The Reds have signed catcher Tucker Barnhart to a minor league deal, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X. Barnhart was released by the Diamondbacks almost a month ago. He will presumably report to Triple-A Louisville at some point in the coming days, though he may also report elsewhere for a tuneup after having a few weeks off.
Barnhart, now 33, returns to the organization that he has spent most of his career with. He was drafted by the Reds in 2009 and played in the big leagues with them from 2014 to 2021. He got into 744 big league contests in that time, hitting .248/.324/.371 for a wRC+ of 82. He generally received strong grades for his blocking and work with the running game. His framing grades were poor early in his career but improved significantly starting in 2019.
Since leaving Cincinnati, his offense has fallen off from what was already a fairly low baseline. He was traded to the Tigers going into 2022 and hit .221/.287/.267 that year for a 61 wRC+. Despite that lackluster performance at the plate, the Cubs signed him to a two-year deal with a $6.5MM guarantee going into 2023. He hit .202/.285/.257 with the Cubs for a wRC+ of 53 and was released by August. He joined the Diamondbacks this year, with the Cubs still on the hook for the second year of his deal, but slashed .173/.287/.210 for a 51 wRC+ and got released last month.
All told, Barnhart has hit .208/.286/.255 in 527 plate appearances since the start of 2022 but his defensive work continues to get decent grades. There’s no real cost to the Reds, as the Cubs are still paying him for the latter portions of that two-year deal, so the Reds would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time he eventually spends on their roster.
The club has Tyler Stephenson and Luke Maile as their catching duo at the moment but lost a bit of depth recently. Austin Wynns has been the club’s third catcher for much of the year and he was recently up with the Reds while Maile was on the IL, but then Wynns himself hit the IL with a lat strain. Eric Yang was briefly added to the roster to cover for Wynns but then Maile came off the IL and Yang was outrighted.
With Wynns hurt, Stephenson and Maile are the only two healthy catchers on the 40-man. Barnhart will join Yang and P.J. Higgins as non-roster depth options who could be called upon if either Stephenson or Maile need to miss time again.
cr4
Been a rough season and I know he’s long past his prime but seeing a fan favorite come back gives our fanbase a smile for at least a second
b00giem@n
Agreed.
mrkinsm
He only needs about a month of mlb service time to fully vest his pension. The Reds can give it to him by calling him up late August and letting him hit .150 in a backup role for the rest of the season.
BPrice's 77 F-Bombs
Is Luke Maile going somewhere or what?
raulp
I don’t think so, need catching depth after Wynn being out for the season
Sean Lahman
Reds have a $3.5 million option for Maile next year, for what it’s worth.
This one belongs to the Reds
They should have no problem exercising that. He is a good second catcher to Stephenson.
raulp
Welcome home
Bart Harley Jarvis
Reunited and it feels so good…
Bart Harley Jarvis
You can never go wrong with a little Peaches and Herb.
Hammerin' Hank
Barnyard is back!!
cguy
Well if Tucker can play some 3rd base, he’s an upgrade over who’s at third now
This one belongs to the Reds
Good to see Tucker back. A heck of a just in case option.
BrandonGregory74
Not very often you get a GG Catcher off the couch. This is a pretty cool reunion.
Redstitch108* 2
Why?
DockEllisDee
Now bring back Kyle Farmer so they can morph into Kyler Farmhart