The 25 year old came to the club via trade in exchange for outfielder Manuel Torres prior to the 2050 season. In spring training of 2050, Barron tore his UCL so has yet to take the mound for the Omaha Cyclones.
In related news, the club announced the rest of the rotation will consist of Timo Dooley, Jose Martinez, Mike Alexander, and top prospect Takashi Nakamura.
Missing from names of the rotation were Norio Hayashi and Elliot Woodger. Hayashi has started at least 30 games every year for the club since 2045 after spending the first few years of his career in the bullpen. He is expected to work in a setup type role at this time, with the potential for his role to transform into a stopper type if needed.
Joining Hayashi in the pen will be Elliot Woodger who the team signed over the off-season to a 5-year deal worth a potential $36,400,000. Woodger has incentives for reaching 200 innings pitched and also for the Nebraska award, but is unlikely to reach those without finding a permanent spot in the rotation. At this point that seems unlikely.“We just feel like we have so many weapons in our bullpen that we don’t want to commit to having just one guy out there for all 3 innings to end a game. We brought in quite a few people this year, and we also have Francisco Hernandez who was great last year and also had a very good spring returning as our closer.” Said first year Omaha Manager Julian Negrete.
For the spring, the Omaha pitching staff had a 4.10 combined ERA, which is about .25 lower than their total from last season which experienced a jump of nearly a full run allowed per 9 innings pitched.
