Jacob Barnes starting to gain success in Mets’ bullpen

The Mets’ batters had been among the first to point out how good Jacob Barnes was looking early in spring training, after they faced the reliever in live batting practice on the back fields in Port St. Lucie.

In his first two Grapefruit League games, that didn’t exactly translate into results. Since then, however, opponents have started to see more of what Barnes’ teammates had earlier in camp. Barnes tossed a second straight perfect inning of relief Wednesday in the Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Marlins.

“He seemed tough to pick up, from watching the opposing batters’ swings today,” manager Luis Rojas said from Jupiter, Fla. “Starling Marte’s always comfortable at the plate and you saw him also taking some uncomfortable swings on his cutter/slider. So he threw really well.”

Jacob Barnes
Jacob Barnes
Getty Images

The Mets claimed the right-handed Barnes off waivers from the Angels in October, hoping they could help him rediscover the success he had earlier in his career and he, in turn, could add a weapon to their bullpen. The 30-year-old struggled in his last two seasons, posting a 6.75 ERA in 50 ²/₃ innings split between the Brewers, Royals and Angels. But in three seasons before that in Milwaukee, Barnes had registered a solid 3.54 ERA with 153 strikeouts 147 ¹/₃ innings.

Before Grapefruit League games began, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner singled out Barnes as a pitcher who had stood out early in camp. The two had spent plenty of time in the offseason talking about Barnes’ pitches and how they moved, with Hefner serving as something of a translator for analytics and how Barnes could use them to his advantage.

“The biggest thing, honestly, is just with the analytics and stuff like that, he’s made it pretty easy to understand how my stuff plays,” said Barnes, who struck out the side against the Astros last Thursday. “Up until this point, I didn’t really have that. So I was just going out there just assuming what worked and didn’t. He pretty much gave me a blueprint of, ‘This fastball works really well here and here and the slider [there].’ ”

Barnes also reintroduced a split-changeup to his repertoire and used it Wednesday to strike out Marlins prospect JJ Bleday.

“Just started messing with that and so far in camp, it’s been really good,” Barnes said. “[Hefner has] helped a lot, just kind of me developing and understanding more of how I can use my pitches.”

source: nypost.com