Reed Garrett Elects Free Agency

The Nationals announced that reliever Reed Garrett, who was designated for assignment last month, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. Since he had previously been outrighted in his career, he had the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency. The announcement from the Nats indicated that he has indeed done so and is now a free agent.

Garrett, 30, was a Rangers draftee but got selected by the Tigers in the 2018 Rule 5 draft. He got into 13 games for the Tigers in 2019 through the middle of May but posted an 8.22 ERA and was returned to the Rangers. He then spent the next couple of years pitching for the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, posting a solid 3.46 ERA over 106 2/3 innings there.

He attempted a return to North America for 2022, signing a minor league deal with the Nats. He pitched well enough in the minors to get selected back to the club’s roster but didn’t manage to perform well in the big leagues. In seven appearances for the Nats last year, he posted a 6.75 ERA while walking more hitters than he struck out. In 47 1/3 Triple-A innings, his ERA was a much nicer 3.04 while striking out 27% of batters faced, walking 9% of them and getting grounders on 47.4% of balls in play.

Garrett will now head into the open market in search of his next opportunity. He did post solid results in Triple-A last year but that wasn’t enough for any club to put in a waiver claim and commit a roster spot to him. That means he will likely be looking for a minor league deal in the coming weeks.