Former Red Sox closer Matt Barnes, who was traded to the Marlins prior to the 2023 season and wound up undergoing season-ending hip surgery in May, threw for big league scouts last week and could land a deal with a team before spring training for most teams commences next week, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports. Barnes is still building arm strength but was in the low 90s with his fastball.
An All-Star with the Red Sox in 2021, Barnes has experienced a sharp decline in recent years, at least in part to a hip issue that’s plagued him for some time. The right-hander saved 24 games for the ’21 Sox but had all two dozen in the books by August 4. At that point, Barnes was sporting a pristine 2.25 ERA with a dominant 42% strikeout rate against a strong 6.8% walk rate. He’d pitched like one of the best relievers in baseball, and Boston rewarded him over the summer in the form of a two-year, $18.75MM contract extension that kept him from reaching free agency at season’s end.
Barnes pitched well for the first month of that contract, but things went south quickly thereafter. Over his final 15 appearances, the right-hander was shelled for a 10.13 ERA with significantly worsened strikeout and walk rates (26.7% and 15%). Barnes had walked only 11 hitters and surrendered just four homers through his first 44 innings but doubled that home run total and issued nine more walks in those final 10 1/3 innings.
It was a miserable way to close out the season, but Barnes’ track record was strong enough that a rebound didn’t seem far-fetched. Even with that calamitous finish to the season, his overall numbers from 2017-21 were sound: 3.82 ERA, 38 saves, 76 holds, 34.8% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate.
To Barnes’ credit, he rebounded from that finish to at least some extent in 2022, pitching to a 4.31 ERA in 39 2/3 innings. However, his 19.3% strikeout rate was less than half what it had been during his overpowering four-month run in 2021, and his 11.9% walk rate was still a clear red flag. He wound up missing more than two months of that ’22 season due to shoulder inflammation, and over the winter, the Red Sox designated Barnes for assignment and flipped him to the Marlins in exchange for another bounceback bullpen candidate: lefty Richard Bleier.
The trade didn’t work out well for either party. Barnes pitched just 21 1/3 innings of 5.48 ERA ball with Miami, sitting at a career-worst 93.6 mph with his average fastball. His 20.2% strikeout rate was only marginally better than his ugly mark the year prior, and while he cut his walk rate to 10.1%, that was still well north of the league average. Barnes underwent femoral acetabular impingement surgery on his left hip in late July, and the Fish bought out a club option on the right-hander at season’s end.
Barnes spoke with Speier in a full column for the Globe, speaking about the frustration of not being able to live up to his own expectations for himself over the past couple years. “Looking back on it, I’m realizing now that the hip was such a limiting factor in my ability to get into my lower half, subconsciously knowing that it was there,” Barnes told Speier. “The nature of the injury with the hip, it didn’t allow me to get over my front side and truly rotate and create power.”
Time will tell whether Barnes can ever recapture the form he showed from Opening Day through early August in 2021, though with a shoulder injury and notable hip surgery separating present-day Barnes from that peak version, it feels like something of a long shot. But even if Barnes never gets back to fanning more than 40% of his opponents, there’s a middle ground where he can be an effective late-inning reliever. Just about every club in baseball is looking for low-cost, low-risk ways to beef up their bullpens this time of season. Barnes’ track record should hold appeal in that regard, though the ultimate price tag will come down to how he looks in bullpen sessions. Most clubs will likely want to bring him to camp on a non-roster deal, but a 40-man spot doesn’t seem out of the question if he looks promising enough in a workout for clubs.
Good luck on your comeback Barnes!!! You can do it!!!!
olm – Of course he can do it …. he’s a UConn guy!
Man, forgot about this guy. There should be plenty of teams willing to make him an offer.
I’ve always liked Matt Barnes. Outside of his injuries, his biggest limiting factor was inside his head. If he started out an inning poorly, he would slow way down, taking 30+ seconds to throw his pitches and he worked himself up so much that he could have sweat pouring down his face in a April night game in Boston. The pitch clock did not help him get through his internal struggles either, it exasperated them.
With all that said, I really hope he is fully healthy and he has spent some time with a professional to exercise his internal demons. Those 4+ months in 2021 were truly spectacular. If he can get back to 70% of what he showed in 2021 (thru August), he could still become a viable weapon out of the pen. I’m rooting for a comeback for him regardless of where he lands. Good luck, Barnsie!!!
I’ve been on record for having had enough of Barnes but if the team trades their closures to (Jansen and possibly Martin too), I’m ok with the Sox signing Montgomery, giving the closure role to Houck and see if Bailey can unleash some retro magic in Barnes.
Nice way to say exactly what I wanted to. Hopefully if he’s healthy he can bounce back! He’s got the stuff.
Dotty – Excellent observations, and it falls in line with the majority of his career when he was a fantastic setup guy but didn’t perform nearly as well in the closer role even though he had that amazing 5-year period from 2017-2021 when his K-rate was through the roof.
This truly is the night for news about pitchers with bad mechanics/ugly throwing motions. First, Bautista, then Carson Fulmer, and now Matt Barnes. I hope Josh Hader is ok.
Barnes: *throws for scouts*
Scouts: *sobbing* stop, stop! he’s already dead.
PT Barnum, Barnes, Whyhayzee.
Perfect gamble for the Yankees. Either he’ll be dominant again or fit right in.
If we just simply stop clicking the articles and comment on them, MLBTR will have no choice but to post actual articles people want to read about actual impactful and successful athletes, not no names about nothingness
I get you on that point sometimes, but when you are a former all star and played a key part on a World Series winner, you’re not exactly a “no name”. I can guarantee you when Matt Barnes visits “Beantown”, they will always remember who he is. I would also add that 90% of hard-core baseball fans are very familiar with the name and profile of Matt Barnes.
Matt Barnes doesn’t generate excitement and interest on baseball articles like Vlad Guerrero, Corbin Burnes. Etc do
Touche’. I get that Matt Barnes is not the uber exciting Ohtani. It’s only a few more weeks of Spring training and then we’ll get to see some regular season action and that’s what we’re all waiting for.
Good point
Yet you commented?
Cute – No offense but you sound really young to complain about articles that aren’t focused on star players.
The amount of content MLBTR staff puts out is fantastic and much appreciated by passionate baseball fans. It’s not like they are writing less about star players just because they are writing about non-star players. And Barnes was a big deal many years for Sox fans and made the All-Star Team just 3 years ago, he’s certainly not a nobody.
How hard is it for you to just look at the article headlines and skip the ones that don’t interest you? It shouldn’t be hard, because that’s what everyone else does and it’s quite easy actually.
Always confused him and Scott Barnes, obviously not cause of looks
I confuse him with the NBA Matt Barnes
A baseball fan – that is, a fan who actually enjoys the sport of baseball – understands that players like Matt Barnes are as important to the fabric of the game as the players who are better than any of us who love this game could ever be, even in our fantasy moments. I suspect that you are more the starfucker type who feeds on celebrity and highlight reels but who is bored hy the ordinary players who make up most rosters and who doesn’t understand just how good you have to be to be considered an ordinary MLB player.
I still stand by what I said
They need to stop with the multitude of transactional articles about players you’ll likely only hear about on here and if they do make the majors they’ll just fizzle out
So let me get this right you only care to hear about 10% of what’s going on in the league and are upset that mlbtr goes in depth to what’s going on in the league. I don’t know if I’m in the minority but I appreciate that this kind of stuff gets covered. Check ESPN if you only wish to read headlines.
Ya gave it a good shot Matty. But you’re a 4 era dude who didn’t have a standout season. Take the money you made, and go into broadcasting.
Possible bullpen reclamation project for the Dodgers or Rangers ?
Enjoyed his time with the Sox. Got a ring. Tough when your body tries to shut you down with pain midpitch. Hope he can do a Daniel Bard.
Twins should give him a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. What I’d really like to see them do though is pick up a legit starter like Montgomery or something:)
Dombrowski might come calling.