The phone call came from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner shortly after Jacob Barnes had been claimed off waivers by the Mets. After the usual pleasantries and basics, it shifted quickly.
“We got on to the analytics of my stuff, and he started saying some things, and I was like, ‘Wait, what?’” Barnes said over the phone from Port St. Lucie last week. “I was absolutely confused because prior to coming over here, I was never given that knowledge or that information to be able to use. So obviously it caught my interest quick.”
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The two talked for over an hour. They’d catch up a few more times over the winter, each time Barnes learning more and more about what Hefner had seen in him and what he could be with New York.
In previous stops with the Brewers, Royals and Angels, Barnes has relied on a single plan of attack: throw four-seam fastballs down and away to right-handed hitters, and work off that pitch with precision command of his east-west breaking ball — something between a cutter and slider. Hefner told him to be more open-minded: Why couldn’t he throw that fastball in on occasion? What about working up in the strike zone to take advantage of his fastball’s natural ride? Had he thought about a change-up?
Barnes enthusiastically adopted Hefner’s suggestions during his offseason. He worked on holding that ride with his fastball even in games of catch. He tinkered with a change-up he had scrapped years earlier that could work well off a more elevated fastball.
“It’s stuff that I already do. It’s not me changing how I throw a fastball. It’s just, ‘Hey, you can throw it at this spot or that spot’ instead of just throwing it down and away,” he said. “It will benefit me because now a high fastball, you can basically start a cutter or a slider off that same line and then it breaks below the bat. That just gives me more room instead of having to go down-and-away fastball and then that slider has to be perfectly executed down and away and only an inch or two off or else they won’t swing. If I throw it high, they have to be aware of that and then I’ll get them to chase more of that stuff.”
Barnes was confident in his offseason work, helped by mound sessions with his new catcher, James McCann, in Nashville. But that’s still not the same as going up against major-league hitters.
“It didn’t really click fully until I started facing live batters,” Barnes said of this spring. “That’s kind of how I learn things. I can be told a lot of things and I can understand it, but for me to fully believe in it, I have to see it. When I was seeing some of those guys swinging straight under the fastball and I’d throw that split-change off that and they’re spinning around like, ‘Wait what is that?’ That’s when I thought this has to be working.”
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Hefner singled out Barnes as an impressive pitcher early in camp. Barnes was unconcerned when his first Grapefruit League inning didn’t go well; he allowed six base runners while recording only two outs, with the inning rolled over. In his three Grapefruit League outings since, he’s allowed two hits and struck out four.
Better for him, he’s generating the swings and misses he wants up in the zone and working his breaking ball and split-change-up off that fastball.
Barnes is part of an initially large but currently diminishing group of relievers competing for one of the two to three open spots in New York’s bullpen. His performance this spring, Hefner’s recommendation and his lack of minor-league options all combine to give him a decent chance of being in Washington on Opening Day.
And if Barnes does excel with his new style, it’s a win for Hefner. The Mets have not been an organization considered at the forefront of analytics and player development. Yet here was the veteran Barnes engaging with information he hadn’t been told about before. When New York hired Hefner as its pitching coach, it lauded his abilities as a communicator, as a conduit who could make more advanced analytical concepts digestible for players. That’s exactly what he’s been for Barnes.
“I even told him after (that first phone call), ‘I don’t think I’ve talked to pitching coaches for this long in my career,’” Barnes said. “I was shocked with how simple he made it and how easy he’s able to communicate the human side of the game and connect it with the analytical side of the game.”
About lineup construction …
Talking about the team on the other side of town, The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler provided useful context for why the Yankees want Aaron Hicks hitting third. It’s not just to have the switch-hitting Hicks break up New York’s long string of right-handers, but also because of Hicks’ ability to stay out of the double play. The third spot in the order bats more often with a runner on first and fewer than two outs than any other spot.
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When I did my own dive into the Mets’ batting order 10 days ago, I had placed Francisco Lindor in the third spot. A big part of my thought process was the same superficial one as the Yankees have employed with Hicks: Lindor is a switch-hitter to break up New York’s string of lefties. And when I read Lindsey’s story, I figured this probably provided another advantage of hitting Lindor third. Surely, the relatively swift shortstop is better at avoiding double plays than the other candidates for that spot, right?
Alas …
Here are the double-play rates for the Mets’ presumed eight Opening Day starters over the past three seasons, with Lindor the second likeliest to ground into a pair of outs.
Player | Opportunities | GIDP | DP% |
|---|---|---|---|
174 | 25 | 14.4 | |
232 | 26 | 11.2 | |
196 | 21 | 10.7 | |
292 | 27 | 9.2 | |
104 | 9 | 8.7 | |
208 | 17 | 8.2 | |
134 | 10 | 7.5 | |
193 | 10 | 5.2 |
It’s even worse if we focus on just the past two years, in which Lindor has grounded into a double play in an even 15 percent of his opportunities (21 out of 140).
This is a theoretical exercise in the moment because manager Luis Rojas has already stated his preference for a top two of Brandon Nimmo and Lindor. He’s been less consistent with the third spot, hitting both Michael Conforto and Dominic Smith in that spot during those past 10 days.
What did the Mets get out of facing Max Scherzer Sunday?
The compact schedule this spring means Jacob deGrom’s last two scheduled spring starts would both happen against the Nationals — against whom he’s slated to start Opening Day. Of course, the reality is the same for Scherzer, whom the Mets knocked around for four runs on six hits in five innings Sunday.
“I think he was holding back some stuff,” said Conforto, who homered off Scherzer in the game. “Sitting at 92, he’s probably not showing us his best stuff being 10 days away from seeing him again. We got a little taste of it at times today. Some of his breaking pitches and his good change-ups. But when he comes with the 96-97, all the rest of his pitches play up, so we’ve got to be ready for that.”
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The Mets and Nats are lined up to play again on March 26, six days before the start of the regular season. That’s when deGrom is going to pitch next, though Rojas has left open the possibility he’d just get some work in on a back field that day.
One more word on the opener …
When I wrote about the possibility that the Mets pair Joey Lucchesi with an opener late last week, I mentioned Barnes as a candidate to be that starting reliever, noting the one unsuccessful time he’d done it with Milwaukee. Well, there was more to that story.
“Chase Anderson was supposed to start that game. Apparently, he had a blister issue, and 10 minutes before the game started, he said something about that blister,” Barnes recalled. “So they come into the clubhouse, and I’m still in my shorts, and I get called that I actually have to start the game. I didn’t get much warmup. I threw maybe five to 10 balls, and I was in the game. The first two guys I walked on like nine pitches.”
(The fourth batter hit a three-run homer.)
Despite that poor experience, Barnes said he’d be open to it if the Mets asked.
“It might have a spring training feel to it where early in camp you might throw the second or third inning. I feel like you would just do your normal prep,” he said. “I’m not opposed to it at all.”
(Photo of Jacob Barnes: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
