2018, to avoid Arbitration.
To whom?
The rays were interested but they asked for too much
Control doesn’t mean anything if he cannot stick
Profars development was ruined by missing 2 full years with a shoulder injury.. Since coming back from injury he has never hit well enough to be given an extended look. He hit well for about 3 weeks at the beginning of last season and then preceded to fall off a cliff..
Profar suffered a serious shoulder injury that kept him from playing for a year. It’s not quite fair to blame that on him or the Rangers.
He actually lost two years to shoulder injuries, which only bolsters your point.
My only frustration with the Rangers’ handling of Profar is that they didn’t trade him when they had Kinsler and Andrus in the middle infield and his prospect value was sky high. I was one of very few Rangers fans calling for that at the time, but they would have had a better middle infield, bolstered another position with an impact player (likely the rotation) and avoided Fielder’s awful contract, which was only made worse by his injuries. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and the rest, as they say, is history.
Man I thought that guy was the next big thing. He was totally hot to start and in critical situations and then couldn’t buy a hit to save his life. Maybe he plays his way into some PT this season and we can get an arm back.
If Odor continues to be terrible then maybe.