The Cardinals offered left-hander Jaime Garcia in talks with other clubs prior to the August 1 trade deadline, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports (subscription required). Garcia was deemed expendable since Alex Reyes and Luke Weaver are ticketed for roles in next year’s St. Louis rotation; indeed, both young starters have already stepped into starting roles, with Reyes recently taking Garcia’s spot.
It has been an up-and-down year for Garcia, who has a 4.70 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.54 K/B rate and 56.7% ground ball rate over 166 2/3 innings for the Cards this season. On the bright side, that innings total is the second-highest of Garcia’s eight-year MLB career, an encouraging sign for a pitcher who has been plagued with injuries in recent years. Unfortunately, Garcia also has a career-high home run rate (19.2%) that has inflated his ERA. Advanced metrics such as SIERA (3.99), FIP (4.43) and xFIP (3.82) indicate that Garcia has been a bit unlucky to post that 4.70 total, though he hasn’t helped himself with some rough recent outings. Garcia has an 8.28 ERA over his last 29 1/3 innings, a cold streak that forced the Cardinals’ hand in moving Reyes into the starting five.
Despite these issues, Garcia certainly still has some value to other teams. It’s possible that with a full season under his belt after years of shortened campaigns, Garcia will be better suited to avoid a late-season fade in 2017. The Cardinals have a $12MM club option on the 30-year-old for 2017 and Olney notes that some in baseball believe St. Louis will decline that option to part ways with the lefty and allocate that money elsewhere.
This winter’s starting pitching free agent market, however, is so incredibly thin that it might be worth it for the Cards to exercise their option and shop Garcia during the offseason, rather than let him go for nothing. As Olney observes in his piece, the Cardinals will face some difficult decisions in addressing their defense and one-dimensional offense in the winter, so Garcia’s presence gives the club an extra trade chip.
Garcia still a solid starter because he has experience
Many teams who wanted number three starter should get him
Considering how poorly he’s pitched this year, and his injury history, I’m surprised to hear there were any takers. Hopefully, he isn’t in the rotation next year, I’d much rather see Weaver and/or Reyes in
there weren’t any takers
shopping trash! who wants him ?
Sad thing is half teams will want him and he will make big bucks
there is always someone. lol
Send him to Arizona for Robbie Ray
Will probably end up a Phil to save some innings from the young arms next year. Or another team in a similar capacity.
Wait, both Reyes and Weaver are slated for next year’s rotation? Even assuming Jaime Garcia is gone, will the Cards go to a 7-man rotation? Because I don’t see Wainwright, Wacha, Martinez, Leake and Lynn going anywhere. Even if Wacha is bumped to the ‘pen, I don’t see both Reyes and Weaver making the rotation. Unless they plan to ship out Lance Lynn.
I shopped Garcia when he left the big game last year for the flu.