10:44am: The Nationals announced that Barnes has rejected an outright a signment in favor of free agency Mike Baumann Jersey . May 9, 10:17am: Barnes cleared outright waivers and has been a signed outright to the Nationals Triple-A affiliate in Rochester, . He has enough service time to reject the a signment in favor of free agency, if he chooses. May 7: The Nationals announced Tuesday theyve designated right-hander for a signment. His spot on the active roster will go to lefty , whos been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. The Nats 40-man roster is now at 39 players. Barnes, 33, inked a minor league deal with Washington in the early portion of Spring Training. He made the Opening Day roster after throwing five scorele s innings in camp. The veteran reliever hasnt carried that succe s into the regular season. Barnes has allowed 11 runs (10 earned) over 13 1/3 frames while working in low-leverage situations. His 8% swinging strike rate is well below both the league average and his career 12.3% mark. Its the second straight season in which Barnes has struggled to mi s bats. He managed whiffs on a career-low 7.8% of his offerings en route to a 5.48 ERA in 21 1/3 innings with the Marlins last year. That season was cut short before the All-Star Break by a left hip injury that required surgery. Barnes velocity has yet to return to pre-surgery levels. His 91.4 MPH average fastball speed and 81.5 MPH curveball velocity are each down two ticks from where they sat in 2023. Barnes was averaging around 95-96 MPH on his heater and in the mid-80s with his breaking ball during his best seasons with the Red Sox. That included four seasons of sub-4.00 ERA ball over a five-year stretch from 2017-21. Barnes routinely punched out more than 30% of opposing hitters during that run and held the closer role in Boston in 2021. He earned an All-Star nod that season and secured a two-year, $18.75MM extension that July. A shoulder injury in 2022 and the aforementioned hip i sue have prevented Barnes from recapturing that form in the two-plus years since then. The Nats will technically have five days to trade him, but its likelier hell be released. Barnes locked in a $2MM base salary when he made the Washington roster. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, the Nationals will be responsible for the bulk of that contract. Another team that subsequently signs him would owe the prorated portion of the $740K minimum for any time he spends on their MLB roster. Declan Cronin Jersey