The Red Sox have maintained they consider prospect Matt Barnes a starting pitcher. However, his performance Thursday against the Twins has opened the door for Boston to potentially consider Barnes as a bullpen option.
Barnes struck out three batters in two scoreless relief innings Thursday. His fastball reached 97 mph and he featured a tight breaking ball, per WEEI.com.
The Red Sox likely have just two spots in the bullpen open, but Barnes could change their plans. Barnes did make five relief appearances for Boston last season.
“If everyone was healthy, we probably viewed two spots in competition among a group of four or five,” manager John Farrell said. “Does an outing like last night increase the pool? I don’t know that we need to anoint that yet, but that was a really good outing to watch.
“I don’??t have a whole lot of history with Matt Barnes, but that was a different guy than even what we saw in September. Sometimes you look for silver linings in an otherwise frustrating year and talking with Matt Barnes, he has a better understanding of who he is as a pitcher, what’??s required at the major-league level and the constant focus and concentration needed, all those were talked openly by him. And he went out last night and demonstrated some of the things he learned last year. Breaking balls much tighter. I’??ve never seen that kind of velocity from him. He was a different guy last night.”