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    Jose Barrero (Photo: Nicole Vasquez)
    Photo: Nicole Vasquez

    2021 Reds MiLB Player of the Year: Jose Barrero

    Doug Gray 19

    Jose Barrero was put in a very tough spot in 2020 when he was asked to play in the Major Leagues despite not having any experience above High-A in the minors. The results weren’t great from an offensive standpoint, but that’s not surprising, either. With a minor league season happening in 2021, Barrero was put in a much better situation to succeed and did he ever do just that.

    Cincinnati sent Jose Barrero to Double-A where he joined the Chattanooga Lookouts to begin his season. In the first series of the year he went 7-23 with 2 doubles, a triple, 2 home runs, 8 RBI, and 5 walks. It was a sign of things to come. The hits kept coming for Barrero and it didn’t even take two full months before his time with the Lookouts was over. After 40 games he was hitting .300/.367/.481 in the Double-A South and that was more than enough for the Reds front office to promote the shortstop up to Triple-A.

    It was a slow start with Louisville. In his first 10 games with the Bats Jose Barrero hit .171/.273/.343. At that point he headed off to Colorado to play in the Futures Game. While playing at Coors he crushed a 426-foot home run and walked while scoring runs each time he went to the plate. When he returned to join the Bats he never looked back. In the 36 games he played with Louisville moving forward from that point he hit .338/.421/.647 with 10 doubles and 11 home runs.

    Between the two stops in the minors in 2021 Jose Barrero played in just 85 games before he was called up to Cincinnati late in August where he remained for the rest of the year. He would hit .303/.380/.539 in 380 plate appearances for Chattanooga and Louisville. That came with 19 doubles, a triple, 19 home runs, and 16 stolen bases.

    Jose Barrero finished 3rd in the organization with a .303 average among players in full-season baseball. He led the organization in home runs, RBI, slugging, and OPS. Offensively he had the award in the bag on it’s own, but toss in that he also did it at a premium defensive position and it was a runaway victory.

    Jose Barrero 2021 MiLB Season Stats

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    19 Responses

    2. I can’t wait to see him get a real extended look in the majors (at his position, every day). Each stop he’s made it has taken 10 or so starts to get his footing, then he just goes off. If Bell would just put him in and let him play, we just might see some great things from him in the majors. I’m excited.

      1. Sign and trade Barnhart, move Farmer to backup C and give Stephenson 130 starts. :) Barrero thrives!

    4. Yesterday I looked at pitcher’s ceilings. Today I am presenting my findings on Hitter ceilings. Hitters are much more subjective than pitchers because there are so many variables to consider. Position, power, speed and plate discipline need to be combined somehow.

      Here is my top 10 from Doug’s prior top 25 lists
      1. Bruce – Great power and good but not great plate discipline. Average/slightly above averge speed and good defense in RF.
      2. Senzel – Good power 10% BB% and 20% K% is good. Defensive asset at 2nd, 3rd or CF. good but not great speed. Good plate discipline.
      3. Siri – Great speed and CF defense. Good power but not the best plate discipline
      4. Grandal – Catcher. Good power, good plate discipline. Lacking speed. Because he is a catcher maybe he should be #2.
      5. Votto – Good power. Great plate discipline. Lacking speed. 1B only limits his ceiling.
      6. Winker – Good power potential. Great plate discipline. Lacking speed. LF only limits his ceiling.
      7. Yorman – Great tools. Average power, and above average speed. Good in RF
      8. Yonder Alonso – Great plate discipline. Average power, 1B limits ceiling.
      9. Juan Francisco – Great power, poor plate discipline. Limited defensively
      10. Neftali Soto – Good power, poor plate discipline, limited defensively.

      I am probably missing many better people. I like all ten of these more than Trammell. But many other options.

      Now look at current players
      1. Jay Allen II – Great speed, good power, great plate discipline. Ability to stick in CF
      2. Elly De La Cruz – From what I hear he has fantastic tools. Great bat speed. Very fast. Great arm. Ability to play SS. Just lacking plate discipline.
      3. Jose Barrero – Shortstop, good power, good speed, good plate discipline.
      4. Matt McLain – Shortstop, average power, good speed, great plate discipline
      5. Austin Hendrick – Great power?

      Two players that have not played in USA so I won’t include them yet
      1. Carlos Jorge – middle infielder, power unknown, great plate discipline in DSL, great speed.
      2. Leonardo Balcazar – Shortstop, good power, average plate discipline good speed.

      My new top 10
      1. Jay Allen
      2. Elly De La Cruz
      3. Jay Bruce
      4. Nick Senzel
      5. Jose Barrero
      6. Jose Siri
      7. Matt McLain
      8. Yasmani Grandal
      9. Joey Votto
      10. Jessie Winker

      One thing I have noticed. The better players from the first group are those with the good plate discipline such as Grandal, Votto and Winker. This is good news for Jay Allen, Matt McLain and Carlos Jorge. Not so good for Elly De La Cruz and Austin Hendrick.

      1. Interesting that Grandal is on your list but Mesoraco is missing. Devin was almost universally considered the better prospect (peaked at #12 overall in BA) while in the Reds system, and Grandal was subsequently traded because the front office believed more in Mesoraco. As a catcher with his offensive dominance in the minors, Devin had to be near the top of any list detailing prospect upside.

        1. Excellent point. I forgot about Mesoraco. He should probably slot in at #5 ahead of Barrero. I could see #6 also.

        1. He may have been. I know Siri never cracked the top 100. But with limited power his ceiling was limited in my opinion.

      3. Austin Hendrick is a walk machine. His strikeout problem isn’t with plate discipline. I would argue he has very good plate discipline. Just huge holes in his otherworldy powerful swing. Which should be able to be fixed.

        2. I have to think that when a player walks and strikes out this much he does have a plate discipline problem. He has to be taking far too many good pitches early in counts. This sometimes put him in a hole he can’t dig out of or sometimes puts him at 1B. He needs to swing more.

        3. I agree with DaveCT. I would love to see instructional league stats. That offense may be a dream team for instructionals.

        4. I can’t say for sure, and this is only based on my memory of following the games, but in following many of his at bats this year on the MiLB app in real time, I don’t recall him having an issue taking good pitches early in at bats. I could be wrong, but I don’t see it as a plate discipline problem.

      1. Yorman made it to Cincinnati briefly in 2014 and was done in 2016. He never showed enough power. His high ISO in his minor league career was .159.

        Soto made it to the majors in 2013 and again in 2014 but left the organization for CWS in 2015 and then 2 years for the Nationals. He was actually pretty good in 2017 but retired so young.

      2. Soto is actually one of the best power hitters in Japan. He has an .863 OPS in his four years there and hit over 40 homers in each of 2018 and 2019. He signed a new 3-year deal before this season, but looks like he has struggled a bit this year for Yokohama. He’s still only 32 years old (seems like he has been around forever).

    6. I think we will see Barerro starting at SS in 2022. He is very impressive.

      I expect Doug to post an article soon on the upcoming Rule V Draft. Here are the players that I think CIN will/may protect:

      Hunter Greene (duh)
      Michael Byrne (showcasing in AZFL?)
      Leonard Rivas (battle with Alejo Lopez?)
      Lorenzo Cedrola (interesting case)

      It would not surprise me if all four (4) players are added to the 40MR. Interesting to see if all 4 remain on the 40MR going into ST though.

      I am very excited to see Hunter Greene transition into a major leaguer. Guessing we’ll see growing pains, but I think DJ can do wonders with him!

    7. He didn’t actually retire. He went to Japan where he had two monster years with over 40 HR. Still playing there as of 2021.

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