RADIO
Matt Barnes 2021 Player Outlook: Late Round Closer with Not Much Upside
4 years agoBoston Red Sox closer Matt Barnes is set to retain his role in the Boston bullpen despite a less-than-stellar 2020 campaign. His fastball velocity dropped almost a full mile per hour, and he set career-worsts in walk rate (13.7%), exit velocity (91.3 mph), barrel rate (10.9%), hard-hit rate (43.6%) and home run per fly ball rate (23.5%). And while they weren't career-lows his 30.4% strikeout rate and 11.1 degree launch angle, and his 4.30 ERA, 4.84 FIP, 4.01 xFIP and 3.99 SIERA were all significantly worse than his performances in 2019. As if that wasn't bad enough, Barnes appears to have been slightly lucky last year as he posted a .275 BABIP — almost 50 points lower than his career average — and his .239 xBA and .435 xSLG were both higher than what opponents actually hit against him (.214 BA, .369 SLG). If you're chasing saves late in drafts then go ahead and pick up Barnes, but his 230 ADP should be the absolute highest that you consider grabbing him.
