BOSTON — Matt Barnes has made 26 major league appearances. All have come in relief.
That changes Monday.
Torey Lovullo, serving as Boston’s acting manager in John Farrell’s absence, announced before Saturday’s game against the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park that Barnes will start Monday for the Red Sox against the Cleveland Indians in place of Steven Wright.
Wright was placed on the seven-day concussion list Saturday after being struck on the back of the neck by a batting practice fly ball during the Red Sox’s series against the Miami Marlins earlier this week.
Barnes, 25, recently converted back into a starter at Triple-A Pawtucket after pitching out of the bullpen for most of the season.
“We’ve asked a lot of him — to move back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen — but he’s very capable of that,” Lovullo said. “His last start, what we got from player development was that it was aggressive, he was throwing a lot of his pitches in the (strike) zone and doing a good job.
“He’s been stretched out enough that he can go out there and hopefully give us close to 100 pitches.”
Barnes struggled with the Red Sox earlier this season, posting a 5.64 ERA in 21 relief appearances spanning 22 1/3 innings. He returned to Pawtucket as a reliever following his most recent demotion, but he’s since rejoined the PawSox’s rotation, as the Red Sox needed organizational starting pitching depth with Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello and Brian Johnson all sidelined with injuries.
Barnes, a first-round draft pick (19th overall) in 2011, pitched almost exclusively as a starter in the minors before this season. He had varying degrees of success, but the right-hander certainly comes with plenty of upside.
“He’s been a proven starter at the minor league level,” Lovullo said. “Player development has recommended that this is a guy who could be a very good, qualified major league starting pitcher. But out of necessity, we had to move him to the bullpen.
“I think as young players go, we all look at them in different ways and when you have the stuff that he has, you just try to get him to the big league level and contribute in whatever gap he can fill. In this case, it was as a reliever for a period of time, but we’ve always viewed him as a starter, so we’re going to get him up here (Monday) and we’re anxious to see what he can give us.”
Barnes is 0-1 with a 4.95 ERA in five starts with Pawtucket this season. He’s allowed five runs on 11 hits over eight innings in two starts since returning to the PawSox’s rotation earlier this month.
Lovullo said Friday the decision to go with Barnes for Monday’s start was based partly on the club’s desire to split its left-handers (Henry Owens, Eduardo Rodriguez and Wade Miley).
Thumbnail photo via Gregory Fisher/USA TODAY Sports Images
