Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes
This one shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone that follows this site, or well, the Red Sox in general. I think fans of this team have a real love-hate relationship with Matt Barnes and I’m one of them. When he’s clicking and firing on all cylinders, as he was during the early parts of 2019, I want him out there every night. But when he can get overworked or just doesn’t have it, which is a lot of the time, I want him far away from Fenway Park.
Barnes will be a free agent after next season and commands a $3.1M salary which will likely increase through arbitration ahead of 2021. I think the righty has tons of potential, but that can only get you so far when you’re outing tends to be more Jekyll than Hyde.
He tends to finish the area in the mid-3.00’s as far as his ERA is concerned and has a career 4.12. This is why his current 5.54 is alarming, throw in his near career-high 1.615 WHIP, and Barnes felt marked for a trade.
His salary isn’t too high to the point where teams would want to stay away and with a year of control left, it felt perfect for Bloom to package Barnes for another team. The reliever has a gnarly curveball and a heater that can touch 100mph, unfortunately, they’re neither pitch is the most reliable and can cause some traffic on the basepaths.
I really thought Chaim was going to find a new home for Barnes but it looks like we’re going to have to wait until Winter.