Darwin Barney

Darwin Barney is a former Gold Glove-winning second baseman who spent parts of five MLB seasons with the Chicago Cubs.

Barney was one of the best collegiate players in the country while starring for the Oregon State Beavers, who won back-to-back national championships with Barney manning the keystone in 2006 and 2007. He won numerous accolades and awards, ultimately positioning himself as a premier draft prospect.

As such, the Cubs selected Barney with the 127th overall pick in the 2007 MLB Draft. He posted strong stats in the minors, never quite becoming a top prospect but remaining on the radar of everyone who followed the farm system at the time (for a modern equivalent, think someone like Alexander Canario or Matt Mervis).

The middle-infielder made his big league debut on August 11, 2010, following the team's decision to trade Mike Fontenot to the San Francisco Giants. He didn't play much during that cup of coffee, earning just 79 at-bats in 30 appearances while splitting time at second base with rookie sensation Starlin Castro. However, he came out of the gates on fire next spring, winning the starting second base job over Jeff Baker and Blake DeWitt. He earned NL Rookie of the Month honors after hitting .326 with 14 RBIs in April, ultimately settling for seventh in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Of course, those who remember Barney remember that his prowess wasn't at the plate — it was in the field. Sure, the second baseman slashed a somewhat respectable .244/.290/.335 in 542 games on the North Side, but those numbers are hardly anything more than replacement-level production at second base. He posted a ridiculous 28 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) in 155 games at the position in 2012, winning the first second base Gold Glove for the Cubs since Ryne Sandberg's nine-year reign from 1983 to 1991. In that season, he tied the MLB record for consecutive errorless games at second base with 141 games. He famously lost the Gold Glove to Brandon Phillips in 2013 in a narrow race.

Unfortunately, that would be pretty much all she wrote for Barney in Chicago, as his waning defensive contributions (mostly due to nagging injuries) stopped being capable of masking his offensive deficiencies. He was designated for assignment in July 2014, getting traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers a week later for minor league pitcher Jonathan Martinez.

Barney was wildly productive following that trade, posting an .895 OPS in 45 plate appearances, which earned him a one-year contract from the Dodgers in 2015. However, he struggled again, getting traded for the second time in a calendar year, this time to the Toronto Blue Jays. The cycle repeated, as a brilliant post-trade stint earned him a few more deals in Toronto, though he never recaptured that early-career magic he had with the Cubs.

After failing to make the Texas Rangers' roster in 2018, Barney retired from professional baseball. Barney is now a coach at his alma mater Oregon State. He is also an investor in the Portland Diamond Project, a group dedicated to bringing a Major League Baseball franchise to Portland, Oregon.