Matt Barnes is having quite a contract year for himself.
The Red Sox' closer, who is playing in the final year of his current deal with the team, has emerged as one of the best game-enders in the major leagues this season. Heading into Wednesday night, Barnes' ERA 2.73 with a batting average against of .136. Along the way, the righty has also struck out 47 of the 95 hitters he has faced.
Yet, despite the production, the Red Sox and Barnes have not engaged in talks regarding a contract extension at any point this season.
"I’m not going to say I’m against it," said Barnes of talking contract during the regular season. "Yeah, absolutely, I would be open to it. But I can tell you firmly nothing has happened. We haven’t had any discussions since spring training so if the Red Sox want to make an offer and they want to start those conversations … Listen, I’ve always been a firm believer that listening to information is always free, whether that’s in baseball or life. Listening is free. If they want to have a conversation I’m sure that’s something my agent and I can discuss and see if anything comes of that. But as of right now, nothing has happened."
Barnes did reveal that he and the Red Sox discussed a contract extension during spring training.
"There were numbers exchanged," Barnes said of the talks. "It was definitely serious enough. It wasn’t just a one or two phone calls and, ‘Hey, we’re interested,’ ‘Hey we’re interested,’ and that was the end of it."
Regarding talking contract extensions with players while the season is unfolding, Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom discussed the topic with the Greg Hill Show just last week. (Barnes and Eduardo Rodriguez are both eligible for free agency following this season.)
"It’s always a concern. Everybody is different," Bloom said. "Again, I think there has been a lot of fluky stuff that has gone into some of the results in the last few outings. So there’s no reason for concern there. But these guys are all human and there are different things that go through your head. Far be it for me to say what is going through his head with respect to that. But you always worry about it. At the same time, it’s part of the game and it’s part of what all these guys go through. They wouldn’t have gotten to where they have gotten if they weren’t able to compartmentalize and separate some of those things. For me, you usually find in-season, it’s tougher to have those kind of conversations. But that’s not a hard and fast rule. I don’t think we should ever restrict ourselves in that regard even though you usually find when guys are rolling during a season it tends to be better for them to just focus on what is front of them every day."
