Washington Nationals Sign Veteran Reliever Jacob Barnes to Minor League Contract

Relief pitcher Jacob Barnes is set to join his 12th organization in the last six seasons, signing a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals on Friday.

The Washington Nationals and right-handed pitcher Jacob Barnes have agreed to a minor league contract, MASN Sports' Mark Zuckerman reported Friday morning.

The 33-year-old reliever has bounced around the league over the past few seasons, signing a handful of minor league deals along the way. He finished 2023 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Barnes went 0-1 with a 5.93 ERA, 1.537 WHIP, 5.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a -0.2 WAR last season.

Barnes was the Milwaukee Brewers' 14th round pick in the 2011 MLB Draft, and he spent the next few years in the franchise's farm system. The righty made his MLB debut in 2016, thriving out of the Brewers' bullpen for he next three seasons.

From 2016 to 2018, Barnes boasted a 3.54 ERA, 1.317 WHIP, 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings and 0.8 WAR in 149 appearances.

Barnes' production dipped soon after, though, and he was ultimately let go by Milwaukee. The Kansas City Royals scooped Barnes up off waivers, only to cut him at the end of the 2019 season.

From there, Barnes signed with the Los Angeles Angels, who would waived him 10 months later as well.  The New York Mets picked him up for the first half of 2021, then traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Barnes would go on to pitch for the Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees at various levels in 2022. In 2023, Barnes spent time with the Texas Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies' Triple-A affiliates before landing with the Cardinals.

In his career, Barnes is 8-17 with a 4.76 ERA, 1.409 WHIP, 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings and a -0.8 WAR. Over the past five seasons, which Barnes spent with eight different MLB clubs, he is 5-11 with a 6.32 ERA, 1.526 WHIP, 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings and a -1.6 WAR.

Barnes will presumably have a chance to earn another big league roster spot during Spring Training over the next few weeks, inserting himself into a Nationals bullpen that made very few additions this offseason. Besides free agent addition Dylan Floro, Washington is projected to enter 2024 with most of the same relievers it had at the end of 2023.

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