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Ahem.

Even established players with multimillion-dollar multi-year contracts know they have to keep proving it, day in and night out, in camp, during the season. But we’ll allow for a dollop of youth brash and smarty-pants.

The 23-year-old has indeed widened eyes in his first time on the major-league side of the ledger at the Jays complex and held his own in the big league clubhouse, purportedly not overawed by his surroundings. “Not intimidating, just fun. You get treated better. Everything’s nicer. Obviously better than the minor-league side.”

Although that’s where Barger was returned late Monday night. It was just a matter of time.

He looks a bit like Bo Bichette, with the hairband holding back the longish locks. Sturdy build, his shoulders have shoulders.

The Jays have given him a nice long look, with manager John Schneider getting the fledgling into 15 games. Barger hit .294 in 34 at-bats. Though a career shortstop, Schneider used him in four positions in the infield and outfield.

“I hope they saw my work ethic, that I play hard and compete every day, that I have lots to bring,” Barger said. It certainly sounds like Schneider got the picture.

“What I like was a lot,” the skipper said. “Offensive potential, obviously. Hitting the ball really hard. I think we kind of know from last year what he can do at the plate, but I was pleased with his defensive work, the way he ran the bases, the versatility he’s adding with the outfield work. He looked pretty comfortable out there as well.

“He did a really, really nice job just building off what he did last year. What’s going to be key for him is getting some more games in Triple-A under his belt, just continuing to do what he was doing here. But he had a really good camp.”

About last year …

Barger, drafted out of a Tampa high school in the sixth round in 2018, whipsawed through three levels of minor-league baseball in 2022 following two years of rookie ball, going from Vancouver to New Hampshire to Buffalo, albeit for less than two weeks with the Bisons at the end of the season. He led the Northwest League in runs batted in (53), was second in batting average (.300) and tied for third in home runs. He hit 25 homers across the three stages of the pc28����chain.

“I don’t think I’ll ever hit less than 30 homers in a season again,” Barger predicted rather, well, cockily. “I guess if that’s a power hitter, then I’m a power hitter.”

He was always self-assured in his defence but it’s the acquittal in the batter’s box where he believes he has most improved, especially in his mental approach. “Before I was a little more antsy at the plate, nervous. Jump on a fastball. Which I still like to do. But picking and choosing when you want to take a chance, sit on a heater, sit on other pitches. Just have a relaxed approach at the plate. That was big for me.”

The six-footer hails from Bellevue, Wash., although he moved to Florida when he was six years old. By then, groomed to baseball by his dad from age three, he was already in thrall to his idol, Ichiro Suzuki, the 10-time all-star who became the first MLB player to enter the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

“I absolutely loved Ichiro.”

Barger imitated Suzuki’s swing and turned his natural righty-hitting self into an imitation lefty. “I have a very Japanese-style swing, left-handed. It’s where the leg kick came from. They have a very different style of swinging. Ichiro, for example, gets momentum because he can kind of slap it around. All the Japanese players have leg kicks, they like the big moves. So it’s something I picked up on when I started hitting left-handed.”

He fashioned himself into a switch-hitter by age 10 by sheer dogged repetition, focusing on making contact and slapping the ball through the infield, but ultimately discarded hitting from the right entirely. Mostly because a coach in young adolescence advised he’d never even play college ball if he stuck to hitting left. Barger didn’t like that prognosis at all and rejected it. As he told a reporter later, “I was like, ‘Screw that.’ I started hitting just lefty to prove them wrong. Whatever, I did it my way.”

You have to admire that kind of chutzpah, though at some point Barger says he may revert to switch-hitting because it’s a valued skill.

He wasn’t remotely keen on playing college baseball — “I wanted to play pro ball” — nor did his family steer him in that direction. “Absolutely not. We’re not a big college family.”

Thing is, the Jays have a glut of infielders and Bichette has shortstop locked down for the next three years after signing a new $33.6-million (U.S.) contract and avoiding arbitration. But there’s an intriguing pathway through the infield blockade, should third baseman Matt Chapman, entering his free agent year at age 29, be the premium name available for the hot corner next off=season.

Barger chatted up the Gold Glover plenty over the past few weeks, seeking third base insight. “I’ve probably talked to him the most. Just certain things about playing third base. I’m not really a third baseman so I was trying to learn something that he knows about. Every time we were out there taking ground balls, I’d ask him questions about it and he’d help me out.”

Schneider’s shorter-term plan for Barger, despite the experiment in the outfield, is “to stick to the infield mostly. Try to expand his tool box, but it’ll be predominantly infield.”

Patience is hard for a player who looks to be on the cusp of breaking through. There’s a good chance Barger will get up to this show later this season, if only when rosters expand in September. He is on the 40-man roster and can still be plugged into the Jays lineup for Florida games. “He’s on the roster and he’s had a great camp,” Schneider said. “Left a really good impression on us.”

But, man, Barger is dying to turn that corner, literally from the minor-league annex to the major-league sprawl of the facility here.

“I’ve been dreaming about this my whole life.”