Active with pitchers, Barnhart in 'baseball mode'
CINCINNATI -- Based on what he’s seen recently, Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart doesn’t believe it will be hard for the club’s pitchers to ramp back up following a more than three-month layoff because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Barnhart, who lives in suburban Indianapolis, has made the two-hour drive to Great American Ball Park a couple of times to catch bullpen sessions with several pitchers. Among those he’s caught are Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Wade Miley, Lucas Sims and Justin Shafer. Each of them was throwing around 60 pitches in their past two sessions.
“Which, in my opinion, is more than they would throw on any side day before a game,” Barnhart said. “I know Sonny was saying that in Nashville at one point, they were doing three or four innings with up-and-downs [between innings] like scrimmage games or whatever.
“Lucas Sims looks like he’s at June 24 of a regular season. I would be willing to bet that a lot of guys -- as long as they had the capabilities of throwing and working out this entire time -- everybody is pretty close to where they would be. My guess is it’s a month behind where we would normally be at this point of the summer.”
Once the Reds report on July 1 for Spring Training 2.0, which will be held at Great American Ball Park and in suburban Mason, Ohio, they will have about three weeks before the 2020 season opens on July 23 or 24.
Barnhart has kept himself busy and has also caught for some Minor League pitchers and former Reds reliever Drew Storen, a 2017 teammate and fellow Indianapolis-area resident. Storen is attempting a comeback with the Phillies.
“It’s been nice. As much as possible, I’ve kind of stayed in baseball mode,” Barnhart said. “I haven’t gotten too far away from it, even when we weren’t allowed to go anywhere.”
Barnhart, who earned a Gold Glove Award in 2017, hasn’t performed much in the way of catching drills himself.
“Specifically throwing to second base or acting like a runner is stealing, I haven’t done that,” he said. “However, I do long toss multiple times a week and catch guys multiple times a week. I don’t do a lot of blocking in Spring Training or the offseason in the first place because for me, it comes really easily. Blocking pitches and all of that takes a toll on your body, so I don’t do it as much as I do other things. Once Spring Training kicks back off, I will start blocking again, and it will feel like I haven’t missed a beat.”
In addition to working out, Barnhart was busy as the Reds' representative with the MLB Players Association. He was plugged into the lengthy negotiations with the league for restarting the season and kept in contact regularly with teammates to brief them on developments and seek advice.
“I speak for everybody that we’re all very excited to be back on the field,” Barnhart said. “From the players’ side, we really hate how all of this happened, hated that it all had to be as public as it was. But the one common theme throughout this entire time is we’ve been ready to play this whole time. I think you’ll see that when the season starts. I look forward to doing a lot of winning this summer in Cincinnati.”