Cardinals Outright Tres Barrera

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.