The Twins have claimed outfielder Kyle Garlick off waivers from the Braves, per a team announcement. Left-hander Brandon Waddell was designated for assignment in order to open a space on the 40-man roster.
It’s the latest stop in a growing list of organizations for Garlick, 29, whose stay with the Braves will only prove to last for a few days. Garlick was the Dodgers’ 28th-round pick back in 2015, but in the past calendar year he’s been traded to the Phillies, claimed by the Braves and now claimed by the Twins.
Minnesota still needs a 40-man spot to make Alex Colome’s one-year deal final, so it’s far from a sure thing that Garlick will last on the roster for too long. It’s fairly common for clubs to claim a player and then try to pass him through outright waivers shortly thereafter — thus allowing the team to retain him without committing a 40-man roster spot.
Garlick spent most of the 2020 season at the Phillies’ alternate site in Lehigh Valley, though he did appear in a dozen games at the MLB level. He went just 3-for-22 with a double and seven strikeouts in that time, however. Garlick showed a bit of promise with the Dodgers in 2019 when he made his big league debut and hit .250/.321/.521 with three long balls and four doubles in a small sample of 53 plate appearances. He’s a career .281/.332/.568 hitter in 645 Triple-A plate appearances and does have a minor league option remaining as well.
As for the 26-year-old Waddell, he was a 2015 fifth-rounder by the Pirates out of Virginia. He made his MLB debut last year with Pittsburgh and tossed 3 1/3 innings with a pair of strikeouts and walks apiece. The Twins claimed him off waivers back on Oct. 30.
Waddell has a strong track record up through the Double-A level and was solid at Triple-A in 2018 as well. Like most Triple-A pitchers in 2019, however, his season was an unmitigated disaster as offensive levels spiked to all-time highs in that league amid the widely held belief that the ball was juiced. (Triple-A adopted the same ball used in MLB that season.) Even after being clobbered for 59 runs in 61 innings of Triple-A ball that year, Waddell has a 4.12 ERA in 478 minor league frames with a 20.4 percent strikeout rate and a 9.8 percent walk rate. He’s not a huge strikeout pitcher but induces grounders at an above-average clip and has two minor league options remaining.
Great news, now we can here the same recycled garlic jokes for the 3rd time this offseason. That being said, he seems to have some potential.
The player’s name jokes had gotten a bit stale since the last Hand and Garlick transactions. In a way, another round of recycled Garlick jokes will almost be a blessing. Almost.
Haven’t seen Griffin Canning I’m a while, either. That is such a deplorable practice.
If you can’t handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
You recycle garlic? Strange…
Heck, I wasn’t aware of the staleness factor either. Gonna have to check the ol’ pantry. This jokes’ thread has been an informative one.
Least now the Twins are safe from vampire attacks.
Kyle Garlick: Vampire Slayer
My wife would be all over this series!
Should add a little flavor to the AAA roster
Oh come now…do you think ROCCO was going to let Garlick get past him?
At this rate, Garlick will have been part of all 30 organizations by next Wednesday
Garlic goes well with everything
Can’t go wrong adding garlick to anything!
Twins got themselves a gamer. Garlick has onions.
Garlick stinks
(Rimshot)
Twins messing with players’ families!
How many teams has Garlick been on at this point lmao