In 2017, Tucker Barnhart had a career year. His offensive numbers had steadily increased each year of his short career, to the point where you could foresee a handful more years of a competent bat with solid doubles power and a discerning eye. His defensive numbers popped in a way that probably does injustice to the word “popped”, throwing out an astounding 44% of would-be base stealers and otherwise being excellent with the glove (perhaps with the exception of framing pitches…).
We’ve reviewed this movie before. Barnhart signed a contract that bought out his arbitration years, but it was generally pretty team friendly and we were left to assume that the Reds would make out very well on the transaction.