The Tres Barrera who is up with the Nationals now, producing at the plate, and handling all of Washington’s pitchers behind it, is a different player than the one Davey Martinez saw in Spring Training.
“He’s been up here with a different attitude,” Martinez said after Barrera connected for his first MLB home run in Monday night’s 18-1 win over the Miami Marlins.
“He just wants to learn every day,” the manager continued. “He’s done a great job with our pitching staff, he’s out there, he’s working, he’s working on hitting with [Hitting Coach Kevin Long] and [Assistant Hitting Coach Pat Roessler] in the cages, and really took a lot of things that we talked about with him in Spring Training to heart, and worked on things, and you can see that he’s improved a lot and he’s playing well.