Barnes declined an outright assignment to Triple-A Rochester and elected free agency Thursday.
The veteran reliever cleared waivers after Washington designated him for assignment earlier this week, but he will look for a job elsewhere rather than reporting to Rochester. Barnes put up an unsightly 6.75 ERA and 10:4 K:BB across 13.1 frames for the Nationals prior to being dropped from the 40-man roster and might be hard-pressed to find an organization willing to give him a major-league deal.