The Blue Jays have acquired right-hander Jacob Barnes from the Mets for fellow righty Troy Miller, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (via Twitter). The Mets only recently designated Barnes for assignment.
Barnes doesn’t have an arsenal with much versatility, relying mostly on a 94.4 mph fastball and 88.9 mph cutter. No matter the pitch mix, Barnes could not avoid the long ball in his 18 2/3 innings with the Mets this season, serving up six long balls and a 25.0 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate. A 12.5 percent barrel rate was by far the highest of his career.
He did a decent job of limiting free passes (6.3 percent walk rate) and keeping the ball out of the air (49.1 percent groundball rate), but it wasn’t enough to stem the tide. The 31-year-old leaves New York with a 7.27 ERA/6.22 FIP, though a 4.29 xFIP gives at least some indication that he’s been the recipient of tough luck this season.
Miller is a University of Michigan alum who signed as an non-drafted free agent with the Blue Jays in 2018. The 24-year-old began the year at High-A, earning a promotion after three starts with a 1.84 ERA. With Double-A New Hampshire, Miller has tossed 20 innings with a 7.20 ERA.
Go Blue!!!
Bullpen problems solved!
Good acquisition
For which or both teams?
I’d say for both. Jays get a cheap arm to hold down a pen spot and Mets dump Barnes’ salary and get a pitcher for AAA depth.
For AA depth.
A where he’s stuff works
Barnes has the velo to succeed. Seemed like he was starting to get going, so hopefully he does well with the Blue Jays.
Barnes needs to get 3-4 mph onto his cutter or figure out a 3rd pitch to be effective. A 94 mph fb with meh spin and movement isn’t gonna get the job done in the AL East.
I don’t even know where to start with this:
1. Yes, Barnes should just wander over to his local Velo Store and buy some velocity. “I’d like 3 mphs, please!”
2. His FB has above average spin and really good vertical movement, so unless by “meh” you mean pretty good, stop spreading nonsense.
3. Are the mounds different in the AL or something? Being in the AL East doesn’t really matter when 2/3 of your games are against non AL East teams, especially when only 2 of the 4 teams he’s gonna be playing in the division aren’t hitting worth a crap right now.
4. When are you getting hired in player development and will that impact your ability to post asinine comments on MLBTR?
Four points, none hit. Rich and uncompelling Yankee Steve. Thoughts and prayers.
Rmember when fastballs were 89 mph, now 89 mph cutters are no good
Every name currently in the bullpen is the same outside of Romano. This is not what was needed.
LOL bullpen problems fixed!!!
These takes are always super annoying. Was it a problem solver? No, but it is an improvement. All it cost was a 24 year old struggling to make a jump to AA. Not every signing or trade needs to be a game changer. Small improvements over time can be very effective.
But of course, the average low IQ fan is gonna cry about it, “Why don’t they just trade for ‘insert pitcher X with a crazy high asking price’ or ‘insert pitcher Y with an unaffordable contract?’ Give me big trade so I get a dopamine release.”
Your takes are annoying and wrong. This trade wasn’t necessary. You are the last person to talk IQ, Yankee Steve. Jdgoat and burtbaseball know things you don’t.
Great Story. Compelling and rich.
I imagine ther is alot of sarcasm is this
Agreed Steve. Jays’ bullpen has been decimated by injuries. It’s Romano and pray for rain. So even a small trade like this is an improvement.
Normally I don’t always agree with you BUT you are exactly right here. Doing nothing means we get the same night in and night out but trades like these are dice rolls. Who knows what a change of scenery does for a guy and as bad as Atkins has been, he has made some good dumpster moves that worked out and he was able to flip them at the deadline for longer term “maybes”?
I get the bullpen has been decimated by injuries which is out of their control. But it’s been like three weeks. They lead the league in blown leads after the seventh inning. Win half of those games they lost and they are currently battling for the top of the division. They have the farm where giving up a couple of our mid tier prospects wouldn’t hurt too much.
Three weeks! OMG! Then they should trade everything they have (because that’s the asking price in June) for someone with a famous name who may do nothing for them. Three whole weeks! LOL!!!
Who’s trading anything of value right now unless it’s an overpay?
Honestly, I can understand the complaining when they are trading for a 31 year old with less than meh stats. A bullpen arm that maxes out at 94mph with a HR problem isn’t exactly what you want to see in the AL East. I would agree with you more if they were complaining about them bringing in young arms like Luis Medero or Tyson Miller that haven’t been given much more than a cup of coffee. The BJ’s bullpen woes are deep and Barnes is going to be given opportunities that someone of his pedigree and abilities shouldn’t be given. I agree with their complaints. Toronto needs to be chasing a couple of proven relief arms instead of someone like Barnes who is just going to be DFA’d again shortly. True they didn’t give up much but he was still someone they could have used as a throw in on someone else. The Yankees should be offering them some of their pieces. I love the Yanks but they are not going to do it this year and they have very good relief arms they can spare.
“Proven relief arms” writes someone who obviously has no clue how fungible and year-to-year relief pitchers are.
“The Yankees should be offering them some of their pieces”. The Yankees are ahead of the Shamrocks in the standings. But I’m sure the MFY will offer what they “should be offering”, LOL!
It’s obviously not going to solve the bullpen but god any new name in the bullpen has to be worth trying. Hoping some bigger moves come sooner than later.
I agree that this could be more of the same, but maybe Barnes will do better with a new pitching coach and a new location. The Jays really should be looking to another team for a better option out of the pen.
Curious as to why the Angles carried Barnes last year. Had a nice 24k to 4 BB but gave up 11 eraned runs in 18 innings.
This is a hope for a prayer. Barnes throws a nice batting practice. Home Runs all over the place. I don’t know a thing about Miller but that 7.20 ERA tells me he’ll be soon bagging groceries at Publix in the not too distant future.
That is kind of harsh but sadly true
On the other hand, even making the majority league minimum has to be years worth of salary bagging groceries. But wow was he disappointing in New York.
Right? If only they’d call me up to sit on the bench for a season, I could pretty much retire.
Hasn’t been been solid since 2018 adding another sub par pitcher doesn’t help.
Now if only the Mets would dessignate Drew Smith and Gsellman for assignment
Good thing you are not in charge
And replace Gsellman and Drew Smith with who? Franklin Kilome? Cory Oswalt? Stephen Tarpley?
The Mets just won game one thanks to the stupid seven inning rule. They got 5 RBI’s from Lindor and used their B pitchers to get the win. Nice to be able to avoid the 8th and 9th innings.
Stop being a freaking cry baby. Both teams agreed to the rules ahead of time. What a loser.
The game was 5-1 and our bullpen is better than theirs so idek why he is saying that we won’t bc of the 7th inning game. When we had a good grip on that game.
They won game one because they had four more runs than Washington. It has nothing to do with the 7 inning rule.
And if they used their ‘B pitchers’, shouldn’t the Nats have scored more than one run? The logic is here ‘because it was a shorter game, the Mets were able to use their weaker arms, and this led to the Nats scoring only one run because ????’, correct?
As a Mets fan, I don’t think much about this trade. Barnes didn’t do very well for the Mets, and Miller doesn’t seem like all that great a prospect. Give it time – maybe one or the other will turn it around and become something helpful for his new team. Right now this is a trade of meh for meh.
Could’ve had brad hand for 1 year at 10 million … literally no risk for 1 year. Don’t even know how hand is doing this season but don’t even care.
Brad Hand is having a great year.
This trade really illustrates either that the BlueJays management doesn’t want to win now or they are totally clueless or both.
Why would a team do this? True it is basically a nothing for nothing trade but how does this help the Jays to a championship? The Jays have a championship caliber lineup, Why not trade the farm and go for it and fill the holes with higher caliber players?
The BlueJays currently are 28th in MLB in starter innings. In order to win now, they need an elite starter like a Scherzer, plus a shutdown closer plus a few relievers better than Jacob Barnes. Nate Pearson could probably close better than Romano.
All this pitching mess was called in these pages in spring training. If I and others can see it coming, why can’t Shapiro and Atkins?
Because they are desperate with 8 relievers on the IL. Barnes was just terrible. He got hammered more than nails do.
You don’t see anything coming. You’re just negative about everything so of course you’re going to hit on a few predictions. Doesn’t mean anything, you know what they say about broken clocks
Good Luck … HE SUCKS 6 HOMERUNS GIVEN UP
Look at the days between outings. When he was throwing every 2-4 days,he wasn’t that bad. It’s when he got into the game once every 8-14 days was when the HR issue cropped up. Should have never been out there with the bases juiced and Tatis in the box.