Prime example of when not to roll if the outcome is going to lead to nonsense.
Only time I could see calling for a check for a barbarian here is if they were over encumbered or doing so with no hands.
At first I read that as over-encumbered and with no hands, and I thought I'd probably give disadvantage on that.
Created an interactive character sheet for sidekicks on Google Sheets - automatic calculations, drop down menus for sidekick type, hopefully everything necessary to run a sidekick: https://tinyurl.com/y6rnyuyc