His rampant success in 2017 went through a rapid depression and the offseason, something a team hopes to be a bridge between a successful campaign and another one, was merely a pause long enough for Barnes numbers to digress to nearly unusable. Grandal maintained his starting spot, Barnes hit .205 and 2018 season was a stark change from the previous year to the current.
The hopeful excuse to Barnes downfall was a slump. His groundball numbers were through the roof in 2018 and they were the easy scapegoat reason for the uninspiring campaign. The presumed fix to the issue was for him to lift the ball more, push it to the outfield more and see the results of a technique change.