3 former Red Sox failing miserably on their new teams

1. Matt Barnes hasn’t bounced back with Marlins after Red Sox trade

It feels like a decade ago — even if it was less than two years — that Matt Barnes was a legitimate All-Star out of the bullpen for Boston as he seemed to be putting it all together. The Red Sox brass clearly believed that too as they signed the righty reliever to a two-year, $18.75 million extension.

That worked out disastrously. Barnes declined dramatically over the second half of the 2021 season after his All-Star work early in the year and then, plagued by injuries and more struggles, 2022 only made matters worse. Things eventually came to a head in January when Barnes was DFA’d by Boston and traded to the Miami Marlins a week thereafter.

Right out of the gate, even with Miami limping to start the year, Barnes looked like he might be getting his groove back with two scoreless outings in which he pitched a full inning in each appearance, allowing a combined one hit and one walk with no earned runs.

Since then, though, things have started to fall apart a bit for Barnes in a manner that Red Sox fans are all-too familiar with. In his third outing of the year, he came in and gave up a home run and a walk that contributed to a blowout loss to the Mets. After a solid outing the next time out, he then gave up two hits and a run in his next appearance as well.

He seemed to be getting on track again but, in his most recent appearance gainst the Braves, he got rocked as he gave up four earned runs in one inning while allowing three hits and two walks. That ballooned his ERA to 5.23 and WHIP to 1.23 on the year.

Barnes clearly hasn’t fixed his issues with inconsistency and the costly blow-up outings. Not that anyone in Boston is surprised after watching him over the last year and a half.