TODAY: The Marlins officially announced the signing. The contract details are provided by Jon Heyman, who notes that Miami’s 2026 club option is worth $12MM, with a $5MM buyout. Garcia will earn an even $12MM in each of the 2022-25 seasons, and he will also donate $120K per year to the Marlins’ team charity.
NOVEMBER 28: The Marlins have agreed to a four-year contract with free agent Avisail Garcia, SportsGrid’s Craig Mish reports (via Twitter). Garcia will earn $53MM, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Garcia is represented by Mato Sports Management.
Mish notes that this is the largest contract the Marlins have handed out under owners Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter, who purchased the team more than four years ago. The Marlins are “far from done,” tweets Mish. Garcia joins Jesus Sanchez in the Marlins’ outfield, after the club reportedly made a strong push to bring Starling Marte back before he signed with the Mets. The Marlins continue to sit on perhaps the game’s best starting pitching surplus, suggesting GM Kim Ng may solve some of the team’s other needs on the trade market.
MLBTR had predicted a three-year, $36MM contract for Garcia, who managed to snag an extra year and a better average annual value. Garcia’s contract is exactly double that of Mark Canha, who signed with the Mets two days ago at the same $13.25MM AAV. Garcia, 31 in June, posted a fine 115 wRC+ in 135 games for the Brewers this year. Garcia’s two-year, $20MM contract with the Brewers included a provision that converted a $12MM club option into a mutual one once he reached a certain plate appearance threshold in September. That allowed Garcia to become a free agent. Likely fearing acceptance, the budget-conscious Brewers elected not to make the one-year, $18.4MM qualifying offer.
Garcia has had an up-and-down career since signing with the Tigers for $200K as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela back in 2007. The toolsy outfielder reached the Majors as a 21-year-old in 2012 and was traded to the White Sox the following year as part of a three-team deal that sent Jake Peavy to the Red Sox and Jose Iglesias to Detroit. Garcia fell short of expectations in Chicago until a BABIP-driven 138 wRC+ in 2017. After a down 2018 season that culminated in knee surgery, the White Sox chose not to tender Garcia a contract with a projected $8MM arbitration salary looming.
The Rays swooped in with a one-year, $3.5MM free agent contract for Garcia, who rode a 113 wRC+ in 2019 to the aforementioned two-year contract with Milwaukee. It’s fair to question why, two years later, Garcia is coming off a similar season and managed to secure $33MM more than last time. Interestingly, Marte was reportedly “seeking a three- or four-year deal in the $50 million range” back in July when the Marlins attempted to extend him, according to Jordan McPherson and Craig Mish in the Miami Herald. The Marlins didn’t get there, trading Marte for Jesus Luzardo before attempting to sign him back last week. It’s been an odd sequence of events for the Marlins, who ended up with Garcia for a similar price to what Marte might have cost.
The answer to Garcia’s appeal might lie in Statcast, where his top of the charts numbers have always hinted at something more. This year, he ranked in the 73rd percentile for average exit velocity, 98th for maximum exit velocity, 78th for hard hit percentage, and 80th for barrel rate. Garcia simply hits the ball very hard, even if this year’s 29 home runs represented a career best. Garcia pairs his hard-hitting with 88th percentile sprint speed, so his is a rare blend of athleticism. Defensively, Garcia has been a bit below average in Outs Above Average over the past few years.
We’ve seen a flurry of hot stove activity today with three days remaining until the collective bargaining agreement expires, with December 1st serving as a transaction deadline of sorts. Today alone, we’ve seen free agent contracts for Marcus Semien, Corey Kluber, and Garcia, as well as an extension for Byron Buxton. After the CBA expires, ownership is widely expected to lock out the players and freeze free agency, speculatively until the eve of spring training in February. This has created an unprecedented urgency from teams in free agency, resulting in many November contracts that have exceeded expectations.
4 years??
He’ll be traded after two.
You’re going too far, it’s gonna happen at the next deadline.
He was traded from Detroit after getting caught banging Prince Fielder’s wife. Hide your girl Jeter!
With Prince’s weight he couldn’t go as “deep” as Garcia, If you catch my drift.
And this is why the Brewers should have throttled back Garcia by 24 plate appearances when a righty was on the mound. It’s only 24 plate appearances and putting a lefty at the plate could have arguably helped the team. Before anyone starts talking about manipulation that is only 1 plate appearance per week. No one would have been able to say that little of a decrease is manipulation. Especially when putting a lefty in probably would have been better for the team. I could see if he blew the limit out of the water but he spent time on the injured list and only passed the limit by 1 PA per week. Now they lose him for nothing. Even if they didn’t want him they could have kept him for cheap and traded him to a team like the Marlins for prospects that have value. They gave that up just to get 1 extra PA each week.
Terrible take. You can’t suppress a player from reaching a PA limit artificially if you ever want to sign another free agent again. Maybe they should have extended him instead?
Yea, there’s a lot of socially inept takes on here. As much as I support smart decisions, there is a bigger picture to the decisions you make than just their direct outcome. Reputations very much matter in the business world. This is why GMs exist – to bridge the analytical to the practical and the interpersonal.
There is a reason Friedman didn’t QO Kershaw. There is a reason why teams give guys extensions when they don’t need to yet. These men are playing chess while guys like Missed War are learning checkers with the arrogance of a grandmaster.
He has many.
Bingo Chipper
The absolute worst takes on here, get many many likes. Just like the one above by missed war.
The absolute worst comments on here often also put terrible comma splices in the middle of their sentences.
Or they coulda just gave him a QO and had a extra pick.
You cannot purposefully withhold plate appearances, especially in A playoff race. Opens them up to a grievance. Terrible take.
If Bryant couldn’t win his grievance, no one will.
He isn’t worth the money. He got a lot of junk stats. He got it when games were over .
That argument is true for virtually every player who ever had an impressive statistical season. Some of the stats are always going to be empty.
For a small market team like Milwaukee such blatant manipulation would be a death sentence for attracting FAs.
They should have manipulated him. But here is why it’s not really manipulation…
You guys are crazy. You think putting a lefty at the plate once a week when a righty is on the mound constitutes “blatant manipulation?” That’s called trying to win. It so funny every time I bring this up that’s what people say. That’s not manipulation and if it happened no one would be saying the Brewers manipulated anything. They would be saying that the Brewers tried harder to win by taking advantage of the fact that right handed pitchers have a tougher time getting out lefties. In hindsight you can pretend that’s what they would say because I am bringing it up after the fact. If the Brewers had done it in real time no one would be saying that and Milwaukee probably would have won more games by getting at least 24 plate appearances that mismatched the pitcher instead of letting him pitch against a righty.
You guys really think if once a week the Brewers pulled Garcia’s last at bat against a righty to bring in a lefty people would have said, “They are manipulating. Let the right handed pitcher go against the right handed hitter?” No that’s not how it would have played out at all. They would be calling Craig Counsell smart for exploiting the fact a righty was in the mound.
Honestly… Tell me you believe that and I will tell you where to find an idiot in the closest mirror.
They throttled back his at bats in September quite a bit. Were they supposed to bench him the entire month?
Also, based in past performance, next year is likely to be a down year for him, so why further limit his play when he was effective, to “save” him for a season where he’ll probably disappoint?
Nevermind the already overpriced, crowded outfield they are all but stuck with for next year.
What next? Stash Hader on the IL all of 2022 to try and keep his price tag down next winter?
Exploiting lefty righty matchups once a week is not manipulation.
Next year is still an even numbered year, so he’ll probably not be good, and Milwaukee will still have a crowded, overpriced 3some of outfielders. There was no good reason to prevent him from reaching the threshold for the mutual option to kick in. Just give it up.
They shoulda just traded for Grichuk from the jays and they coulda spent less and got a prospect back for a similar Production at less years.
So this is the response to Buxton.
54 mil is nice for 4 years
I’d be happy with it for 27 years TBH.
@ ajrodz1335;
It’s a bit high in years, but not as outrageously as Semien’s was.
The NL East was the worst division in MLB last year. All the teams had massive weaknesses. Then the Braves closed theirs at the trading deadline and rolled from there to a championship.
I appears all the NLE teams are now on a mission to upgrade…..immediately.
The stove is hotter than the surface of the sun right now.
Love seeing the Hot Stove sizzling. Expect to see a lot more deals this year
This week”
This evening.
why? has he been good in the past 4 years? Sign Nick C !!!
He’s been good, don’t think Nick leaves Cinci for Miami. He wants to compete
Avi’s a very underrated player on both sides of the ball and is not old either. He was the 2nd best hitter on a first place team last year.
That’s very brave of the Marlins….
Yikes. Although it could work out, it feels bad to sign a guy coming off of one of his best seasons to a four year deal, especially when you’re a club that doesn’t spend much money (But this means they probably will spend more).
LolMarlins and I like Garcia
giving him 4 is worse then giving Siemien 7
No. The front years are the good ones. Avi is young and this deal is pretty cheap. He could easily be as good as Marte for way less $
Worst comment I’ve seen on Mlbtr in awhile . He can be better then Marte? He does not have that much more power then him he’s not as good of a defender and he’s not as fast there is no chance of him playing better then marte. do you even watch baseball?
I assume that he means that when we look at Marte and Garcia in 2024 and 2025, Garcia may be as good or better than Marte. I am not sure. But Indo know that the Marlins might have to pay a little more to attract a veteran and I like this signing. Too bad they did not keep Duvall though.
It is always possible, however, that Marte will not play nearly as well as you expect.
Come on. It’s baseball. This isn’t the NBA where we know Giannis is better than the average dude every year w near certainty.
Avi is streaky but he can hit and sure he could be better than marte and the chance of that isn’t 1 pct or something. Baseball is always full of surprises. Adam Duvall is knocking 40 bombs and 2 years ago he is in AAA. Lindor goes from a superstar to have a lousy year in 2021. We don’t know what will happen in 2022 and beyond.
he’s faster
Its a heavy contract for someone who did a lot of platooning. But good for Avasail.
Well this has certainly been an eventful hour
It’s going to be so quiet for months come Thursday.
What’s interesting is I thought early signings would lead to some good deals, but everything seems market priced fairly or even a premium.
Which may incentivize players to sign earlier in the future if they know they will get their value either way.
The pending lockout is why some of these deals are getting done early. I’m sure some of these guys would rather just have pen to paper and no uncertainty
So far every notable position player has gotten 1-2 years more than most expectations and projections.
Yep. And in a few days, the two sides will be calling each other names over money.
As Don King said: “Only in America.”
We all chose the wrong professions. We should have become player agents.
A Cey Hey;
Teach your grandchildren to throw left-handed and switch-hit.
The agents will find the family.
@Samuel,
No kids or grandkids, but if I did, I’d suggest they focus on math, communications, and the ins and outs of the business world. I never learned the business part, though it once was a goal. I initially majored in accounting but changed courses because I would have been bored making a living that way. Looking back, maybe I should have settled for boring 🙂
Hi Mark,
Can you fix this sentence/grammer? You put ‘are have agreed’, Should it be ‘have agreed’?
“The Marlins are have agreed to a four-year contract with free agent Avisail Garcia, The Miami Herald’s Craig Mish reports (via Twitter).
Does it make you feel smart to ask them to correct a typo? Did you not understand it? I bet your real fun at parties. Also, I used the wrong your in that last sentence just to ruffle your feathers.
Why does this bother people so much? I would think a professional writer would appreciate having his errors pointed out so he could correct them. Since this site evidently doesn’t have copy editors, I guess it has to be crowd sourced.
Tim D. admitted to me once that he couldn’t afford copy editors for this website. It shows. I don’t understand the aversion that people have to other people’s writings being corrected, either.
They aren’t professional writers, but the point made by the original poster has merit. Some typos are no big deal, but “are have agreed” looks incredibly juvenile and careless.
They absolutely are professional writers.
Why do you think they aren’t professional writers?
Send the correction to the publication or writer in private.
We have never minded having our typos and other errors pointed out. We welcome it and are usually able to fix them quickly and move on to little effect. We’d never be able to post a bunch of stuff quickly while also running it through editors.
might help to spell “grammer” correctly if you’re gonna call someone out.
Josip…
Are you sure you shouldn’t be using double quotes?
Man you all just torched this guy lol love it
You also forgot ending double quote at end of 2nd paragraph!!
BTW it’s spelled grammar, Dolt
Lmao. Can’t imagine any other team came close to offering that amount or years. For a small market team constantly throttled By payroll flexibility, this is a curiously bad move.
Lol they wouldn’t pay Marte but they paid avisail?? I can’t shake my head hard enough
The marlins actually spending money and getting a pretty good player is a good thing. Terms are irrelevant. They have the money and avi is an above average hitter who can dh (likely happening). I think these early signings tell you the owners have money to spend, the league is doing great financially and hopefully this means the lockout is short.
DH looks like it will be Aguilar Cooper and Garcia rotating somehow I’m sure. Probably more Cooper since he can’t stay healthy (and when he’s healthy he’s a great bat).
Wow. They let Marte walk now they sign this average declining guy for the same money they could gotten Marte. Another L for us.
I wouldn’t say Avi is declining, when he just had one of his best overall seasons of his career.
Also, Marte got a good bit more (5/78).
Correction: 4/78 for Marte
Avisail was going to be a FA players always try to do their best on their expiring contract. But this guy is average 4 OF at best. Marte was cheaper during the season when he wanted to stay in Miami.
Mishtake!
They basically gave him the money they offered Marte lol… 4 years for him is a bit of a lot I would’ve offered 3 years.
Why didn’t you?
Because I don’t work for the Marlins??? Lol duh
Then you would not sign any one. Garcia will give them good production for all 4 years of the contract. At least its more likely than Marte producing during the duration of his.
Was just an opinion as a fan looking in. I do hope you’re right!
Interesting take when Garcia hasn’t had two above average seasons back to back in his career… I actually do hope he does well because I’ve always liked him… but it’s far more likely marte outperforms him
Good deal for the Marlins
Players always choose money over winning. Only if the deals are close winning helps. This proves with Garcia. He has to know marlins will be fighting for a top 10 draft pick next year.
Bro, why are you constantly crying. Being a virgin isn’t a personality
It’s always Marlins hate with him. They could acquire Trout for free and he would call it the worst deal in history and such… Then tell you how the Mets are winning the next four world series because they signed Mark Canha.
But wouldn’t give Marte 4/50 lol
Ridiculous contract for a guy who’s ceiling was a 117 OPS+ season.
@ amk1920;
Contract is pretty much in line with those currently being given out on AAV. maybe a year too long. What the Marlins had to pony up.
uh .. 2016?
This could be an effort to get to a $100M floor that could be coming with the new CBA.
Oh God. As a Marlins fan I can say we deserve the ridicule. I was hoping for Conforto and this is what we ended up with instead…a 4th outfielder…sigh. They Should have just given Canha three years if the plan the entire time was to sign a 4th outfielder coming off a career year.
Whoever gets conforto is going to get a really good player. He just needs out of new york. Just had one tough year. Guy can hit.
Conforto so underappreciated in NY.. he’s a well above average player and produced really well once he was full time starting in 2017…2021 was a down year, it happens… I agree whoever gets him will be happy
Sign Soler now. Marlins need Power and the guy recently said he would sign for the Marlins if they called, he’s liberally waiting for an offer from them, Castellanos is going to be expensive.
They’ll be targeting a CF now.
I’ll sign Soler and Puig. The more the better make them compete for spots. We are tired of losing on everything.
No MLB team is signing Puig. Ever.
Soler sucks. The guy had a negative WAR last year and has only had one good year…But damn…now that you mention Puig I much would have preferred him to this guy based on the money
Puig’s troubles run deeper than most people realize. He’s also not as good a player as Garcia.
We need all the bats we can, they can trade later whoever doesnt work for them, thats what they always do.
Soler does not suck. He has bad numbers yes–he has a huge ceiling and like alot of players struggle to put it all together. I would love the raves to sign Soler to a 3 year deal around 27. I believe thats what traderumors projected.
Yes, the stove is a molten glow of white hot metal but in 48 hours the greedy owners and self absorbed athletes will throw ice water on it. Look for the stove to be broken and never get fixed.
The players won’t be locking themselves out in 48 hours. That will be the owners.
Just don’t see how this guy moves the needle for the team. Glad the Braves didn’t bother.
Market is looking good for FA this year. Lot of guys getting extra years and extra $ over the projections.
I feel like this helps out Soler and Rosario. Prices seem like they’re going up.
Solid player but feels like too long of a deal. Curious how his hitting will translate to that park.
Great signing!
Fast,strong arm and 30 years old!
Good to see average teams landing free agents!
Good to see average teams landing free agents!
Give the Marlins a chance. This takes time
Such a huge overpay.
So they choose him instead of Marte. Interesting decision.
They chose him plus $25 mil
For the overall value of the deal, it’s not a bad decision. No team goes from rebuild to a contender all at once.
Reminder: Teams that embark on the biggest spending sprees during the winter tend to disappoint the next season. If a team needs to add several high-priced players, they’re probably not ready to contend. We see this year after year. Notice how the good teams, for the most part, haven’t gotten involved in the foolish spending.
Marte is 2.5 years older, though, too
82 comments in zn hour!
I didn’t know the fishsters
had that many fans…..
The Marlins are back baby!
“The Marlins are far from done” = Kim Ng’s on phone with Refsnyder and Frazier as we speak.
And Joey Wendle.
Makes too much sense. Garcia is one of those players who’s 2-3 younger than what most fans think, too. 4 years makes perfect sense. He’s been inconsistent throughout his career but has been limiting that inconsistency as he’s gotten older and could easily put together a couple of 120 OPS+ seasons for them.
mack423, exactly. Look at Semien, for instance. The Rangers won’t be ready to contend for a minimum of three years. By then, Semien will be 34 and probably on a downward slide. Yet they’ll still be paying him $25MM annually.
Interesting note from years ago, but if I remember correctly Garcia is the player that got into a scuffle with Prince Fielder in Detroit. And the floated rumor at that time was that he slept with Fielder’s wife. So these boys better hide their wives, sisters, cousins, daughters etc. because my boy is now in South Beach. And there are no rules in South Beach.
Garcia also minimized the name of Miguel Cabrara when people started comparing them.
Cabrera
Length and Dollar amounts are a bit concerning but Garcia to the Marlins was another of those moves that made too much sense not to happen
Now sign Conforto or Taylor to play Center Field.
As good as any other place holder until the young kids get here. JJ Bleday….we wait.
Watch out for the Marlins
I Do wonder if this makes them more willing to offer a Max Meyer + Bleday package for Bryan Reynolds. An outfield of Garcia, Reynolds and Sanchez would be awesome.
Very interesting move by Marlins.
IMO he’s just a slightly above average player so I think it’s an overpay.
Adam Duvall has been better and hasn’t seen a contract like that.
According to informed sources, The Marlins were in on Avisail Garcia right up until he signed the deal to join them. The Marlins made a “strong” offer, and exceeded the terms and the financial commitment from the other interested teams. The Marlins weren’t the only team to be interested.
Good pick up. But too many years
Good deal for Garcia. Let’s see how smart Miami is. Seemed like Marte would have taken this or at least not much more this past year.
Marte would have absolutely accepted this deal before he was traded away. He was looking for something like 4/50 according to most rumors or even a 3 year deal like a 3/45. It seems Marte took off as a leadoff hitter type so it will be interesting who has a season that fits with what the Marlins need more.
Shades of Cards/Dexter Fowler — coming off a career year, 30yo, somewhat even past performance. Best of luck to the Marlins.
Time for Tyrod Taylor to step up. Yelich, JBJ and Cain, ugh
Solid addition to help with run production. Still need a little more. Curious to see what happens.
I think it’s becoming more clear that the following are good candidates to be non-tendered:
Lewis Brinson
Jorge Alfaro
Magneuris Sierra
Jon Berti
What is going on down in Florida? Two of the ‘cheapest’ teams with the lowest attendance are not only signing legit free agents (Garcia, Kluber, etc), they are also extending their existing players (Alcantara, Franco) to record setting deals. Did they get new television money or did they receive a ton of shared revenue from the 2020 season? It’s very surprising but I’m happy to see both Florida teams spend some actual money. Maybe there’s a chance the Rays could stay in Tampa with a new stadium deal after all.
Marlins Sign Avisail Garcia… So They Can Trade Him Within A Calendar Year.
Wow you’re only the ninth person to post that on this thread. Congrats on such original thinking.