Washington Nationals reliever Aaron Barrett had a beautiful moment on Saturday.
Barrett pitched a scoreless inning in the Nationals’ game at Atlanta. Ordinarily we wouldn’t make a big deal out of a scoreless inning, but this had so much meaning for Barrett.
The 31-year-old pitched 70 career innings in the Major Leagues — 40.2 in 2014 and 29.1 in 2015. Then he underwent Tommy John surgery, and then he literally broke his arm while returning from the surgery. He missed all of 2016 and 2017, pitched well in Single-A last year, and pitched in Double-A this year. The Nats called him up with expanded rosters and put him in the game Saturday.
Check out his emotional reaction after pitching his inning:
Aaron Barrett hasn’t pitched in MLB since 2015.
After multiple arm injuries, the righty tossed a scoreless inning is his first outing back in The Show.
We are crying too. #BiggerThanBaseball pic.twitter.com/73bJfBkdvm
— MLB (@MLB) September 8, 2019
Barrett missed two full seasons. He probably went through plenty of times wondering if his career was over, whether he’d ever make it back to the bigs, and whether the game was sending him a message. He persevered, made it back, and is trying to help the club down the stretch. You love to see it.
