At the Helm: A Look at Travis Barbary’s First Season Managing the OKC Dodgers
Apple iPhones had yet to come out.
Windows XP was the most up-to-date operating system on PCs.
NBC’s “The Office” was in its second season.
LeBron James had yet to play for a NBA team other than the Cleveland Cavaliers.
All of this was true the last time Oklahoma City Dodgers Manager Travis Barbary was at the helm of a minor league baseball team in 2006. Barbary was then in his fourth year of managing, after spending two seasons with both the Rookie-level Ogden Raptors and the Low-A Columbus Catfish.
Now 13 years later, Barbary is wrapping up his first season managing the Triple-A OKC Dodgers, who are in the midst of their final homestand of the 2019 Pacific Coast League season at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
He acknowledges his return to managing has come with some adjustments this season, as he’s adapted to managing at a higher level of play, and how much the sport has evolved over the last 13 seasons.
“The levels I was at before, it was those kids’ first or second year out of college,” Barbary said. “The players’ maturity level and baseball knowledge is different [at the Triple-A level]. There is a lot more information that you are given on a daily basis, as far as scouting reports and our defensive positioning.”
Amid the changes, Barbary’s day-to-day demeanor really sets him apart.
“I think the biggest thing with Travis, he really loves and cares for these guys,” OKC Dodgers Coach Jeremy Rodriguez said. “He treats everyone exactly the same….He’s the same guy every day no matter if we lost every game that month or won every game that month. I think that’s something the players really respect and enjoy playing for.”
One tell for Barbary’s kind demeanor appears in his favorite television show of all-time — “The Andy Griffith Show,” which he credits for purposefully teaching life lessons.
“I actually tell people that every episode that I’ve watched, which is all of them, I think you can take some type of lesson from it.” Barbary said. “Whether it’s how to be a better person; how to treat your neighbor; how to give more to people in need — there’s always something good to be taken from it.”
Barbary, 47, is in his 25th season in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization, a stretch that has spanned his career as both a player and coach — as well as a period in which handled both.
“Player-coaches were a thing with the Dodgers years ago, where they would take a minor league player who wasn’t a prospect, who they thought would be a good coach one day, and they would just keep you on a player’s contract and start transitioning into a coaching role,” Barbary said. “Whether it be coaching first base, working with infielders or outfielders, throwing batting practice, or hitting ground balls. [Then] if the team had an injury, they had the option to activate you and you would play.”
Barbary transitioned into a coaching-only role and, following his four years of managing, spent the past 12 seasons as a roving catching instructor for the Dodgers, which makes the organization’s depth at the catching position that much more special.
“It’s a really good time in this organization for catchers,” Barbary said. “Whether you have a guy like Will Smith, obviously Austin Barnes is [playing with Oklahoma City] now — he’s a special talent behind the plate, Keibert Ruiz, Connor Wong, Diego Cartaya, they’re really deep at the catching position. I feel like you can never have enough catchers that have a chance to make an impact at the Major League level, so fortunately we have a lot of those guys right now.”
There are two catchers in the Dodgers organization that share more in common with Barbary than the others: His son Chase, who signed with the Dodgers as a free agent June 10, and Dodgers top catching prospect Ruiz, who has lived with Barbary’s family for parts of the past three offseasons.
“I’m really thankful the Dodgers gave Chase an opportunity to sign,” Barbary said. “When he was younger, probably 13 or 14 years old, he started catching bullpens when I would travel to [Double-A] Chattanooga, so he got acclimated to the environment and to pitchers who threw hard and had really good breaking balls and sliders. It helped him. It was really nice to have him here.”
Ruiz, who is from Valencia, Venezuela, lived with Barbary’s family in the offseason to get adjusted to living in the United States and work on learning the English language.
“He’s really close with my family, my kids, my wife,” Barbary said. “They love him like their own brother. He’s a special kid. Sweet kid. Good heart. It’s really cool that I got to spend some time with him in Oklahoma City. He has a bright future.”
Having a former catcher as a head coach not only pays dividends behind the plate, but for the pitching staff as well.
“I think it’s a great benefit having a catcher as a manager,” said OKC Dodgers Pitching Coach Bill Simas, who pitched professionally for 16 seasons, including six years with the Chicago White Sox. “When we talk about things, he’s talking from a catcher’s point of view and I’m talking from a pitcher’s point of view.”
Barbary credits his coaching staff to helping him make the transition.
“Those guys have been great,” Barbary said. “J-Rod [Jeremy Rodriguez] does a great job preparing, he brings a lot of energy and has done a great job at third base for us. With [Bill] Simas and Cooly [Hitting Coach Scott Coolbaugh], because of their experience and the time that they’ve spent at the higher levels, it’s good for me because I can ask some questions on the situations that come up and see how they would handle it.”
The coaching staff has seen a lot success first-hand with players in Oklahoma City, so it is no surprise to Barbary that so many players are making impacts at the next level with Los Angeles.
“These guys are not just going up, they’re going up and performing well,” Barbary said. “It’s good to see that they’ve prepared the right way, so when they get there, they’re not mauled by the situation and the environment and they can go up and do their thing.”
