The Cardinals and utility man Jose Barrero are in agreement on a minor league deal, according to a report from Francys Romero. Per Romero, the deal also includes an invite to big league Spring Training.
Barrero, 27 in April, came up in the Reds organization and received some top-100 prospect buzz following his debut in the shortened 2020 season despite hitting just .194/.206/.194 in 24 games that year. He never quite lived up to that promise as he struggled to establish himself offensively at the big league level, slashing just .184/.248/.267 in the majors from 2021 to 2023 with Cincinnati. Despite that lackluster offensive production in the majors, he has shown some signs of life at the Triple-A level throughout his career. In particular, Barrero hit an impressive .258/.333/.540 with 19 homers, 17 doubles, and 20 stolen bases in just 334 trips to the plate at Triple-A Louisville during the 2023 campaign.
That was Barrero’s final season with the Reds, as he was designated for assignment in March of 2024 when Cincinnati decided he wouldn’t make the club’s active roster despite having no minor league options remaining. That led him to be plucked off waivers by the Rangers, although he was once again designated for assignment in the run-up to Opening Day in order to make room for Jared Walsh on the club’s roster. This time, however, he went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A. Unfortunately for Barrero, he wouldn’t crack the majors with the Rangers as he hit just .188/.277/.346 in 49 games with the club’s Round Rock affiliate in an injury plagued season that saw his season debut delayed until May and his final game played on July 4.
Now that Barrero is presumably healthy, however, he elected free agency earlier this month and hit the open market for the first time in his career. That opened the door for him to sign on with the Cardinals, who enter the winter facing plenty of uncertainty as trade rumors swirl around veteran players such as Nolan Arenado. Given the possibility of trades from the club’s positional corps this winter, adding a versatile defender like Barrero could make sense as a potential bench option should he perform in the spring, or even as a non-roster depth piece to protect against injury throughout the year should he remain in the minors.
Barrero’s path to playing time in St. Louis is somewhat complicated, however. The 26-year-old has primarily played shortstop and center field to this point in his career, but the Cards have rookie Masyn Winn locking down shortstop while defensively-gifted youngsters Michael Siani and Victor Scott II figure to vie for regular playing time in center next year. Even so, Barrero could find use as a versatile utility option, as he’s played every position besides first base and catcher throughout his career. It’s even possible that Barrero, should he make his way onto the St. Louis roster next year, finds some playing time as a platoon partner for either Siani or Scott in center field, as both are left-handed hitters with unimpressive offensive numbers against southpaws.
This is gonna put them over the top.
Plan the parade.
How dare a possible Cubs fan write about the Cardinals making a transaction!! I’m going to write my congressman after I stop crying, I don’t want the ink to bleed.
A possible Cubs fan? As in you are possibly a troll?
This is minor league depth and the author is speculating that this has some impact on the big league team lol.
He’s failing to do a bit. Just move along
He will take away AB’s and PA’s from Luken Baker.
How would that happen?
Contreras will already be doing that.
This must be about getting a right handed center option. The Cardinals are piling up infield options.
If barrero is a major league option at CF for your team, you are going to be very disappointed in the season. He has no range at all and takes awful routes. He only has a decent arm.
He’s a minor league 4th outfielder. Nothing to see here.
If Masyn Winn follows in the footsteps of Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, the Cardinals can use Barrero to take over the shortstop position.
You mad bro?
I’ve always liked Winn the best of all of them. He has the tools and carries himself very well.
Someone’s gotta play AAA baseball
I’ve heard rumors that Donovan may be on the trading block. Why, I don’t know. He’s the Cardinals utility player. Even has a gold glove for it, and a finalist for it this past season.
Trading Donovan would be idiotic imo. He gives 110% on every play, every at bat, etc. We sure can’t have someone like that around.
He’s cheap enough and versatile enough that I don’t see them trading him unless someone is willing to overpay in good prospects.
Donovan is a nice to have player in a good team. He’ll be 28 going into next season. The Cardinals are going to be bad for the next several years. They are better off trading him for a couple lottery pick type players that have high upside but question marks. They need to be acquiring as many of those as possible and hope to get lucky with one or two. They need a lot of help to replace the current minor league system that is full of old players for the minors. Keeping A player who is good because he has to give 110% does nothing for the current team and its future.
There’s a hot take i didn’t need……
What are you talking about? The Cardinals are only going to be bad at worst (if not entirely decent and maybe even a surprise contender) next year, then they’ll be good again in 2026 or 2027 at the latest.
Besides, with 3 years of control left and reasonable projected arb salaries, Donovan is the kind of player even consistently bad teams keep around.
He’s just a weirdo Cubs fan hoping the Cardinals trade Donovan so maybe the Cubs can finish with a better record than the Cardinals in 2025.
There are a lot of assumptions there. Mostly wrong. But I am confident the Cubs will have no problems have a better records than the Cardinals next year. The Cardinals have a serious problem scoring runs and that’s not going to get better anytime soon. I think Winn gets up to 20HRs next year at the sacrifice of his average. And that’s fine he and Contreras while he’s still here, ware all they have.
Were you confident of that last year too?
I am confident the Cubs will find a way to play below expectations. Because thats what they do.
Yes I was. I believed the Cardinals would finish in last place and the Pirates would push for the last wild card. I think Pittsburgh will win the division next year, Cardinals in last. I’ll order the remaining season after the offseason.
I love how blind faithful fans are quick to call anyone with a more realostic opinion cubs fans. It’s quite silly when you think about it.
If the Cardinals are so bad then what are the Cubs? The same team without the history of winning?
You are either a Cubs fan or a Cardinal hater. You have a pattern of showing up in Cardinal posts and saying ignorant things. Feel free to clarify where your hate comes from.
Mozaliak. I gave up my season tickets back in 2017. Had them for more than a decade. Told them I’ll be back when he’s gone. Now they brought in Bloom so, I’ll be saving my money for few. Ore years.
The Cubs are a team that have apt of the pieces in place, a highly ranked farm system and the means to supplement in free agency. At this point they are better positioned for more success than the Cardinals.
Oh you are one of those…….
Some Cardinal fans have a sense of entitlement. That’s not what sports are about. If you only like baseball when your team wins then you really don’t like baseball you just like winning.
The Cubs have been better positioned for numerous years yet they find a way to underperform. You could see that if you opened your eyes.
Entitlement…. I suffered through the early 90’s like a champ.
You weren’t a season tickets holder.
No, not in the early 90s. But I was from the start of the 2005 season to the end of the 2016 season.
Yeah you were there for the good years. Me too. Didn’t make me entitled……
I’m not sure what makes me entitled. Just because I could see the fraud Mozaliak is and the demise of this team so long ago?
This is an interesting argument. I have no problem with a fan deciding they don’t want to spend thousands of dollars and hours upon hours watching a team, for ANY reason. That’s big-time commitment.
I also find it interesting that you label Mozeliak a fraud – he was heavily involved in running one of the most successful franchises for 15+ years. They failed in their strategic adjustments to the Cubs resurgence in 2015 and have not really recovered from that, but he isn’t a fraud. Just not all that great since…well the inflection point was really 2015-2017. Not considering Max Sherzer, signing Dexter Fowler, trading for Ozuna. That stuff. Trying to hard to keep up with the Cubs and making some poor decisions in order to do so.
The Arenado and Goldy trades have been bright spots, along with some other moves – even with their current decline.
That all depends on who you think was actually making all the player decisions while TLR was here. I believe TLR was running everything and Mozaliak was just there to take care of all the paperwork. TLR leaves and Mozaliak tries to show he can do it his way. And the club has been declining ever since, more and more each year as TLRs guys cycled out of the organization.
The Ozuna trade was fine. His mistake was not being able to keep Ozuna around. In hindsight, he’s been the RBI machine this team has needed for several years. He was able to get Goldschmidt and Arenado. However, the Diamondbacks and Rockies were in similar situations where the Cardinals were really the only trade partner for them. The Cardinals had been the benefactors of being the best team in a terribly bad division for much of the last decade, beating up on the Reds, Cubs and Piarars for close to 40 games a year. While they consistently struggled with any team outside of the division. They rested on that. Now the other teams have passed them by with player talent, coupled with the balanced schedule, and real Cardinals have shown through over the past two years.
I hold steadfast with my fraud statement.
Then you’re not rational. The moon’s up there in the sky if you fancy a good howl.
I actually kinda agreed with you because he is older and right now if you can get something good for him maybe trade him…then you said for a couple of lottery picks lol…Donovan is a stud and will command more then a couple lottery picks lmao
I think stud is a bit strong. He’s a 2.5 WAR player. I think 2-3 18-19 year old high ceiling players would be about right in a return. That’s at least what they should be targeting if they are trying to fix the minors.
Even as a reds fan I’ll still root for Jose even with the Cards. Awesome dude hoping he finally fulfills that potential were ever it may be
In your opinion what wrong with him?