The Nationals have re-signed righty Aaron Barrett to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training, Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reports (Twitter thread). The club has also re-signed infielders Adrian Sanchez and Brandon Snyder to minor league deals with camp invites.
Of the three, only Barrett logged time at the Major League level for the Nats in 2020. The 32-year-old righty (33 in January) looked to be emerging as a mainstay in the D.C. bullpen from 2014-15 before a torn UCL required Tommy John surgery. He fractured his elbow near the completion of that rehab stint, further derailing his return.
The Nats captured Double-A skipper Matthew LeCroy informing Barrett of his return to the Majors on video in 2019. That, coupled with Barrett becoming overwhelmed with emotion following his first big league appearance after close to a half decade of rehab, served as one of many feel-good stories in a magical campaign for the Nats.
Barrett has pitched just four innings in the Majors since that 2019 return, and he’ll now look for another opportunity to carve out a larger role in the Nationals’ relief corps. He’s been tagged for six runs in those four innings, but Barrett carried a 3.47 ERA with 10.8 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in 70 frames prior to running into his injury troubles.
Turning to the 30-year-old Sanchez, he spent parts of the 2017-19 seasons with the Nats, serving primarily as a utility infield piece. He’s appeared in a total of 90 big league games, all with the Nats, and posted a .263/.280/.331 batting line in 166 trips to the plate.
Snyder, 34 in a few weeks, spent the 2019 season with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate and returned on another minor league deal last winter. He hasn’t gotten to the Majors with the Nats and has only appeared in two MLB games since the conclusion of the 2016 season. A former first-round pick, Snyder has seen MLB action in parts of six seasons, during which time he’s batted .240/.276/.455 with nine homers, five doubles and a triple in 211 plate appearances. The corner infielder/outfielder belted 31 home runs for the Nats’ Triple-A club during that 2019 stint and has a career .773 OPS in parts of 10 seasons at that level.
Meh. They won’t find much competition for his disservices.
yeah. nice story, but he’s probably some at the ML level.
Interesting bit of trivia Orioles could’ve gotten Jacoby Ellsbury with the 1st round pick they used to get Snyder. Also available was Matt Garza and Colby Rasmus and Clay Buchholz to name a few…
Nats drafted LHP Ross Detwiler ahead of another lefty named Madison Bumgarner
Don’t remind me, brother.