Former Top Prospect Barrero Elects Free Agency After Orioles Outright

Jose Barrero has elected free agency after being removed from the Baltimore Orioles' 40-man roster, MLB Trade Rumors reported on Thursday morning. The move presumably came by way of outright waivers, and because Barrero has been outrighted in the past, he had the right to elect free agency upon clearing them. The 28-year-old appeared in only two games with Baltimore this season, going one-for-six with a single, and spent the remainder of the year at Triple-A, where he batted .202/.305/.400 with 23 home runs and 13 steals in 499 plate appearances. It continues a frustrating career arc for a player once ranked among the sport's best prospects, climbing as high as No. 33 on Baseball America's top-100 list ahead of the 2022 season. Barrero was a high-profile signing out of his native Cuba, inking a $5 million signing bonus with the Cincinnati Reds back in 2017, and made his big league debut with Cincinnati in 2020. He torched minor league pitching in 2021, hitting a combined .303/.380/.539 between Double-A and Triple-A, but outside of a productive 2023 stint at Triple-A, his numbers have cooled since. He has bounced from the Reds organisation to the Rangers, to the Cardinals and now the Orioles, and is a career .182/.238/.256 hitter with a 36.2 percent strikeout rate in 484 major league plate appearances.