Barreto, who went 1-for-3 with a run in Thursday's 9-4 Cactus League loss to the Rangers, is hitting .308 (4-for-13) with two triples, one home run, three RBI, a stolen base and five runs over his first five spring training games.
The 22-year-old shortstop is once again showing well in spring play following a 2017 exhibition slate in which he slashed .481/.500/.667 with a triple, a home run and five RBI over 16 games. Barreto was nowhere near as successful in his regular-season major-league stint last season, however, generating a .197/.250/.352 line in 76 plate appearances. Strikeouts have proven to be a bit of an Achilles' heel for him at the Triple-A level (27.6 percent whiff rate over 510 plate appearances with Nashville in 2017), and unsurprisingly, the issue was exacerbated against big-league arms last season, leading to Barreto going down on strikes in almost half his plate appearances (43.4 percent). Consequently, contact rate and pitch selection will undoubtedly continue be priorities for him, and improvement in both areas figures to be key in him getting to and sticking on the major-league roster at some point in 2018.