Former Gold Glove catcher Tucker Barnhart is set to retire, as agent Steve Rath of the Ballengee Group tells Robert Murray of FanSided. Barnhart played for the Reds, Tigers, Cubs, Diamondbacks, and Rangers across his 12 seasons in the majors.
Born and raised in Indiana, Barnhart was drafted by the Reds in the tenth round of the 2009 draft out of Brownsburg High School, just two hours from Cincinnati. As a high school catcher, his path to the big leagues was a long one. Barnhart didn’t make his debut until 2014, and only appeared in 21 games when he did finally make it to the show. The 2015 season saw him take on a much larger role, however, as Devin Mesoraco was sidelined by injury. That left the catcher position to Brayan Pena and Barnhart, the latter of whom proved to be a strong defender but hit a fairly lackluster .252/.324/.326 in 81 games.
Despite that unimpressive offense, Barnhart’s work behind the plate was impressive enough that he became Cincinnati’s primary catcher starting in 2016. His offense trended upwards enough from 2016 to 2018 that he was more or less on par with the average catcher in the league (87 wRC+), and he won the first Gold Glove award of his career in 2017 amid a 3.6 bWAR season. That 2017 campaign was enough to convince the Reds to sign Barnhart to a $16MM extension, locking him in with the club for at least the next four seasons. His offense took a step backwards starting in 2019, as he hit just .235/.318/.375 (79 wRC+) over his final three seasons with the Reds, but he remained a stalwart defender and won his second career Gold Glove during the shortened 2020 season.
After parts of eight seasons in Cincinnati, Barnhart was traded to Detroit ahead of the 2022 season, giving the Tigers the opportunity to exercise a $7.5MM team option on his services for that year. Barnhart struggled in his lone season with the club, however, hitting just .221/.287/.267 (67 wRC+) while his defense behind the plate slipped somewhat. Barnhart was still able to secure a two-year, $6.5MM guarantee from the Cubs that offseason, but he posted just a 55 wRC+ in 43 games before being designated for assignment by the club. Since then, Barnhart has caught for the Diamondbacks and Rangers in the majors after singing minor league deals with both organizations and also spent a brief stint in the Dodgers’ farm system. He’s appeared in 39 MLB games over the past two seasons with a .181/.294/.213 that’s offset somewhat by his continually solid defense.
Barnhart was let go by the Rangers earlier this month but re-signed with the club on a minor league deal shortly thereafter. Evidently, he’s decided he’d rather call it a career than play out the season in the minors. He’ll finish his career with 920 games played in the majors, two Gold Glove awards, 6.9 bWAR/5.8 fWAR, 662 hits, and 53 home runs. He hit .241/.318/.351 overall during his time in the majors. MLBTR congratulations Barnhart on a fine career in the majors and wishes him all the best in whatever comes next.
Best Reds catcher this century yet terrible in strat o matic.
You should check out Clutch Baseball, its a nice mix of strat and similar to the old MLB Showdown.
Ryan Hannigan
That’s a weird way of spelling Tyler Stephenson
Or even, yes small sample size, Jose Trevino who is having a spectacular season this year.
I can relate to being mid thirties and being tuckered out. But for real solid job notching 2 gold gloves.
He’s all Tucker-ed out.
Solid career with 30m in the bag, just under 10 years of service time I think but dude did well at the big league level. Congrats on a nice career!
Pension-related, a player gets 2.5% of his full pension for every 43 days on a major league roster.
He came into the season guaranteed 97.5% of his pension with 9 years and 148 days service time.
Looks like he was on the ML roster from 5/1-5/30. That puts him over 10 years and gets him 100% pension.
Hall of Fame, right?
I was just about to say that lol. Seeing those silly comments about “decent” or “very good” players getting hof talk is laughable. But I guess that’s the state of baseball we’re in now.
It’s like the comment section thinks it’s the Veteran’s Committee.
Maybe the Reds Hall of Fame someday. He’d be happy with that.
As for the other one in New York, I think people get too caught up in their favorite made up stats and forget about the fame part of Hall of Fame.
Valenzuela had it. Parker had it. To me, Dale Murphy did, though the Superstation helped in his case. If you dominated the game at some point in your career for a good period, that’s a good indication. Just my take on it.
So you have to manufacture an issue when literally NO ONE is saying he’s HOF worthy …
Doesn’t even confirmation bias require some tiny bit of confirmation? I guess that’s the state of baseball discussion we’re in now.
yeah, I’d give my left nut to have had the career Tucker Barnhart had. great job Tucker. best of luck with whatever you choose to do next. .hopefully it’s coaching and sharing the knowledge you’ve gained over the years with the next generation.
Okay, Dennis Leary.
Narrowly missed Mathis-ing in 2022 by 1 OPS+ point and never got a chance to get close afterward. Wishing him the best.
I always liked Tucker, great catcher. Offense came and went but the defense was always there.
Congrats on your retirement. Maybe you’ll get a cooking gig somewhere since you enjoy it so much.
Let the managerial career commence.
He was a good back up catcher for some very bad Red teams. It would not surprise me if he is hired in some capacity with the Reds soon
Enjoy your retirement Indiana Mr. Baseball…
Good luck Tucker!