Bio

Jordan Barrett enters his first year with the Grizzlies and third season of professional baseball in 2019.

An 18th-round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2017 MLB Draft, Barrett compiled a 9-4 record with a 3.10 ERA across 110 1/3 innings in 2017 and 2018. He reached the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Eastern League last season. New Hampshire was the fourth Jays affiliate for which the southpaw pitched over two years in Toronto’s system. He also spent time with the Rookie-level Bluefield (Tenn.) Blue Jays, Short Season-A Vancouver Canadians, and Class-A Lansing (Mich.) Lugnuts.

In 51 innings last season with Lansing, Barrett was 4-2 with a 3.18 ERA. He struck out 32 and walked 16. The Lugnuts are members of the Class-A Midwest League, often considered the affiliated league most similar to the Frontier League’s quality of play. Barrett was also briefly teammates with Blue Jays sensation Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in New Hampshire.

Before pro ball, Barrett pitched for two years at NCAA Div. I Elon (N.C.) University. As a senior in 2017, he was 4-5 with a 3.22 ERA over 78 innings. He struck out an incredible 100 batters and walked only 32. Barrett combined with teammate George Kirby to throw a no-hitter in his final college appearance on May 25, 2017, against the College of Charleston; it was the first no-hitter in the history of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament ... but the Phoenix lost 1-0. Barrett and Kirby combined to walk three and hit two with pitches, allowing a fifth-inning earned run on an RBI groundout.

Barrett, who will turn 24 on June 24, is also known for allowing very few home runs — a distinct positive at GCS Credit Union Ballpark, one of the smallest anywhere in professional baseball. Over 110 1/3 professional innings, he’s given up only five home runs — or 0.41 per nine innings. For perspective, Clayton Kershaw is the active MLB leader in fewest home runs allowed per nine innings: he concedes 0.63 HR/9.

(As a fun fact: Kershaw’s number is good for only 530th in MLB history. Almost all pitchers toward come from baseball’s very early history when home runs were rare occurrences. The all-time record, which will almost certainly never be broken, belongs to Jim Devlin, who pitched in the big leagues for the Chicago White Stockings [1875] and the Louisville Grays [1876-1877]. Over only three seasons, Devlin pitched 157 games [153 starts], including 68 games [all starts] in 1876 — 66 of the 68 were complete games. He went 72-76 for his career with a 1.90 ERA and allowed seven home runs over 1,405 innings pitched — an average of 468 1/3 innings per season.)