When he walked out of the Reds' clubhouse for the final time last season, Tucker Barnhart said he was "in tears." He had just packed up his locker after the team's final road trip, knowing he would likely be traded in the offseason. Sure enough, after 13 years in the Reds organization, eight of them in the big leagues, Barnhart was dealt to the Tigers a day after the World Series came to an end.
"It was sad, man," Barnhart said Monday on the Chris Rose Rotation podcast. "I grew up with the Reds. I'm 31, I got drafted when I was 18, so I spent quite a bit of my life as a Cincinnati Red. I had gotten to know so many people (in the organization) ... and saying goodbye was tough."
Soon thereafter, Barnhart said his hellos to Tigers GM Al Avila, manager A.J. Hinch, pitching coach Chris Fetter and a host of others in Detroit. ("And then the lockout happened and I haven’t heard from anybody since," he said with a laugh.) And for the two-time Gold Glove catcher, the thought of mentoring a talented young pitching staff salved the sting of leaving behind "everything I knew."
Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning are part of a bright future for the Tigers, and now Barnhart is part of their growth.
"I’m excited to work with them, I really am," he said. "I think I provide a unique perspective."
In a number of ways, Barnhart was built for his new job in Detroit. As a catcher, he has a keen feel for young arms. The Reds spent most of his time in Cincinnati rebuilding. Barnhart was the steadying presence for pitchers like Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle, both of whom debuted with Barnhart behind the dish in 2017 and have become front-line starters, and Raisel Iglesias, the former starter who's now a dominant closer.
Along the way, Barnhart learned the importance of bending to the needs of the pitcher on the mound. A self-admitted 'red ass,' he said he used to be a catcher who "would just go out there and get in somebody's ass" if things weren't going well. He changed after an exchange in 2015 with then-rookie Michael Lorenzen, who was struggling in an outing against the Cubs.
"I went out there and got into him like, 'Hey man, what are we doing? Are you here? We need to lock it in.' And he looked me dead in the face and said, 'Whose team are you on?' In that moment it pissed me off, like, wait, I don’t want him to ever question whose team I’m on. This is me trying to help. And that’s when it clicked for me, the psychologist piece of it, that guys need to be coached differently," Barnhart said.
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That will serve him well as he shepherds several pitchers in Detroit with scant big league experience. On top of the Big Three in the Tigers' rotation, Barnhart will be entrusted with young relievers like Gregory Soto, Kyle Funkhouser and Alex Lange, with more on the way.
"It’s going to be a lot of fun," he said. "Some of my best stories and some of the things I would consider my greatest accomplishments are watching guys like Luis Castillo, watching it click for them and seeing them understand that they can be dominant at the big league level and they’re not really doing anything but being themselves -- being able to help a guy realize that."
As a teacher, turns out Barnhart is a lot like his dad.
"I grew up around a teacher and my dad would always talk about that when he would come home from school, about teaching Jimmy a math problem and seeing the look in his eyes when he finally gets it. That rubbed off on me," said Barnhart. "I love that stuff. Just being a small part in somebody’s success at the big league level is really cool for me, so I’m really looking forward to it."
On the hitting side, Barnhart's also looking forward to learning as much as he can from Miguel Cabrera. He spent eight years watching Joey Votto and said he's "pretty lucky" going from "one Hall of Famer to another." Barnhart still remembers watching Cabrera "hit one of the most impressive right-handed home runs I’ve ever seen" in the 2015 season, off Johnny Cueto, in the rain in Cincinnati.
"He hit it to right field and it looked like a left-handed pulled home run, just as far as it went and the trajectory of the ball," Barnhart said. "For a while there, if you didn’t get the ball in on him, he was going to kill you. It was that simple. If you missed at all, you were probably going to be reaching for another ball from the ump. I’m really excited to go from Joey to Miguel and watch him work and pick his brain, and hopefully he can make me a little better."
Barnhart can help make Detroit's young arms a lot better. They were good last year, with plenty of room for growth. Same for the team. Together, this is the year they can make themselves heard, with a voice that carries weight behind the plate.