Catcher Tres Barrera has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Memphis, reports Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. That indicates he cleared waivers after being cut from the roster last week.
Barrera, 28, was signed by the Cards to a minor league deal in the offseason. He began the year with Memphis and hit .255/.314/.532 through early May for a wRC+ of 103. He got called up to the big leagues around the same time that the club made the strange decision to shift Willson Contreras away from catching. Barrera was essentially the backup to Andrew Knizner at that time, though the club quickly returned Contreras to catching duty less than a week after stopping him from doing so. Barrera got into six games but only received two plate appearances before being placed on waivers.
Prior to joining the Cardinals, he had spent his entire career with the Nationals. He had a .231/.317/.315 batting line in the majors coming into this year but his minor league slash line is a stronger .250/.330/.392. He’s generally considered a solid defender, having positive framing marks from both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus.
Barrera had a previous career outright, which gave him the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency. Instead, he’ll report to Memphis and try to work his way back to the big leagues. He could be called up if either Contreras or Knizner need to miss any time, though prospect Iván Herrera is hitting .301/.429/.545 in Triple-A this year.
Tres bien!
The last act in an unnecessary comic play.
Back to Memphis where he’s also not going to play
It’s just so out of the ordinary seeing the Cardinals operate like a dumpster fire shot shiw.
Even the most well oiled machines can succumb to a grain of salt.
Way to go, Mo!
Might have DFA’d the wrong catcher.
Contreras is in a horrible slump. They need to move him down in the order at the very least. He’s slashed .140/.240/.308 in his last 30 games. I know they promised him the 5 slot but that should have been contingent on at least a .700. Knizner has been the better bat over his last 30 games.