Red Sox 25 in 25: Matt Barnes

The BoSox Injection staff’s preview of the Boston Red Sox 25-man roster continues with a look at reliever Matt Barnes.

It’s unfair to pass judgement on the value of Matt Barnes based on what he has produced in his brief major league career because the Boston Red Sox haven’t exactly been fair in how they’ve treated his career.

Barnes has spent the last two seasons bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen. Last year he made 32 appearances for the Red Sox, including 2 starts, while making 5 starts for Triple-A Pawtucket among his 17 minor league appearances. When the big league club needed reinforcements for their overworked bullpen, Barnes was there. When call-ups and injuries depleted Pawtucket’s rotation depth, Barnes filled in. His versatility has been one of his greatest assets, as it allows the organization to plug him into whichever role they need him it at the time. Unfortunately what’s best for the team isn’t always what’s best for the player.

In the time that Barnes spent in the majors last season he produced an unappealing 5.44 ERA over 43.0 innings, but his constantly changing role should shoulder some of the blame. Both of his starts ended in disaster, as he gave up 11 earned runs over 10.1 innings between his two August starts. In the first start he cruised through the first few innings before being roughed up in the 4th. Five days later he recovered from a rocky first inning to blank the Kansas City Royals over four more innings before Salvador Perez chased him from the game with a three-run homer in the 6th.

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Spending the bulk of the year as a reliever prevented him from building the arm strength to go deep into games as a starter, which explains why he unraveled after the first few innings. Relievers can also get away with a limited arsenal, so Barnes didn’t have to work as much on developing his offspeed pitches in the bullpen. That backfired when he was forced to work through the order multiple times.

The Red Sox have no intention of repeating this mistake this year. They fully intend to allow Barnes to settle in as a full-time reliever, which should allow him to find a comfort zone knowing that his role isn’t expected to change again on the fly. The expectation is that this will lead to more consistent performances, thereby deflating his ERA to a more acceptable level.

Boston’s bullpen has been revamped with the additions of Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith, but Barnes will compete for a spot on the roster this spring. He won’t likely be trusted in many high leverage situations out of the gate, but the Red Sox won’t need him in those spots given their impressive depth of relievers. His history as a starter could also allow him to be used in multi-inning efforts, which he did 9 times out of the bullpen last year.

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Barnes will be one of the fringe candidates to make the Opening Day roster, but even if he does begin the year in Pawtucket we can still expect to see him up in Boston at some point this year.