Austin Barnes

Austin Scott Barnes (born December 28, 1989) is an American professional baseball catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2015. In addition to catching, Barnes has also played as an infielder.

Austin Barnes
Los Angeles Dodgers – No. 15
Catcher / Second baseman
Born: (1989-12-28) December 28, 1989
Riverside, California
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
May 24, 2015, for the Los Angeles Dodgers
MLB statistics
(through August 13, 2020)
Batting average.229
Home runs18
Runs batted in86
Teams

Career

Amateur career

Barnes was born in Riverside, California[1] and attended Riverside Polytechnic High School. He played college baseball at Arizona State University for the Arizona State Sun Devils from 2009 to 2011.[2] Before his sophomore season in 2010 he moved from infield to catcher.[3] During his career he played in 109 games and hit .308/.379/.429 with two home runs.[1] For the Oklahoma City Dodgers, he played every position except pitcher.

Miami Marlins

Barnes was selected by the Florida Marlins in the eighth round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft[4] and made his professional debut that season for the Jamestown Jammers.[5] From 2012 to 2014 he played for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, Jupiter Hammerheads and Jacksonville Suns.[6] He split time between catcher and second base.[7]

Los Angeles Dodgers
Barnes with the Oklahoma City Dodgers at the 2015 Triple-A All-Star Game

On December 10, 2014, Barnes was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, along with Chris Hatcher, Andrew Heaney, and Enrique Hernández, in exchange for Dan Haren, Dee Gordon, Miguel Rojas and cash.[8] He was assigned to the AAA Oklahoma City Dodgers.[9] On May 23, 2015, he was called up to the Major Leagues for the first time when Yasmani Grandal went on the 7-Day DL with a concussion.[10] He made his MLB debut as the starting catcher for the Dodgers on May 24, 2015,originally wearing number 65.[11] and had one hit in three at-bats in his debut, with his first MLB hit being a single to center field off of Dale Thayer of the San Diego Padres.[12] He returned to Oklahoma City after his short time on the Dodgers roster and was named as a starter on the Pacific Coast League team for the mid-season Triple-A All-Star.[13] He was also named to the post-season PCL all-star team[14] and Baseball America's Triple-A All-Star team.[15] He rejoined the Dodgers in September[16] He played in 20 games for the Dodgers with six hits in 29 at-bats (.207).[17] In 81 games for the Oklahoma City team, he hit .315 with nine homers and 42 RBI.[6]

Barnes with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015

Barnes appeared in 21 games for the Dodgers in 2016, hitting .156[17] and 85 games for Oklahoma City, hitting .295. He changed his number from 65 to 28.[6] He also appeared in two games in the 2016 National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals, with one pinch hit appearance and one pinch run appearance.[18]

Barnes made the Opening Day roster as the backup catcher in 2017.[19] On June 30, 2017, Barnes recorded his first multi-homer game of his career (his first career grand slam and a three run home run) and recorded a career high seven RBIs against the San Diego Padres.[20] He gradually saw more playing time, moving into a platoon role with Grandal for most of the season before taking over as the starter in the playoffs.[21] During the regular season, he had a .289 batting average with eight home runs and 38 RBI in 102 games.[17] In the 2017 NLDS he had four hits in eight at-bats with a home run and a double in the Dodgers' three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks.[17] In the 2017 NLCS against the Chicago Cubs, he had two hits in 15 at-bats and in the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros, he had four hits in 23 at-bats.[17]

In 2018, Barnes started Spring Training battling elbow discomfort.[22] He ended up being the backup to Yasmani Grandal, taking over the catching role more in the Postseason when Grandal allowed two passed balls and made two errors in game 1 of the NLCS and another passed ball in game 3, resulting in Dodgers fans booing him and begging for Barnes to catch.[17] Barnes hit .205/.329/.290 in 100 games with 4 homeruns, 41 hits, and 14 RBI.[23] An elite framer, he excelled defensively.[17] He ranked third in the MLB for framing and defensive statistics, had a .993 fielding percentage, and allowed only one passed ball.[24] In the 2018 NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, Barnes had two hits in 18 at-bats.[17] In the 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, he was hitless in eleven at-bats.[25] His best game in 2018 came on September 4 against the New York Mets, where he crushed a two-run homerun, putting the Dodgers on the board for the first time in the game and ultimately leading to a 11-4 victory over the Mets.[17]

In 2019, Barnes was named the Opening Day starting catcher after Grandal signed with the Milwaukee Brewers. However, he got off to a slow start and on July 26 he was sent down to Oklahoma City to make room for rookie catcher Will Smith to take over the everyday catching duties. Barnes was batting .196 prior to being sent down.[26] He appeared in only 75 games in the majors in 2019, hitting .203,[17] while he hit .264 in 23 games in the minor leagues.[6] Barnes signed a one-year, $1.1 million, contract with the Dodgers after the season, avoiding arbitration.[27]

Nickname

Austin Barnes wore his rookie-year nickname "SAM" on his jersey during the 2018 MLB Players Weekend. This nickname originated when Barnes was sent on a taco run during spring training. Upon returning to the clubhouse, teammate A. J. Ellis joked that Chase Utley didn't know Barnes' name. Utley replied that he knows that it is Sam, and the name stuck.[28][29][30][31]

Personal life

Barnes is the nephew of former MLB infielder Mike Gallego.[32] His younger brother, Griffin, played catcher for Grand Canyon University and recently signed with the Los Angeles Angels.[33] His favorite actor is Will Ferrell and he enjoys playing golf in his free time.[34]

gollark: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no
gollark: Maybe I would get more people sending in security advisories if I had a page about where to send them, or possibly some scheme where people are paid in arbitrary points for them.
gollark: * not helpful EITHER
gollark: I mean, I don't agree with the arguments made, but the tone is not helpful.
gollark: (also what is *with* those URLs!)

References
  1. "Austin Barnes Baseball Statistics". Baseball Cube. Archived from the original on March 16, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  2. Metcalfe, Jeff (March 24, 2011). "ASU's Austin Barnes is locked in behind and at the plate". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  3. Metcalfe, Jeff (April 29, 2010). "Arizona State Sun Devils baseball's Austin Barnes making transition from infield to catcher". Arizona Republic. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  4. "2011 Florida Marlins picks in the June Draft". Baseball Reference. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  5. Eddy, Scott (July 23, 2011). "Barnes Finds Fit Behind The Plate". StarNewsDaily. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  6. "Austin Barnes minor league statistics & history". Baseball Reference. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  7. Lassen, David (July 5, 2012). "MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: Barnes succeeding at second, catcher". The Press Enterprise. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  8. Gurnick, Ken (December 11, 2014). "Dodgers adding Kendrick, Rollins in trades". MLB.com. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  9. Hoornstra, J.P. (April 7, 2015). "Revealed: Opening Day roster for Triple-A Oklahoma City". LA Daily News. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  10. Gurnick, Ken (May 23, 2015). "Grandal placed on 7-day concussion list". mlb.com. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  11. Stephen, Eric (May 24, 2015). "Dodgers notes: Austin Barnes debuts, Juan Uribe's diminished role, Yasmani Grandal on the mend". SB Nation. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  12. "Padres 11, Dodgers 3 play-by-play". mlb.com. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  13. "Four OKC Dodgers Named to Triple-A All-Star Game". milb.com. July 1, 2015. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  14. Oklahoma City Dodgers (August 31, 2015). "OKC DODGERS CATCHER BARNES NAMED TO ALL-PCL TEAM". milb.com. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  15. "2015 Minor League Classification All-Star Teams". Baseball America. September 11, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  16. Plunkett, Bill (August 31, 2015). "Dodgers' September call-ups begin arriving, including Austin Barnes for injured Kiké Hernandez". Orange County Register. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  17. "Austin Barnes Statistics & History". Baseball Reference.
  18. "2016 NL Division Series (3-2): Los Angeles Dodgers (91-71) over Washington Nationals (95-67)". Baseball Reference. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  19. Stephen, Eric (April 2, 2017). "Dodgers announce opening day roster, place 5 on disabled list". SB Nation. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  20. Stephen, Eric (June 30, 2017). "Austin Barnes powers Dodgers over Padres". SB Nation. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  21. McCullough, Andy (October 17, 2017). "Dave Roberts talks about Austin Barnes starting over Yasmani Grandal". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  22. McCullough, Andy (February 22, 2018). "Dodgers Catcher Austin Barnes dealing with elbow discomfort". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  23. Minami, Craig (December 24, 2018). "2018 Dodgers Review:Austin Barnes". SB Nation. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  24. Carruth, Matthew (2018). "StatCorner Catcher Report". StatCorner. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  25. "Austin Barnes". Baseball Reference.
  26. Castillo, Jorge (July 26, 2019). "Rookie Will Smith to be Dodgers' 'primary' catcher, Dave Roberts says". LA Times. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  27. Gurnick, Ken (December 2, 2019). "Dodgers avoid arb with Barnes, non-tender Yimi". mlb.com. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  28. "Dodgers' nicknames for 2018 Players' Weekend". MLB.com. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  29. "Dodgers' Players Weekend names breakdown". MLB.com. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  30. Schilken, Chuck. "MLB players get to wear nicknames on their jerseys for one weekend: So which Dodger is 'Dizzy'? Or 'Sam'?". latimes.com. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  31. fbihop (2018-08-10). "Ranking Players' Weekend Nicknames". True Blue LA. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  32. Whicker, Mark (July 4, 2017). "Austin Barnes and the tools of persistence". Orange County Register. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  33. Hauser, Josh (June 11, 2018). "Barnes signs with the Angels". Grand Canyon University. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  34. "Player Profile: Austin Barnes - Arizona State University Official Athletic Site". Arizona State University. April 17, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
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