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Jessie Barfield -Diamond in the Rough?

Jeremy Barfield comes to the Sox by way of a 10-year professional journey that has taken him to the A’s, Rockies, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Mexico, independent ball, the pitcher’s mound and now to Red Sox spring training.

Barfield who is entering Spring Training this year as an NRI ( Non-Roster Invite) to Red Sox camp, brings with him a very unique résumé of a player who has spent time in multiple teams organizations as well as in Mexico and Independent Baseball, yet with the Red Sox he could represent one thing that President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski has been wanting.  That is Barfield is a right-handed power hitter.
Barfield began his MLB career after he signed with the A’s in 2008 after being drafted in the eighth round out of San Jacinto Junior College. He flashed power in the lower minors, but after he hit .213/.298/.407 between Double and Triple-A in 2013, Oakland expressed interest in seeing if the righthanded-hitting, lefthanded-throwing Barfield could harness his considerable arm strength on the mound.  Sadly this experiment had disastrous results, In his one year on the mound, he performed decently for High A Stockton, posting a 4.63 ERA with 39 strikeouts and 28 walks in 35 innings, yet it wasn't on the mound that Barfield wanted to be.  After bouncing around in Mexico for a couple of seasons as well as contemplating walking away from the game entirely, it was in 2016 that he was rewarded by his faith in the game.
Yet it was in 2016 while playing for the Independent League's  Sugar Land Skeeters, that Barfield was finally was able to begin to deliver on all that promise.   That season for the Skeeters,  Barfield would win the MVP award,  while hitting .306/.382/.533 with 27 homers.  After his breakout year, he was rewarded with two invites to Spring Training with the Diamondbacks as well as the Rangers, yet both teams cut him during camp.
In late-May of last year Red Sox director of pro scouting Gus Quattlebaum, called the Skeeters, Jay Miller to express the Sox interest in signing Barfield. According to Miller, "Gus called about Jeremy and another one of my players. I said, ‘Jeremy is your guy."   The other player to give Barfield a review was former Red Sox player and Skeeters Manager, Gary Gaetti, who both praised and recommended that the Sox sign Barfield.
So Barfield left the Skeeters and joined the Red Sox Double-A team in Portland where he continued to impress in 88 games.  Barfield posted eye-popping numbers in Portland, He hit .288/.359/.584 with 27 homers, then he received a promotion to Triple-A where he went 5 for 11 with another homer in a season-ending promotion.
Barfield re-signed with the Red Sox this winter, and while he comes to camp battling for a job, and will most likely be sent back to Triple-A, Barfield is one of the few power-hitting options that the Red Sox currently have and can potentially use to bolster a team in need of power.

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