Felipe "Tres" Barrera III (born September 15, 1994) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

in the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

organization. He has played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

Early life and amateur career

Barrera was born in

Eagle Pass, Texas Eagle Pass is a city in and the county seat of Maverick County in the U.S. state of Texas. Its population was 28,130 as of the 2020 census. Eagle Pass borders the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, which is to the southwest and across th ...

and grew up there until his family moved to the

Rio Grande Valley The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The ...

when he was ten years old. He attended

Sharyland High School Sharyland High School is a high school in Mission, Texas, United States. The school, which is classified as "5A" by the UIL, is a part of the Sharyland Independent School District. The school primarily serves Sharyland, an unincorporated rura ...

, where he played both football and baseball. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. In 2014, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Cotuit Kettleers The Cotuit Kettleers are a collegiate summer baseball team based in the village of Cotuit, Massachusetts, which is in the southwest corner of the town of Barnstable. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the lea ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

, and returned to the league in 2015 to play for the

Orleans Firebirds The Orleans Firebirds, formerly the Orleans Cardinals, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Orleans, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Firebirds play t ...

. As a junior, Barrera was named honorable mention All-

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

after batting .289 with six home runs, 17 doubles, 35 runs scored and 37 runs batted in.

Professional career

Washington Nationals

Minor leagues

Barrera was drafted in the 6th round (184th overall) by the

in the

2016 MLB Draft The 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 9, 2016, to assign amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order is the reverse order of the 2015 MLB season standings. In addition, compensation picks will be d ...

. After signing with the Nationals he was assigned to the

Auburn Doubledays The Auburn Doubledays are a collegiate summer baseball team of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) that is located in Auburn, New York. From 1958 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League (NYPL) ...

Class A Short Season Class A Short Season (officially Short-Season A) was a level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States from 1965 through 2020. In the hierarchy of minor league classifications, it was below Triple-A, Double-A, Class A-Advanced (cre ...

New York–Penn League The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed th ...

, where he hit .244 with three home runs and 17 RBIs in 48 games. He batted .278 with eight home runs and 27 RBIs and 28 runs scored in 67 games the following season for

Hagerstown Suns The Hagerstown Suns were a Minor League Baseball team based in Hagerstown, Maryland. They were a member of the South Atlantic League and, from 2007 through 2020, were the Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They played their home g ...

of the Class A

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

, although his playing time was limited due to a broken finger on his throwing hand. He spent the 2018 season with the

Class A-Advanced High-A (officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing) is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A and Double-A, and abov ...

Potomac Nationals The Potomac Nationals were a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League. They were located in Woodbridge, Virginia, and played their home games at Northwest Federal Field at Pfitzner Stadium. After the 2019 season, the team relocated to Fr ...

, slashing .263/.334/.386 with six home runs, 36 runs scored and 24 driven in and was named a

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

All-Star. He was selected by the Nationals to play in the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season sports league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during the autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are fill ...

for

Salt River Rafters The Salt River Rafters are a baseball team that plays in the East Division of the Arizona Fall League. They play their home games at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick near Scottsdale, Arizona. The ballpark is also the spring training facility o ...

after the end of the season. Barrera participated in 2019 spring training as a member of the Major League camp, but was assigned to the Double-A

Harrisburg Senators The Harrisburg Senators are a Minor League Baseball team of the Eastern League, and the Double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who play their home games at FNB Field on City Island, which opened in 1987 a ...

for the season, hitting .249/.323/.381/.704 with 8 home runs and 46 RBI.

Major Leagues

The Nationals selected Barrera's contract on September 8, 2019. He made his Major League debut on September 14, 2019, against the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

, lining out in a pinch-hit at bat. Barrera played in two games with the Nationals in 2019, going hitless in two at-bats. The Nationals finished with a 93–69 record in 2019, good enough to clinch a wild card spot. Barrera did not take part in any postseason action as the Nationals went on to win the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

over the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

, their first in franchise history. On July 24, 2020, Barrera was suspended 80 games for testing positive for

dehydrochlormethyltestosterone Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (CDMT; brand name Oral Turinabol), also known as 4-chloro-17β-hydroxy17α-methylandrosta-1,4-dien-3-one, is an anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS). It is the 4-chloro-substituted derivative of metandienone (dehy ...

. He appealed the decision and his suspension was reduced to the duration of the 2020 season, after which he was reinstated from the restricted list. On July 19, 2021, Barrera hit his first MLB home run for the Nationals, a solo blast off of

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The franc ...

pitcher

Ross Detwiler Ross Emery Detwiler (born March 6, 1986) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Washington Nationals in the first round of the 2007 MLB draft and made his MLB debut late that season. He ...

. Appearing in 30 games for Washington in 2021, Barrera logged a .264/.374/.385 batting line with 2 home runs and 10 RBI. In 2022, Barrera appeared in 19 games for the Nationals, batting .180/.212/.200 with no home runs and 4 RBI. The majority of his season was spent with the Triple-A

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Field ...

, where he slashed .254/.338/.424 with 7 home runs and 25 RBI. He elected free agency on November 10, 2022.

St. Louis Cardinals

On January 20, 2023, Barrera signed a minor league contract with the

organization.

Personal

Barrera is of

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

descent and is fluent in both English and Spanish. Barrera's wife, Lindsey, gave birth to the couple's first child, a son, in 2020, but he died the same day. Their daughter was born in 2022.

References

External links

Texas Longhorns bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrera, Tres 1994 births Living people American baseball players of Mexican descent American sportspeople in doping cases Auburn Doubledays players Baseball players from Texas Cotuit Kettleers players Hagerstown Suns players Harrisburg Senators players Leones del Escogido players American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Major League Baseball catchers Major League Baseball players suspended for drug offenses Orleans Firebirds players People from Eagle Pass, Texas Potomac Nationals players Rochester Red Wings players Salt River Rafters players Texas Longhorns baseball players Washington Nationals players