Austin Barnes is Weird. Twice.
Baseball players usually have defined roles. There’s your starting shortstop, your #3 starter, and your lefty specialist. Each team has but 25 roster spots to give, and so they mostly look the same. Sure, Mike Trout is better than JaCoby Jones, but the Angels and Tigers both have a starting center fielder. Quality varies, but the job requirements of each role do not…
…With one exception. There’s only one team in baseball with a part time catcher/part time second baseman who gets tons of walks but very few hits. That team is the Dodgers, and Austin Barnes is one of the most unique players in baseball history.
Catcher & Second Base?!
Lots of second basemen see time at other positions. It’s especially common for players to see time at shortstop and third base as well as second. In 2017, there were 14 men who played 20 games at both middle infield positions. Another 16 players appeared in 20+ games at both second and third.
Catchers are more specialized, of course. Only three players in 2017 spent at least 20 games at catcher and one other position: Buster Posey (first base), Chris Herrmann (left field), and Austin Barnes (second base).
The catcher/second base combination is exceedingly rare. The most famous ballplayer to play both positions was Hall of Famer Craig Biggio. The Astros legend broke into the majors as a catcher and spent his first 4 seasons behind the plate, collecting a Silver Slugger and an All-Star appearance. Then he moved to the keystone and played nearly 2,000 games on the infield dirt.
However, even Biggio never really played catcher and second base in the same season. That is a much more unprecedented feat. Last year, Barnes became just the second player since 1902 to play 20+ games at both positions in one season. (The other being Scott Hemond for Oakland in 1994.) Even in the minors, Barnes played both positions, appearing in 336 games as a catcher and 165 at second base. This year, he’s splitting his time evenly, with 13 games at each spot through Sunday. He’s nearly a lock to repeat last year’s accomplishment.
Rockies catcher Tony Wolters spent an inning at second base on May 17. He’s the only player in 2018 other than Barnes to appear at both positions whatsoever. Wolters is clearly no threat to the positionally ambidextrous Barnes, as he blazes a trail in a brand new roster role. But that’s not the only way in which he is unique.
Walks Without Hits
Thank goodness for the OBP revolution. If Barnes was playing 25 years ago, he’d probably be sent down. He’s hitting just .225 with one home run though 93 PA. But the old school stats would have missed out on Barnes’ truly exceptional walk rate. He’s collected 17 free passes so far, giving him a .409 OBP. His 18.3 % walk rate is the sixth best in baseball this season (minimum 90 PA).
| Player | BB % | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO |
| Bryce Harper | 21.0 % | 0.228 | 0.390 | 0.517 | 0.289 |
| Curtis Granderson | 20.7 % | 0.266 | 0.430 | 0.457 | 0.191 |
| Daniel Robertson | 20.0 % | 0.283 | 0.437 | 0.491 | 0.208 |
| Mike Trout | 18.7 % | 0.296 | 0.433 | 0.636 | 0.340 |
| Justin Bour | 18.5 % | 0.242 | 0.383 | 0.462 | 0.220 |
| Austin Barnes | 18.3 % | 0.225 | 0.409 | 0.310 | 0.085 |
There’s a reason why BA and ISO are included in that chart. Barnes doesn’t fit in at all with the other walk rate leaders. The average BA of the top five guys is .263, which is 38 points better than Barnes. ISO tells an even stranger story. The top five average .250 ISO, whereas Barnes’ is only .085!
Generally, players have trouble drawing walks if they have little power. Yet again, Barnes laughs in the face of convention. The difference between his OBP and SLG is .099. That’s the biggest difference any player has recorded in more than 90 years. The last player with more than .100 difference between OBP and SLG was Max Bishop in 1927, who slashed .277/.442/.323 for the Philadelphia Athletics as their second baseman (but not catcher!).
The difference between Barnes OBP and BA is even more drastic. Only one player since the 1800s has ever topped Barnes’ .184 OBP-BA, and he did it 4 times.
| Year | Player | BA | OBP | OBP-BA |
| 2004 | Barry Bonds | 0.362 | 0.609 | 0.247 |
| 2002 | Barry Bonds | 0.370 | 0.582 | 0.212 |
| 2003 | Barry Bonds | 0.341 | 0.529 | 0.188 |
| 2001 | Barry Bonds | 0.328 | 0.515 | 0.187 |
| 2018 | Austin Barnes | 0.225 | 0.409 | 0.184 |
So this is…something. Anytime a player can get onto a leaderboard with Bonds is a good thing, right? However, the similarities end there. Barnes trails Bonds by 753 career home runs. Given the lack of punch in his bat, it’s pretty amazing that he reaches base sans hits at the same level as the greatest hitter we’ve ever seen. It’s even more incredible that he does it while playing such a unique combination of positions. He might not be the most talented player in the league, but he’s able to do things no one else can match, regardless of whether he’s at the plate or in the field.
-Daniel R. Epstein
