Might 28: The Guardians introduced that Barria’s contract has formally been bought to the Eagles. Hanwha introduced over the weekend that they’ve launched former MLB righty Felix Pena (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). KBO groups are restricted to carrying two foreign-born pitchers on their rosters, so the Eagles needed to transfer on from both Pena or Ricardo Sanchez so as to add Barria. Reducing Pena was the easy name, as he has struggled to a 6.27 ERA over 9 begins. (Sanchez has a strong 3.35 mark in his 9 appearances). Pena spent elements of three seasons with Hanwha, posting a sub-4.00 mark between 2022-23 earlier than this yr’s struggles.
Might 25: Proper-hander Jaime Barria is finalizing a take care of a crew within the Korea Baseball Group, based on MLBTR’s Steve Adams. It’s not but clear which membership Barria is figuring out a take care of. Barria is presently within the Guardians group on a minor league deal but it surely’s widespread for groups to launch gamers so as to pursue abroad alternatives, typically in change for money concerns from the participant’s new membership. Kim Geun-han of MK Sports activities (Korean language hyperlink) stories right this moment that Barria is poised to signal with the Hanwha Eagles.
Barria, 27, signed with the Angels as a world free agent out of Panama and made his huge league debut with the membership again in 2018 throughout his age-21 season. The righty loved a powerful rookie marketing campaign with a 3.41 ERA and 4.58 FIP throughout 26 begins for the Halos that yr, though he suffered a sophomore droop the next season as he pitched to a 6.42 ERA in 19 appearances (13 begins) whereas swinging between the bullpen and rotation throughout the 2019 marketing campaign. Barria would keep in that swing function for the following two seasons, pitching to roughly common outcomes (106 ERA+) throughout 89 innings of labor throughout that point.
The 2022 season noticed Barria pitch in one thing nearer to a pure aid function, with only one begin and 5 outings the place he threw greater than fifty pitches. It was maybe the perfect season of his profession, as he posted a wonderful 2.61 ERA that was 54% higher than league common by measure of ERA+ to associate with a 4.11 xERA and 4.13 SIERA, all of which have been profession greatest figures for the righty. Sadly, issues took a flip for the more severe for Barria final yr as his residence run fee spiked, leaving him with a 5.68 ERA and 6.07 FIP in 82 1/3 innings of labor throughout 34 appearances, six of which have been begins.
After that tough 2023 marketing campaign, Barria was outrighted off the Angels roster and elected free company, main him to his aforementioned minor league pact with the Guardians. He’s remained in multi-inning aid throughout his time at Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, and whereas his 4.81 ERA in 13 appearances is nothing to write down residence about he’s additionally proven a shocking proclivity for strikeouts this yr, punching out batters at a 28.1% clip throughout his 24 1/3 innings of labor.
It’s attainable that uptick in strikeout fee is what caught the eye of a crew abroad, and Barria now figures to move to Korea in hopes of re-establishing himself as a possible huge league possibility. KBO groups are solely allowed to hold a most of two foreign-born pitchers on their rosters, that means that if Barria’s new crew has already reached that restrict they’ll need to half methods with one other arm to make room for the righty.
