OC Register: How rookie Jaime Barria emerged to become a fixture in the Angels rotation

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — To fully understand why everyone around the Angels is so excited about Jaime Barría, you have to go back to one of his worst games.

Which was also one of his best.

On May 26, Barría was facing the Yankees in New York. Six pitches into the game, he’d allowed two homers. By the end of the second inning, the 21-year-old in his sixth big league start had allowed a third homer, for four runs.

“We talked in the dugout, and made an adjustment,” recalled catcher José Briceño, a rookie who had worked with Barría in the minors and caught him that night in New York. “He kept going. He kept fighting.”

Barría did not allow another run over his five innings, sticking around long enough for his teammates to erase the deficit win the game. It was the Angels’ only victory of the season against the Yankees.

A month later, Barría went into Fenway Park and gave up just two runs in what was the Angels’ best start of the year against the Red Sox.

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“He’s got a good heartbeat on the mound,” pitching coach Charlie Nagy said. “He doesn’t get rattled too much. He stays in the situation. Some people learn it over time. Some people just have it.”

By all accounts, Barría just has it. Matt Wise, the Angels minor league pitching coordinator, said in the four years he’s worked with Barría he’s always shown exceptional mound presence.

“He definitely has a different level of poise and calm when he’s pitching,” Wise said.

What’s happened in the past year and a half, though, is a few improvements with his repertoire have supplemented his makeup to lead to a breakthrough rookie season in the majors.

Barría has a 3.39 ERA through his first 12 big league starts. That’s included the aforementioned starts at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, wins in hitter-friendly environments of Colorado and Texas and a game against the Houston Astros when he gave up one run in seven innings.

Barría has allowed two earned runs or fewer in 10 of his 12 starts.

“He’s been great,” teammate Andrew Heaney said. “I think everybody, to a man, will tell you the same thing. We’re happy for him and the way he’s fit in. Nothing but good things to say about him.”

Barría doesn’t have much to say about himself, which is part of what endears him so much to his teammates. He just shows up and does what he’s told.

“He’s pretty quiet,” Heaney said. “He’s very much locked in to what he’s doing.”

The Angels’ Jaime Barria has found success this season with a wide array of pitches, and a willingness to use all of them, regardless of the situation. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Barría, a native of Panama who conducts interviews with an interpreter, is clearly confident, though. Before his first big league start, he said: “I feel extremely ready.”

A dozen starts later…

“In a few months I feel like I have jelled with the team,” he said. “I have confidence that I know I belong here. I am always working hard and being disciplined. I think back to Yankee Stadium and Boston, and that gives me a lot of confidence to go out and compete.”

Barria’s attitude helps him get the most out of a repertoire that isn’t eye-popping.

After signing as a 16-year-old in 2013, Barría barely earned notice on prospect lists because none of his pitches graded out as exceptional. Although he always had the work ethic and attitude, it took a few upgrades of his stuff to get him moving up the ladder, Wise said.

Barría rose from Class-A to Double-A to Triple-A in a whirlwind 2017, with a stop at the Futures Game. It was just his second full season in the United States, after pitching at low-A in 2016.

Barría credited two Angels minor league pitching coaches, Wise and Jairo Cuevas, with helping him shoot through the system.

Wise taught him a new changeup grip in instructional league. Barría now says the changeup is his best pitch. The Angels also gave him a slightly different workout regimen and they tweaked his lower body mechanics, which brought his fastball up a couple ticks to where it now, around 92 mph. He also improved the consistency of his slider.

He also learned how to combine his pitches to make them complement each other.

“It’s just a mix of all his pitches,” Nagy said. “He can throw any pitch in any count. That’s what makes him really good. He’s throwing them all for strikes. The hitter can’t sit or look for one pitch.”

Barría throws a fastball 46 percent of the time, with the rest being sliders and changeups. When he’s behind in the count, his fastball percentage rises only to 48 percent. Across the majors, pitchers throw fastballs 60 percent of the time, but 70 percent of the time when behind in the count.

The second to last pitch of his outing in Boston was a perfect example. Barría fell behind slugger J.D. Martinez, 3-and-0. Martinez would certainly have the green light, so Barría couldn’t just dump a fastball over the plate. He threw him a sharp slider that dove out of the zone, and Martinez swung through it.

Another at-bat that demonstrated Barría’s strength was the memorable 21-pitch duel with Brandon Belt on April 22. Barría threw Belt 11 fastballs, six sliders and four changeups.

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Other numbers, however, raise some red flags about Barria’s ability to sustain his early success. His nine-inning averages of strikeouts (6.9), walks (2.8) and homers (1.5) all suggest that his ERA should be higher. Statcast numbers, which take into account the quality of contact along with his strikeout and walk rates, also indicate that he may have been fortunate so far to have the performance he’s had.

Those who’ve watched Barría closely believe his success is sustainable, though, because of his ability to make adjustments when something goes wrong.

Like that game in New York.

“He knows himself,” catcher Martín Maldonado said. “He knows what he needs to do to get people out. In Yankee Stadium, he gave up a couple homers but then he stopped that and threw the ball good.”

UP NEXT

Angels (Garrett Richards, 5-4, 3.42) vs. Mariners (Mike Leake, 8-5, 4.11), 7 p.m., Tuesday, Fox Sports West, KLAA (830 AM).

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