5 adjustments Red Sox can make to improve their roster

Red Sox should DFA Matt Barnes

Matt Barnes had been a valuable member of a lot of good Red Sox teams. He was their first-round pick in 2011, and in his nine seasons with the club, has accumulated over 400 innings, played a key part in the 2018 World Series run, and was even an All-Star closer just last year.

At a certain point, however, you need to face the facts. And the fact is that Barnes has been one of the worst pitchers in baseball since August of last year. In the 23 1/3 innings he’s pitched since August 4, he’s walked 16 batters and allowed 22 runs. He’s been so bad that he was removed from the Red Sox playoff roster last year and has been demoted to mop-up duty this season.

Beyond the raw numbers, Barnes just looks like a pitcher who is past his prime. His fastball has lost a mile and a half since last year and two and a half miles since 2019. His curveball has lost three miles per hour since 2018 and lost well over 100 RPMs just in the last year. At 31, it’s hard to see Barnes getting any semblance of his old stuff back.

The only thing holding the Red Sox back from cutting Barnes is money. Barnes signed a ill-advised contract extension last summer, and DFA’ing him would cost the Red Sox about $18 million over the next two years. Yet even that dead cash is a better alternative than keeping one of the worst pitchers in baseball on your roster for pedigree and money alone. If the Red Sox want to put the best team possible on the field, they would get rid of Matt Barnes.