Free agent righty Matt Garza is set to undergo surgery for a torn right shoulder labrum, according to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. It seems the injury was sustained in a mid-season collision that knocked Garza out of commission for a time but did not end his season.
Now 34 years of age, Garza just wrapped up a four-year, $50MM deal with Milwaukee. (The contract had included an option provision, but it was voided when he reached an appearances threshold.) His future as a pitcher appears uncertain now that he’s facing down a significant procedure.
As McCalvy notes, Garza was throwing rather well when he crashed into Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar on June 3rd. Though he landed on the DL, Garza returned and pitched through the injury — the extent of which was evidently not fully appreciated or fully expressed at that time. He continued to provide solid frames for the Brewers for a while and never really exhibited a velocity loss. Nevertheless, Garza lost his edge in an ugly run of outings during August.
The tough finish to the 2017 season left Garza with 114 2/3 innings of 4.94 ERA ball. Though he did manage to top the century mark in frames in each of his four seasons in Milwaukee, Garza only managed a 4.65 earned run average during his time there.
Prior to signing on with the Brewers, of course, Garza had been a steadily useful pitcher, with a 3.84 ERA and 7.6 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 through over a thousand MLB innings. He turned in a solid first campaign, with a 3.64 ERA through 27 outings, but things trended sharply south in 2015 and Garza never full returned to form.
Poor guy. He always se me to be hurt.
He’s always frothing at the mouth and yelling like a Neanderthal.
special ed.
You must be thinking of Carlos Zambrano “Big Z”
The paragraph should read “Garza just fleeced the brewers out of 49.9 million.”
He had injuries and inconsistencies? God you people are all so hostile.
I recall when the Rangers traded for him. Amongst others CJ Edwards, Neil Ramirez and Justin Grimm now have WS rings and we let Garza walk for good reason.
Poor guy? He has had a career any player would retire with happily.. Played on mostly contenders and in a world series in 2008.. Also, he was dominant of the Red Sox in the ALCS in 2008.. Plus, he has $80 million in the bank.. I am sure he would like to retire on his own terms.. But, he probably didn’t have much left anyway if this injury is indeed career ending..
He’s the reason younger Brewer fans want nothing to do with Jake Arrieta.
Older Brewer fans will throw in Jeff Suppan as another reason for wanting nothing to do with Jake Arrieta.
These mythical fans of which you speak, I think they would be ecstatic to see the front office press the pedal down and spend some money.
Not really. Keep the money.
Then get used to finishing behind Chicago and St. Louis.
They already are.
As long as they spend it smart, then sure. But I’m also not convinced that a small market team throwing $100MM+ at Arietta or Darvish is going to put them over the top. There are probably better ways to spend their money and fill out the payroll
Last year they finished ahead of the Cardinals!
or Randy wolf, Kyle lohse, too
David risks
Randy Wolf – total professional. The others, well…
Lohse actually had a couple of decent seasons
Someone actually said poor guy? LOL
He just made 50 million in 4 years.
Sorry for injury but that person n should get real.
I think it was just an “expression”, so to speak
no injury should be appreciated. what a poor choice of words
This has Baltimore written all over it.
So a guy can rob a bank of $800 and get 10 years in jail but a baseball player can sit back injured and wait for a team to offer him $5,000,000 and hope they don’t catch the torn labrum in the physical and that’s okay? B.S., unless his agent disclosed the injury going into free agency.
What?
In other words, you have no idea what you are talking about, but if you did, it might make sense.
By the way, if the team doctors missed it, in full or part, that’s on the team, not Garza.
This is correct. The team and player must also reach an agreement regarding medical cost responsibilty.
How is that remotely relevant
He’s still a FA. And got hurt during the last year of his contract. He robbed no one, no one paid 5 million for him to sit out 2018 and IF he was a FA and signed and no one caught his shoulder it would be on them not him, since he probably doesn’t go to a regular doctor on his own
Enjoy your retirement.
One of the worst signings in Brewers history Christ the guy can’t even throw a ball to first base who signs a guy like that this guy did nothing but take money from us brewer fans
Hyperbole much?
Lester can’t throwe 1B and that’s worked great for Chicago
During the NLDS, at first base, Ryan Zimmerman was caught stealing by Jon Lester.
He also had the yips and couldn’t hold a runner on first or throw to first base since 2012. 1 pick off in 5 years is not something to be optimistic about.
Garza didn’t take any money from us! The team you chose to follow signed him to a big contract. You continued to follow that team. Garza didn’t suffer injuries on purpose. Suppan didn’t suck on purpose. (Johnny Estrada sure didn’t help him any!)
It’s frustrating as a fan of a small market team because FA’s do not want to sign with us. We usually have to overpay just to lure them in.
I’ve included some extra punctuation marks that you can try using in your next post. That one was very hard to read, LOL.
………,,,,,,,,,????????!!!!!!!!!;;;;;;;;;::::::::::
I remember like it was yesterday how most brewers fans on here were so giddy about getting him late in Jan of 14. It’s probably the same guys who are saying spend money to sign Arrieta or Darvish now. I just went back and tried to read the comments from 2014 but they must delete them. They shouldn’t delete them I wanna go back and read them for lulz.
This is a guy who was very promising rising up through the minors onto the twins as a two-pitch reliever. Really took off with the Rays when he added pitches and never looked back. Even on the wrong side of 30 he really did a decent job for the brewers even with all those miles on his arm. This might be retirement for him. He didn’t come that expensive either.
Sorry meant he wasn’t that expensive as most starters command. But he held up alright
Why wouldn’t you just get another burrito Todd?
Snap
Interesting career. 12.3BWAR, ERA+ 101, Sub replacement value in each of the last 3 years. $80M in career earnings. I suppose I get it: 11.3 WAR over a four year stretch 2008-11 but after that his teams were always chasing what amounted to a fantasy.
I’m not at all saying I feel sorry for any big leaguer, but I hope everyone realizes that they only earn 35% of their contracts. Agents take a typical 15% cut off the top, and about 50% goes to taxes. Garza really only earned about $28 million. That’s an average of $2.3 million for every year that he pitched.
Agents do not pull that type of cut on contracts, Scott Boras only pulls in 4.7%. Agents make their change on endorsement deals not contracts. Taxes are also not that high as you find most players claim residency in states that offer substantial tax breaks for players (Michigan, Arizona) or are income-tax free to begin with (Florida, Nevada, Texas)
Taxes are paid based on where game is played. If they live in a easy taxed state, they still have to pay tax rate for city/state of their away games.
I was referring to FEDERAL taxes which are paid by everyone. I don’t have income tax in TN either. I paid 28% last year. Where did you find those numbers about Boras?
Not every state has the Jock Tax yet, there’s still like 4 or 5 states who have MLB teams that don’t last i knew. Even if they all do now, outside of their state the team resides in, tax on that is small peanuts
Still not that bad and depending on where Garza lives and how he’s filed. Obviously they’re in a different stratosphere of a tax bracket than most of the general population, but they’re pulling in way more than 50% of their contracts
Not even close to 15% for agents. Some may get as little as 3%
I once heard it was 15% industry standard. Where can I find a list of all-time agent cuts?
Google. It’s one of the first links if you look up agents percentage MLB.
Good lord no. Baseball has no cap on what Agents can charge their clients for as percentage (basketball and hockey, I think, are right around 3%) but if Boras is charging 4.7% you can bet there’s very few people above that