7:40 PM: Barnes’ new deal is worth $7MM over the two years, giving the backup catcher a slight yearly raise over his current $2.65MM salary, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (via Twitter).
2:40 PM: The Dodgers and catcher Austin Barnes have agreed to a two-year contract extension, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The financial terms of the deal aren’t yet publicly known. Barnes was slated to reach free agency at the end of this season but will instead stick around Los Angeles a while longer.
Barnes is already in his eighth season with the Dodgers, where he’s found the rare situation of being both a backup and a franchise stalwart. Barnes has never had more than 262 plate appearances in a given season. For his career, he currently owns a .224/.334/.356 line across 1,242 plate appearances. Of course, the Dodgers value him for his defense and intangibles more than his offensive prowess.
The Dodgers thought enough of Barnes that they sent top prospect Keibert Ruiz to the Nationals to acquire Trea Turner and Max Scherzer. One can’t help but wonder if they might at some point do the same with prospect Diego Cartaya. Cartaya coincidentally left today’s game with an injury, though that had no bearing on this deal.
Blake Snell must be real happy for his daddy.
You are the reason why dateline became so popular.
Why?
He work well with the pitchers and kershaw loves him
Will Kershaw be back after this season? I doubt anyone knows the answer to that question, including Kershaw. I don’t think it was part of the reason they signed Barnes to the extension.
It’s a little pricey by BUC standards, although the Dodgers shouldn’t be operating like other teams, and of course they don’t. They can afford to pay more for a BUC they like.
He’ll go year to year with the Dodgers until he feels he’s not able to contribute, then retire. Every year when he doesn’t retire the completely unfounded Texas rumors will start up right on cue.
Wonder what this means for Diego Cartaya.
Is he about to be traded.
He did get pulled early today. So did Soto so that must be the case lol
According to Spotrac site Soto exited Sunday’s tilt versus the Marlins due to a lower-body injury
Cartaya is only 20 years old and still in A Ball, he is likely at least 2 years away at the earliest which would coincide with the end of Barnes’ contract and the last remain couple of trips through arbitration for Smith. The Dodgers have no need to rush Cartaya to the Major Leagues
This is the answer. But that injury to Cartaya concerns me.
Barnesy has been a great backup since he came up, glad to see this
Barnes is a good man to have around, but the timing is a little strange.
Doesn’t seem to make much sense. Why not trade him and bring up Cartaya?
It’s tricky I am a huge fan of Barnes and excited by possibilities of Cartaya but imagine getting Soto then Trey extends
How is that possible to have Trea, Soto and Betts. Money doesn’t fall from the sky.
Cartaya is at least a few years away. As long as Barnes doesn’t make too much he’s a great backup option.
I am so grateful for the way our club is run. So much talent coming thru.
Your right thou, it’s tricky to get the roster finances to balance. I think we have quite a few big decisions to make soon.
Elephant in the room is what to do with Cody. Love him but will his hitting come good? We also have some very good young arms not far away from being ready.
Does Clayton go around again?
David Price money coming off.
Do the young arms coming thru replace them?
If Kershaw wants to play the Dodgers will pay him.
The biggest decisions are Bellinger, Trea Turner, Buehler, and Urias. For me, i sign Turner and Buehler and let Bellinger and Urias go when the time comes
Rsox, at this point, I’d bet the dodgers do the exact opposite with that quartet…
Possibly. When Buehler comes back & how his arm is will tell a lot. Urias is steady as they go for now!
Urias and Trea
Cody controls his Dodger destiny. If he doesn’t get better no point taking about him. He’ll get shipped off or let him walk. At this point I don’t envision him being a long-term Dodger.
Clayton is far off his career peak. At this point as long as he wants to be a Dodger the Dodgers will accommodate that. Great thing about him is that he doesn’t want a contract that he can’t live up to so it will likely be a moderately priced shorter term deal.
Belli is a Boras guy. These are his last 2 seasons as a Dodger and his overall performance at the plate makes that a good thing. They wouldn’t dare trade him tho… the guy always has – arguably – THEE series-changing moment.
Trea… making it hard to say no to re-signing but his postseason play this year will set the roof. If I was a betting man, I’d say 2023: Trea is a Twin, Muncy is a Giant, and Justin Turner gets a pay cut.
Urias is here to stay. It’s Urias and Bueh.
Ah yes, let’s rush a catcher from A ball to the majors for no real reason, then be shocked when he flops
Cartaya is 2 to 3 years away yet.
Bring up a guy in High-A to sit on the bench. Does that make more sense than extending Barnes?
Awesome move. Kings of depth. Cartaya? If he is great he comes up and plays. This isn’t a problem it is why the Dodgers are great. Accumulate as much talent as possible and go from there.
Will Smith will eventually slide to DH.
Yeah and Trout will eventually retire. Serious observation.
No. Smith is fine as a catcher and like I’ve said before about position value if Smith slides to DH he loses a lot of value. Smith is so valuable because his bat is so good for a catcher. If he goes to DH he’s closer to barely above average for a DH.
They’ll have to make a decision about Cartaya vs Smith but that is a long time from now.
I think Will Smith ends seeing some 3rd base down the road. He’s already had some games this year as the DH to give him some rest from behind the plate.
Or smith is traded and would 2 years 11 million work
Yea World Series contenders regularly trade a top 5 catcher in the game mid season because of his backup’s contract status
Let’s take a guess. 2 years, $7 million.
So you think he passed on his best shot at free agency for less than the value of a single win, over 2 years?
Okay…. Sure.
I published a guess. What’s yours?
Two years, 12 million.
Barnes is at 4 WAR over his 8 year career. So he is basically a .5 WAR a season player. He is currently .2 WAR for 2022. So $7 mil for 2 years is exactly what he is worth.
Barnes might only average .2 bWAR a season, but there are two things you have to remember about bWAR and WAR in general. The first thing is that bWAR doesn’t include framing. fWAR does, and that clocks him in at 7.8. Barnes is also a second catcher and has just 454 career games played and 1242 plate appearances across those eight seasons. 37 players had more plate appearances between 2018 and 2019 than Barnes has had since 2015. He averages about 3.1 fWAR and 1.8 bWAR every 500 plate appearances.
At least 2/14
Thank you, Wolf. He’s probably at about 7 WAR if you count his framing. BR does not, but Fangraphs does and that’s where they have him at for his career. But I wouldn’t think that backup catchers get the full $8 million per WAR that we’ve been seeing on average the last few seasons. Manny Pina got 2 years, $8 million last offseason.
Home run by Donny! Great job dude
I can’t see it, but it feels like an acorn.
WAR is already a pseudo-stat and is worse than useless for evaluating catchers, no matter what flavor you choose. Listen to what pitchers say about how an intelligent catcher can contribute their success, and I’m not talking about fictional pitch-framing. Then you’ll know why some catchers remain in demand despite not hitting very much.
If we’re getting robo umpires as early as next season pitch framing will not be important. Handling pitchers is a plus but Barnes doesn’t throw out runners well and is up and down at the plate. Overall though he’s been a solid backup.
I’ve seen no real evidence that pitch framing even exists, and I’ve never heard a single plausible theory for why it might exist, let alone, what skill it requires. It’s a total junk stat, IMO. The pitcher interaction factors that really matter can’t be quantified, but ask pitchers whether they exist. They do, and this is why pitchers often develop such close working relationships with certain catchers. A vastly under-appreciated part of the game, especially today with the rush to attach numbers to everything.
Ah, but wait until the robo umps become sentient. Then the good framing catchers will start fooling them.
I don’t see why we’re reading more into this than what it is. Barnes is a quality 2nd catcher, and you don’t know how valuable those are until you need one. Cartaya is 20 years old and at advanced A. One doesn’t really have to do with the other outside of both being catchers.
This probably makes Barnes easier to trade now, as teams like to trade for players with some term left on their agreement. It would net LA a larger return if they were to trade him this offseason or during the 2023 season.
It’s also good insurance for LA should Smith get injured or if their catching prospects stall in the minors.
The only reason I’d see the Dodgers considering a Barnes trade is if another team approaches them with a really good offer, or if Cartaya moves up the organization faster than expected.
Good move. Austin is really valuable. I see Cartaya coming up and Will Smith playing 3rd in a couple years. Barnes is a great receiver and pitch handler. I’d like to see LA try to get one of Miami’s good young pitchers. Alcantara or Lopez would be excellent. A package of Pepiot, Pages and McKinistry might pry loose Sandy A.
I don’t see Miami giving up Sandy for that package. Pepiot & Pages are a nice start but the 3rd prospect would need to be much better then McKinstry if you ask me.
With Sandy being under affordable control for five more seasons after 2022, no way do the Marlins move him for anything less than an absoulte overpay. If the Dodgers wanted to pry him from the Marlins, it would probably take at least Lux as a headliner, along with Pepiot, Pages, and maybe even Busch.
No
He’s so bad. I get the pitch calling, frame rate, and defense part, but he can’t not hit at allllll. Good thing he’s a backup
…… a backup catcher should be good on defense…….
You just crapped on everything he does well, then claimed he sucks. The best pitcher of our generation prefers to pitch to him over Smith. That should say a lot…
That is such a peculiar thing. I recall Maddux and Bako, Wakefield and…whose the catcher that San Diego signed away and they traded back for him and Boston Police escorted him to Fenway to catch those Knucklers against the Yankees?
Just sayin, the “Personal Catcher” who is always offensively diminutive makes me ponder the defensive gains to the team he and especially the Ace provide…
Barnes has hit for a .661 OPS, .296 wOBA, and 87 wRC+ the past three seasons. The mean for all three of those stats the last three years for catchers is a .683 OPS, .299 wOBA, and an 88 wRC+. He’d currently be the starting catcher for a decent portion of MLB teams, including some competitve ones like the Astros, Twins, and Guardians. You’re very much undervaluing what he brings to the table.
Maybe not the twins because they could always start Sanchez
Sanchez and Barnes have idencial OPS’s, but you’re also getting a plus defender and framer with Barnes.
Technically not true. Hypothetically let’s say that there are 60 catchers, 2 per team. If his stats are below average he most likely would be worse than all starting catchers. Plus he would have a smaller sample size. That said, those numbers mean that his stats are pretty decent for a backup catcher which I think was your point.
Just started watching baseball?
A good backup catcher is worth his weight in sunflower seeds.
Bring up a guy in High-A to sit on the bench. Does that make more sense than extending Barnes?
There’s no Barnes trade in the wings or ever
Cartaya is playing in A ball right now
None of them are going anywhere the next 2.5 years outside the Dodger system
Crazy talk everywhere in this thread, must be a slow news day.
This is just a small housekeeping ext for a player that well deserves it
Yeah, I think there are some people reading too much into it. No way do the Dodgers trade Barnes, unless a team goes to the Dodgers and offers up multiple prospects (which isn’t happening). Cartaya is at least a year and a half away.
Exactly
Not a Dodger fans but Barnes is a good catcher, Will Smith is a better hitter but Barnes is a very good catcher
He works well with pitchers . Only reason he keep staying
I believe this deal makes sense and in part with Cartaya in mind, that’s about his most likely ETA, two years, or if even before then he can be mentored by Barnes and Smith. Barnes has a lot of intangible value and defensive value, plus the bonus of having some clutch postseason hits.
back in the day – the chances of a career low hitting, low power catcher and currently batting .188 would never get any kind of extension especially a salary increase to 3.5m for next two years — when the team has a top prospect although in lower minors.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I hope my employer gives me a similarly “slight raise” of $850,000 (32%).
I was just going to post something similar, italladdsup,
My comment is directed at the Writer of this article: Yo, IDIOT, 99% of the people reading your article probably make 10% (or less) of what Barnes just got as a raise. Don’t fall into the trap of referring to a raise of $850,000 a year as “a slight yearly raise,” just because many other players are making millions more than that.
Don’t lose sight of your readership when you right an article. 99.99% of the people reading your article would LOVE to get a raise of $850K to $3.5 Million. And most would LOVE to just make $850K a year. So, don’t insult your readership by acting like a raise of $850K (to a really crappy hitter) is an insignificant raise.
I agree that the wording “slight raise” is a misrepresentation. Baseball is sports entertainment where even rookies make $700K. A 32% raise of $850K from $2.65M to $3.5M is not slight, even within the context of the sport. That said, you calling the writer an idiot says much about you. Also, what the average reader here makes, or that Barnes, who is paid for his defense, is a “crappy hitter,” as you called him, has no relevance.