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Barnes signs with Angels
6/11/2018 9:15:00 AM | Baseball
Catcher is 5th GCU player to go pro this week
Grand Canyon catcher Griffin Barnes signed a professional contract with the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. Barnes marks the fifth GCU player to join the professional ranks in the past week.
"I feel very blessed and thankful for this opportunity that the Angels are giving me to play pro ball," Barnes said. "It has been the biggest dream of mine ever since I can remember."
Barnes, although playing as a junior in 2018, spent four years with the GCU program after redshirting his first year on campus in 2015.
In his three years of game action, he improved his numbers each season. Barnes culminated his GCU career with a .285 average with 17 RBIs and 23 runs scored in 2018. He started 36 of GCU's 57 games behind the plate, helping lead the Lopes to their second straight Western Athletic Conference title.
Barnes had 13 multi-hit games in his junior campaign including a pair of three-hit efforts in his home state of California at UC Riverside and Loyola Marymount.
"I would like to thank all my teammates and coaches at GCU for an amazing four years," Barnes said. "I truly could not have reached this dream without them."
Coming from a family heavily rooted in baseball, Griffin has a wealth of professional experience at his fingertips. Most notably, his older brother Austin currently plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers while his uncle, Mike Gallego, logged 13 years of MLB experience.
Barnes joins 2017 GCU graduate, AJ Franks, as the most recent non-drafted free agent signees from the program. Franks signed with the Seattle Mariners in August 2017.
Teammates Jake Wong, Mick Vorhof, Zach Malis and Ian Evans all went in last week's MLB Draft, making five GCU players who have turned professional in the past week. Of the five, none had been previously drafted in their baseball careers but turned professional after development during their careers at GCU.
The Lopes now have representatives on nine of the MLB's 30 teams.
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"I feel very blessed and thankful for this opportunity that the Angels are giving me to play pro ball," Barnes said. "It has been the biggest dream of mine ever since I can remember."
Barnes, although playing as a junior in 2018, spent four years with the GCU program after redshirting his first year on campus in 2015.
In his three years of game action, he improved his numbers each season. Barnes culminated his GCU career with a .285 average with 17 RBIs and 23 runs scored in 2018. He started 36 of GCU's 57 games behind the plate, helping lead the Lopes to their second straight Western Athletic Conference title.
Barnes had 13 multi-hit games in his junior campaign including a pair of three-hit efforts in his home state of California at UC Riverside and Loyola Marymount.
"I would like to thank all my teammates and coaches at GCU for an amazing four years," Barnes said. "I truly could not have reached this dream without them."
Coming from a family heavily rooted in baseball, Griffin has a wealth of professional experience at his fingertips. Most notably, his older brother Austin currently plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers while his uncle, Mike Gallego, logged 13 years of MLB experience.
Barnes joins 2017 GCU graduate, AJ Franks, as the most recent non-drafted free agent signees from the program. Franks signed with the Seattle Mariners in August 2017.
Teammates Jake Wong, Mick Vorhof, Zach Malis and Ian Evans all went in last week's MLB Draft, making five GCU players who have turned professional in the past week. Of the five, none had been previously drafted in their baseball careers but turned professional after development during their careers at GCU.
The Lopes now have representatives on nine of the MLB's 30 teams.
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