The Mets have designated right-hander Jacob Barnes for assignment and recalled righty Sean Reid-Foley from Triple-A Syracuse, per a team announcement.
It’s been a rough showing for the 31-year-old Barnes with the Mets. In 18 2/3 innings, the former Brewers, Royals and Angels hurler has been tagged for 13 runs on 19 hits (six homers) and five walks. He’s punched out 18 batters and shown some of the best control of his big league career, but that penchant for serving up long balls has obviously outweighed any of the gains he might’ve expected from walking fewer batters.
From 2016-18, Barnes looked like he might emerge as a regular member of the Brewers’ bullpen. He tallied 147 1/3 innings of relief in that three-year stretch, posting a 3.54 ERA with respectable strikeout and walk percentages (24.4 and 9.9, respectively). Barnes has seen his velocity dip notably in the three years since that stretch, however, and dating back to Opening Day 2019 he’s been rocked for a 6.62 ERA in 69 1/3 innings across four teams.
The Mets will now have a week to trade Barnes or try to pass him through outright waivers. He’s on a $750K salary after avoiding arbitration over the winter, so while Barnes has the ability to reject an outright assignment based on service time, he’d quite likely accept in order to avoid forfeiting the rest of that payday.
Reid-Foley, 25, has been outstanding with the Mets thus far in 2021. The former Blue Jays righty has pitched 13 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and turned in a 1.98 ERA with 20 strikeouts against four walks.
What lands first, Barnes in AAA or Tatis’ salami from yesterday?
I bet if it were Brian O’Grady nobody would make such a big deal about it. Just sayin..
You seem like the kind of guy who complains about the music at parties.
Mets fan here, Barnes EASILY lands first. I think Tatis might be responsible for bringing down Musk’s rocket.
1 day too late
He hasn’t been particularly terrible, even though I have asked for his DFA a few times on this site. He has actually been pretty serviceable with a couple bad outings bloating his ERA, just goes to show just how much depth we have that we are cutting guys like this
No it doesn’t.
More Mets Hyperbole I see.
I’m just saying. The 2017-20 Mets would be clinging onto Barnes for dear life as their work horse. Now he’s expendable
Then I believe the phrase you were looking for was “this is how much we’ve improved from 2017-2020”. Saying that letting this guy go “just goes to show just how much depth we have” is far different than what you are now saying.
Yeah fair point. I probably could’ve worded it better. I still believe we have great depth based on the fact we hung onto first place with a AAA team it just wasn’t the right phrase for the sentence I was using it jn
It’s still early in the season. And if you Mets fans want to hang your hats on and hopes in the Mets sitting in first place, send a big thank you note to the Marlins bullpen. They are the real reason why the Mets are sitting in first place and the Marlins aren’t.
Keep dreaming you’re just as delusional as most Mets fans are. You think the Marlins bullpen is keeping them out of first? Maybe it’s the fact that there are 3 teams better than them in all facets of the game in the NL East (Mets, Phillies, Braves). I’m not saying the Mets will stay in first but there’s no way the Marlins are taking our lead lol
Waaaaaa. Every team has ups and downs with bullpens. Spare your what if’s and should haves. Real life is the Marlins are in 4th.
I swear MarlinsFanBase is the second biggest homer on this site, only rivaled by MetsFan22
The Marlins are practically in last place, dude. They could have a bullpen full of Mariano Riveras and still be under .500.
Mets have the 7th best bullpen ERA in the league (3.70). However, the Marlins are not far behind at 3.82 (10th best). Bullpen is not necessarily the problem. Overall, Mets have just been better. No ‘but if the Marlins were better, *they’d* be in first!’ nonsense. The Mets are just better.
8 blown saves in the 8th or later says different. 1 against the Mets in that Ron Kulpa/Michael Conforto game.
Do the math from there.
But keep telling us how the Mets are better than all of us. Maybe they’ll play like it when they face the Marlins next time because they haven’t shown the Marlins yet when they’ve played them…even with the healthy team.
The Marlins have been absolute pests for the Mets for years now. This year, it seems as though they’ve fallen apart. Doesn’t look too good for Kim Ng, does it?
@BobbyKidd1965
No, it doesn’t look too good for Kim Ng. She focused on bullpen this offseason, and that is the weakness on our team that has impacted our team negatively more so than anything else. And a lot of it has been the guys she brought in.
Her only saving grace is that Jeter runs the team on a committee and that there has been a lot of key injuries.
The positive in all of this is that we’re in a ‘no lose’ season since we’re still in a rebuild, and we have been in close games all season long due to our starting pitching. Not much to fix after this season – bullpen and adding about two, run producing, bats.
stick to threads about your 29-36 team you love so much. Get a life dude
@bryan c
What is the Mets Magic Number? I’m sure you and @MetsFan22 know it.
Marlins? Seriously?
@meckert
Do the math on the Marlins blown saves or are you one of those Mets fans that aren’t aware of anything outside of Metsland, even when the team has played your team and sits in your own division?
We’re a little too busy working and producing in the tristate area to notice anything that goes on in Florida which is too busy looking for handouts.
Is there even such a thing as a Marlins Fan Base?
If you watch the games you would see that Gsellman and Drew Smith have been arguably just as bad at Barnes, only difference is that Gsellman and Smith come in and give up runs from inheritted runners which is why their Era doesnt look bad
Six homers in eighteen innings he’s been terrible
Barnes has pitched into some bad luck, bad managment has basically ballooned his Era, wont give up many baserunners or walks but is prone to the homerun ball, DA because our awful manager brought him in with bases loaded agaisnt Fernando Tatis, him and Rojas should both be DA’d at this point
Yes indeed! Making a bad pitch that gets launched is all the manager’s fault.
Barnes tends to give up homeruns, we had Trevor May and Seth Lugo available to bring in with the bases loaded yet Rojas put in Barnes in a 2-2 game, a 5 year old could of telled that was a bad idea
That’s fair, but what does that have to do with you saying that Barnes has pitched into some bad luck? These are two different things.
Man what is your thing? I come to this site all the time but rarely read the comments, because when I do it’s always this guy, one of the four Marlins fans, pissing all over the Mets for whatever reason. It’s pretty pathetic honestly, although I guess kind of funny at the same time.
@nyr2k2
Get to know @MetsFan22 and that will clarify everything for you.
Yeah that guy is…something else, for sure. I get it. It’s just funny because I know anything Mets-related will invariably have you in here doing your thing. Anyway, keep fighting the good fight, whatever that is! LOL.
Lugo, Loup and Diaz had all pitched back to back days. That’s why Rojas pushed Familia then brought in Barnes after Familia walked in a run. Familia was so close to getting out of the inning with a 2-1 lead before running out of gas. He couldn’t get Profar to bite on a slider.
Familia should have been the closer last night
Telled* lol
He has to do it. His team is pathetic every year so he needs something to talk about. The Marlins, from the top down (owners/on-field product/fans), are one of the biggest jokes in professional sports so he’s got a chip on his shoulder.
@MarlinsFanBase- And how are you any different? Any Mets story has you in here trolling. Sure the Mets in seasons past under the Wilson’s provided a lot of material for comment, but let’s face facts, the Marlins are not the poster child for a successful franchise either. And don’t harp about making the playoffs last year. A 60 game stretch does not make a season.
Here is reality. Your team is 8 games out of first place. The Mets held onto to first place sporting a AAAA lineup for most of May. They just took 4 out of 7 games from the Padres.. I expect they will at least split the series with the Cubs. Are they the best team in baseball? Of course not. But they are better than the Marlins. Don’t believe me, then how about Fangraphs. They project the Marlins to win 45 games going forward and end the season with 74 wins. The Mets project to 91. The Mets playoffs odds today stands at 85.4%, the Marlins at .03%. Barring a major run by the Marlins, your team is going to be out of it by the all star break..
Would they take tyler webb for barnes? Change of scenery for both guys?
No I don’t think they want a terrible player in exchange for a really bad player. Scenery has nothing to do with it.
Rojas deserves some heat here- he’s been using this guy in high leverage spits he’s had no business being in. Got lucky a few times but ultimately he is not material for a championship
I dunno what it is but pretty much every manager seems to suck at bullpen management.
For a split second, I was reading that as a different Mets Jacob being DFA’d. But today is not April 1.
I’m surprised by this every team needs to have one goat around to blow games when necessary. This guy was doing an excellent job honestly. You get that call from vegas and have to tank this guy gets up in the pen.
He wasn’t doing an excellent job. He was the last guy in the pen. He definitely shouldn’t have been pitching in a pressure situation, but the pen has been taxed lately. Reid-Foley is better anyway, he might even be better than Lucchesi
I think he means Barnes has been doing an excellent job blowing games.
I can see Barnes getting claimed for that small of a salary.
on the bright side – it pretty much cements the decision to get bullpen help at the deadline. Fool’s gold waiting on Carrasco and Thor. You plan around them and jump for joy if they contribute meaningfully. Thor maybe can be a late season/postseason boost to the bullpen, but I would seek help anyways. The thought of Lugo-Thor-Diaz leading the bullpen with another SP picked up by deadline makes them dangerous. I am not confident in counting on Jacob-Stroman-Walker as my big 3. Have probably seen the best from all 3 of them already. Mets would be foolish to not augment.
They’ll probably make a move. I just hope they don’t give up any prospects of value
What big top of the rotation starter do you expect to be available later thus year? Please don’t say Matt Boyd or Danny Duffy. MadBum is old, but he might be juiced by another playoff run if he has anything left. You can win playoff series with 3 good starters, and they are in place right now. Peterson has to figure out how to be consistent, but the Cubs aren’t exactly chopped liver, and Lucchesi shut down the Padres who again are a good lineup. Fine tune the bullpen with a trade, and certainly keep Reid-Foley or Yennsy Diaz around, and who knows how this plays out.
The Mets should pursue a trade for an optionable pitcher, maybe Kaleb Ort with the AAA Red Sox. Barnes has had a bad outing or two, but is the equivalent of Matt Andriese, and probably could use a change of scenery.
I don’t get the whole “change of scenery” thing. Sure on rare occasion there may be an issue and a good player may have problems with a team and therefore benefit from a change but it’s the exception not the rule. Bad players don’t become good because they change location. Don’t understand why so many fans think this is a thing.