Dodgers

Dodgers: Austin Barnes Talks About the Day Baseball Was Called Off

Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes joined David Vassegh to talk about the final days of camp on Friday evening. The veteran backstop also talked about his plans moving forward and how he is spending his free time nowadays.

The Dodgers were just like everyone else in the sports world, completely caught off guard by how quickly the coronavirus pandemic moved. Baseball shut down within a matter of days, with decisions coming very quickly from the league. Barnes talked about those last days at camp and how disappointing it was to stop the momentum.

It was a crazy day that’s for sure, we’ve never been through something like this in our lifetime…it was shocking getting ready for the season building up getting some momentum and all of the sudden coming to an end like that. 

Barnes also talked about how players handled that Thursday and Friday when baseball started to shut down their operations. 

It was a lot of confusion…I don’t think anyone knew what to do baseball-wise…I think everybody just kind of didn’t know what to do. Some guys threw bullpens that last day…no one really knew what was going to happen.

Major League Baseball initially let teams know that they were able to keep their Spring Training facilities open for players. The Dodgers initially did keep camp open for rehabbing players and workouts, but the team shut down Camelback Ranch on Friday. 

Austin Barnes was off to a smoking-hot start in Spring Training after a pair of very down years offensively. Barnes went 7 for 26 with three extra-base hits and four walks. Between 2018 and 2019, Barnes hit .204 with a combined of 0.8 over the two seasons. The Dodgers had plans of starting Will Smith at catcher in 2020, but Barnes was certainly starting to shift the conversation before an abrupt end to spring. 

 NEXT: Dodgers’ CEO Discusses Paying Employees and Rescheduling the All-Star Game

Back to top button