By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
The bright lights of professional baseball haven’t phased Rochester Red Wings catcher Tres Barrera. He did, after all, play high school quarterback in football-obsessed Mission, Texas.
“Playing Friday Night Lights in the state of Texas, people talk about it all the time and I got to live it,” Barrera remarked. “People still ask me about it all the time that I get to play with, from different states, how was it? I’m like, ‘Dude, it was something you can never imagine.’
“I feel like playing football in Texas all four years like that prepared me for professional baseball, and even for the big leagues. Playing in front of big crowds in big situations, it’s a lot of pressure and I love it.”
Barrera gained 3,271 all-purpose yards and tallied 44 touchdowns as a senior at Sharyland High School, garnering district MVP and RGVSports.com All-Valley Player of the Year honors. His team compiled a 13-1 record, averaging over 50 points a week.
Barrera accomplished these gridiron feats with a full ride baseball scholarship to the University of Texas in hand. He nearly left football behind to focus on the diamond, but opted to participate in—and excel at—both sports.
Not only was Barrera a football quarterback, he also pitched in high school. Those experiences, he acknowledges, help him behind the plate with his battery mates as they attack an opposing lineup.
“I kind of know what it feels like to be up there on the mound in big-time, pressure situations,” Barrera explained. “Obviously it’s a lot bigger in professional baseball. My job right now, and every day I come out and catch, is to try and get the best out of them. Everybody’s different out there, in the bullpen or every starter.”
Barrera has been a consistently strong fielder throughout his pro career, maintaining a .991 fielding percentage and throwing out 39 percent of the baserunners who attempt to steal on him; he’s caught four would-be base stealers in 12 games this year. The 27-year-old is also, however, off to an impressive April at the plate.
Though no longer boasting a .533 batting average like he did after the season-opening series at Toledo, Barrera is hitting .333 and slugging .578. He has recorded over half of the total bases he amassed with Rochester last season (48 last year, 26 to date) in 41 fewer games.
He has also thumped three home runs, including the 371-foot solo shot that tied Tuesday night’s game against Syracuse. Two of his three homers have been game-tying hits in contests the Red Wings eventually won.
Barrera played 30 games for the Washington Nationals last year, batting .264 (24-of-91) with two home runs and 10 RBI. After he returned to the Red Wings on Sept. 2, though, he hit safely just eight times in 53 at bats (.151) and struck out 14 times.
The end-of-season slump motivated Barrera, who watched film of Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ronald Acuña Jr. as he searched for fixes. Those elite hitters, he concluded, have tailor made styles of hitting. His offseason was dedicated to developing a personalized style and approach that worked best for him.
“I came back down here and I kind of just stalled out,” Barrera allowed. “Went home with a little bad taste in my mouth and I didn’t really take much time off. I got right back into it, trying to figure out the way my body works.
“… Everybody’s body works in a different way. I studied some of the best hitters in the game and everybody kind of gets to their own points, but everybody’s body’s moving in a specific way. I tried to find what worked best for me and I’m finding success so far.”
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The 2016 sixth-round pick is also continuing to demonstrate the fact that he’s achieving that success cleanly, which he takes personally after being called into question two years ago.
Barrera was one of 23 players since 2015 to be suspended after testing positive for Oral Turinabol, an anabolic steroid he claimed to have never heard of before learning he tested positive in February 2020. He sued Major League Baseball, the commissioner’s office and labs in Utah and Montreal, calling the test “junk science” and claiming that his suspension was unlawful, citing a “minimally low” amount of Turinabol in his system.
Former Red Wing Chris Colabello tested positive for the same steroid in 2016, while with the Toronto Blue Jays. He has not played in the major leagues since.
Though Barrera later dropped the suit and served his suspension, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on April 20 that changes to the Joint Drug Agreement in baseball’s new collective bargaining deal support his case. The players vehemently argue that the test results have been questionable at best.
What Barrera wants now is an apology from Major League Baseball, but he ultimately expressed gratitude that the situation appears unlikely to happen to any more ballplayers.
“It was a grind, man. One of the darkest times of my life, obviously,” Barrera commented. “But I’m really grateful that the light’s come to the tunnel; people are realizing that it was wrong.”
As he nears the clearing of his professional name, Barrera is also a new father after his wife Lindsey gave birth to daughter Klea in February. Lindsey and Klea regularly attend games, which Barrera admitted makes any 0-fers at bat or tough Red Wings losses sting a bit less.
He and Lindsey, after all, have experienced much worse. The couple lost son Kaius, who was due March 2021, in November 2020.
“It was a tough road, man,” Barrera said, “but this is truly the biggest blessing in my life. It made me appreciate life even more. It made this stuff feel easy, like this stuff is nothing compared to what my wife had to go through.
“The job of being a dad is the best job in the world.”
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