The Mariners announced that righty Erik Swanson has been reinstated from the paternity list. To make room for him on the active roster, fellow righty Jacob Barnes has been designated for assignment.
Barnes, 32, is a veteran in his seventh season of MLB action, having previously pitched for the Brewers, Royals, Angels, Mets and Blue Jays, before signing with the Tigers in the offseason on a minor league deal. He made Detroit’s Opening Day roster and threw 20 2/3 innings out of their bullpen, but saw his strikeouts mysteriously evaporate. Prior to this year, he had a career strikeout rate of 24.4% but saw that drop to just 11.2% this year. Given that development and his unsightly 6.10 ERA, the Tigers designated him for assignment about a month ago.
Once he cleared waivers, the Tigers were on the hook for the remainder of his $1.13MM salary. As a veteran with over five years of MLB service time, Barnes has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while still retaining his rate of pay. Any team that picked him up would only owe him the prorated league minimum, with that amount being subtracted from what the Tigers pay.
Barnes latched on with the Mariners on a minors deal about a week later and joined the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. He threw four innings there and got an encouraging five strikeouts, though in a very tiny sample size. The M’s selected him to the big league club on Saturday for an extra bullpen arm but have now sent him into DFA limbo without getting him into a game. Since Barnes is out of options, this was the only way to get him off the roster to make room for Swanson.
Seattle will now have a week to trade Barnes, pass him through waivers or release him. Like his last DFA, the most likely scenario is that Barnes clears waivers and elects free agency again. He’ll then be free to work out a deal with any of the 30 teams, likely of the minor league variety.
Jacob we hardly knew ye..
That didn’t take long. Where next?
A boring job like the rest of us
Real estate or he’ll own a steakhouse. Something like that.
DFAed in like 3hrs
Guys like this should just quit. Bounce around from team to team and suck while doing so. Just go become a dough maker at Pizza Hut
If any Org can turn around a previously struggling RPer it’s the Mariners. Jacob Barnes might be an Org depth piece but while in SEA at least he has a chance to improve. As long as there’s life in his arm he can be an effective depth piece within the Seattle’s Org. Every team needs RP depth in AAA. Believe it or not the M’s current FO/Player Development Group has grown a reputation for helping RPers improve using Analytical data (and Pitching coaches) to pinpoint their best pitches.
I realize J Barnes might not have quite the same potential as some of the RPers in the current M’s BP but many of Seattle’s RPers have completely turned their careers around just by coming to Seattle. Look at this yrs newest M’s RP – in his last 3 seasons in TOR LHP Ryan Borucki had ERA’s of 4.94/5.29/9.95. Since coming to Seattle (in 11 app) he has a 2.53 ERA and the lowest WHIP of his career.
Paul Sewald and Casey Sadler have both been on record saying the Seattle PDG changed their career trajectories- Paul Sewald (a career 5.50 ERA with the Mets) described his transformation by saying “it’s like having cheat-codes to the best version of yourself.” You might know Sewald was cut by NYM. He changed his pitch usage after taking the advice from the boffins (in white Lab coats) in the SEA Analytics Dept. In the span of 6-8 weeks he was pitching in the highest leverage spots (until Servais ran him into the ground at the end of the year!) Despite his over usage he still finished his 1st year in Seattle with a 14.5 SO9 and an ERA+ of 136. This year his ERA+ total is 157.
Look at Casey Sadler (currently on the IL) who had MLB’s longest streak of consecutive scoreless innings last yr. Eric Swanson worked w the Coaching Staff and Analytics Dept this past offseason when he added a 3rd pitch- he is now having a sensational yr: he already has accrued 1.0 bWAR in 22.2 IP w a 0.79 ERA and 0.88 WHIP and an eye popping 18.0 SO9. OK Barnes may never reach the ceilings of those 4 RPers but every yr all 30 MLB team have BP injuries. Good AAA depth pieces are an important cog in a teams success over a 162 game season.
Guys like that shouldn’t quit, they need to sign with teams like Oakland. Going nowhere, dirt cheap and keeping young guys in the minors