The Twins and outfielder Kyle Garlick have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Garlick will make a salary of $750K, pre Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com.
Garlick, 31 in January, was outrighted off the Twins’ roster a year ago but earned his way back on by the middle of April. He only got into 66 games on the season due to various injuries. He went to the IL four times, with the causes ranging from a right calf strain, a left hamstring strain, a right ribcage contusion and a left wrist sprain.
Despite all those ailments, he was still able to be an above-average hitter at the plate on the season. He hit nine home runs in that limited playing time and produced an overall batting line of .233/.284/.433. That amounted to a wRC+ of 104, indicating he was 4% better than the league average hitter. The Twins likely envision him for a platoon role, as he was much better against lefties. Six of his nine homers were against southpaws and his overall production against them finished at .243/.305/.500, wRC+ of 128. Against righties, it was just .224/.263/.368 and a wRC+ of 79.
The Twins have a couple of lefties in their outfield mix in Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach. Given Garlick’s abilities with the platoon advantage, he could take some at-bats away from that crew from time to time. All three of them also made multiple trips to the IL in 2022 and could create a larger opening for Garlick if they got hurt. There’s also the oft-injured Byron Buxton in the mix in center, creating another reason for the Twins to keep Garlick around as depth.
Garlick qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player, his first time being eligible for the process. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Garlick for a salary of $1.1MM but he has settled for less than that. It’s not uncommon for such deals to come out at this time of year. Thursday is the deadline for teams to decide whether or not they will tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. Garlick was a candidate to be non-tendered and sent back to free agency but has instead agreed to a salary with a modest raise.
Last year’s minimum was $700K and next year’s will be $720K, meaning Garlick gets a small bump and the Twins have secured a player they could find useful at a rate barely above minimum. Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, arbitration salaries weren’t guaranteed until Opening Day but the new CBA does guarantee them as long as the player doesn’t go to a hearing. That means Garlick has that $750K locked in.
That’s basically minimum
Phew… a whole $30K over minimum… glad they were able to figure that out. SIGH
Thank God! This is exactly what I was waiting to hear
Baseball Reference says he was with the LA Dodgers in 2019 and I cannot remember him on the team whatsoever…..Any other LA fans remember this guy???
I do he had a funky swing and hit a few jacks but was really not worth much
At an individual level that’s still a ton of money to earn in a year. Good for him. Hopefully he loves up to the extremely modest expectations of the contract and can stick around, be of done value. But he is 31, so…
Not a lot of bread for Garlick.
Gotta be a player out there named after a cheese he can platoon with
Jake Lamb? Or maybe a platoon with Rougned Odor
Plenty of players named Jack.
C Damon BERRYhill
1B Seth Beer
2B Jake Burger
SS Alfredo Griffin
3B Sean Berry
LF Jim Rice
CF Mike Trout
RF Darryl Strawberry
DH Chili Davis
SP Bob Lemon
No cheese but a team good enough to eat
Tim Salmon on the bench.
Someone said this guy stinks
Who?
Vampires Birdie
Someone on MLB rumours FB page said “ this guy stinks “
Btw, the non tender deadline is Friday, not Thursday.
Maybe they should sign Paul Fry to team with Garlick.
w/rc+ must weigh slug pretty heavily, because an OBP of .284 is certainly not what I would call “above average” offense.