When the Futures Games rosters were announced last week there was only one Cincinnati Reds player on it – Nick Lodolo. Not every team will have multiple players on the roster and this season it seemed that Cincinnati would be one of those teams. But an unfortunate injury to an infielder led to the need to fill out another roster spot and those in charge decided that shortstop Jose Barrero would be a good fit for the job.
After struggling in his big league action in 2020 across 24 games, with a minor league season taking place in 2021 the Reds sent Jose Barrero to Double-A Chattanooga to begin his season. He performed well, hitting .300/.367/.481 with the Lookouts. That came with nine doubles, a triple, six home runs, eight steals, 16 walks, and 40 strikeouts in 40 games played.
Last week he was promoted up to Triple-A. He played in all six games last week with the Louisville Bats. He went 3-21 (.143) with 10 strikeouts. But he also hit two home runs, was hit by a pitch, and walked three times. Overall on the season he’s hitting .282/.353/.475 with eight home runs. Defensively he’s look as good as he ever has.
Nick Lodolo will return to the mound tonight for the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts. He’s scheduled to throw two innings, and then he will go pitch on Sunday in Colorado at the Futures Game. In six starts this season the lefty has posted a 0.90 ERA and has six walks with 45 strikeouts in 30.0 innings for the Lookouts.
This year the Futures Game will begin at 3pm ET on Sunday July 11th. The format is now the National League vs the American League instead of Team USA vs Team World. Another change is that the game is now just seven innings instead of nine. You can watch the game on MLB Network. It was also be streaming, for free, on MLB.com if you don’t have MLB Network on your television package.