Jamie 'Barrel Man' Westbrook reflects on his incredible story
“I finally made it!”
Those words kept coming from Jamie Westbrook. On the call to his family. In a text to offseason workout partner Tarik Skubal. To those entering into the Red Sox clubhouse Sunday morning.
After 11 minor-league seasons, 1,159 minor-league games, and 4,748 minor-league at-bats the affable 28-year-old became a major leaguer.
“I just felt gratitude,” Westbrook said on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast after being recalled from Triple-A Worcester. “Just super proud of myself. You don’t do 11 years in the minor leagues and not thinking about if this is worth it or if this is ever going to happen. It’s something I have dreamed forever.”
By the time Westbrook found his first big league game action as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning of a tie game Sunday, with runners on first and second, only some at Fenway Park knew his story. He was the kid who spent the first 10 years of his life in Holyoke before moving to Arizona. He was the player known among his professional baseball-playing friends as ‘The Barrel Man’ (a nickname adorning all of Westbrook’s batting practice bats). And he was the guy who consistently showed an innate ability to put bat to ball and hit the ball a long way despite just a 5-foot-7 frame.
Those who did know Westbrook as a person and a player understood the impetus for this major league introduction, and why it represented what might be for all big league dreamers.
“Barrel Man. That’s how I know him ,too. He truly is the Barrel Man,” said Skubal, the Detroit ace pitcher who has spent the offseason with both Westbrook and Bobby Dalbec in Arizona the past few years. “He is a joy to workout with. He’s always in a good mood. He always has that same injury. He is always on the aux so he runs the vibes.
“During the lockout he hit a home run off me, backside slider. I told him, ‘You will never see that pitch from me again.’ Slider. Perfect pitch. Went the opposite way. I was like, ‘What the heck, that isn’t supposed to happen.’”
When it comes to Westbrook, there is a lot that isn’t supposed to happen.
For instance, nobody would have blamed the righty hitter for swinging out of his shoes against Tigers reliever Andrew Chafin with the opportunity to win Sunday’s game. But instead Westbrook was able to drown out the cheers - including from his wife and parents - and lay off the almost-strikes en route to one of the most impressive walks of the season.
“Obviously I’m not going to lie to you guys and say I wasn’t nervous," he said after the Red Sox' 8-4 extra-inning loss to the Tigers. "But like I said before, like I've had over 4,000 at bats in pro ball. I’ve done it. It's just another at bat. So I kind of reminded myself of that. Stay loose, stay calm. The guys around here have been great to welcome me and a lot of the same faces from spring training so I kind of came in and knew a lot of people so just try to do my thing."
The point is that Westbrook has been doing his thing for some time, but that wasn't seemingly leading to a path to the majors. Even with all those professional hits - including 125 home runs - and the positive impression left on the big-league coaching staff in spring training, the idea that he would ever attend another game at Fenway Park (other than the one he barely remembers as a small child) was seeming far-fetched.
That was until he got a call from a number he didn't recognize.
Trace (Chad Tracy) the manager called me and, it's sad, I didn't have his number saved," Westbrook said. "It came up as California and I'm like, 'That's weird. That could be Trace.' So I called him back and he said, 'Hey man, I know a lot of managers have wanted to do this. I'm happy to be the one to tell you you're going to the big leagues.' I kind of blacked out and said, 'Are you joking with me?' He said he was serious. The rest is history. A lot of emotions. Cried for a good bit. Called my folks, packed up and headed to the airport."
The doubts regarding the impetus for the phone call was understandable. This is a guy who repeated Double-A four years in a row, got released during the 2020 Covid season, and couldn't sniff the Yankees' major league roster even after popping 21 home runs last season.
As uncertainty and anxiety kept piling up ... until Sunday.
"You have this gut feeling in your heart you know you're able to to do this and you're good enough and you have put in the work. Sometimes in life that's not the case," he said. "You're always taught to work hard and good things will happen. But 11 years in you start to question that. I really give myself and my support system huge credit for showing up every day and riding it out and seeing what happens. You never know. All the cliche stuff you talk about. But, yeah, sometimes you think, 'What am I doing this for? How much do I love this anymore? Am I going to get my break?' It's cool that I was able to weather the storm.
"You start to doubt, not yourself, the situations. You have to kind of catch lightning in a bottle. Not on the 40-man roster. Bouncing around organizations. Always putting up numbers but there is always someone else on the roster. It's awesome man."