The Twins announced Wednesday that they’ve designated outfielder Kyle Garlick for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to shortstop Carlos Correa, whose return on a six-year, $200MM contract (with four vesting/club options) has now been formally confirmed by the team.
Garlick, 31 later this month, has spent the past two seasons with the Twins, hitting a combined .233/.283/.446 in 269 trips to the plate. Those numbers don’t necessarily stand out on their own, but Garlick’s platoon splits tell the tale of a useful part-time/platoon outfielder. He’s been overmatched by fellow right-handers, evidenced by a .207/.258/.345 output. However, Garlick has consistently shown plus power against lefties, batting .256/.303/.534 with 10 home runs and seven doubles in just 145 plate appearances versus southpaws since joining the Twins.
Unfortunately, Garlick has also had difficulty staying on the field during his two seasons in Minnesota. Over the past two seasons, he’s had trips to the injured list for a sports hernia (which required surgery), a calf strain, a hamstring strain, a ribcage contusion and a wrist sprain — the latter of which ended his 2022 season. There’s little doubting that Garlick can hit left-handed pitching, but his lengthy list of injuries, combined with sub-par defensive ratings in the outfield corners, have limited his utility as well.
Garlick seemed to have a place on the Twins’ roster heading forward, as he’s a natural platoon partner for their veritable cavalcade of left-handed-hitting corner outfielders and had already agreed to a modest $750K salary for the upcoming season. That’s only $30K north of the league minimum at this point, though, so it’s not as though the Twins had locked Garlick in for a particularly weighty sum.
Any team wishing to claim Garlick would need to take on that mild salary but would also be able to control Garlick for another four seasons, if they choose. The Twins will have a week to trade Garlick or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He’s been outrighted once previously in his career, so if Garlick goes unclaimed, he’d have the ability to reject an assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency.
Bam Bam…
Couldn’t help it!
Quick, Hahn! There’s another scrap for you to add to the Sox lineup!
Now Garlick is an important ingredient for any major league roster.
I see what you did there Cap.
Me too, it made me burb & left a bad taste in my mouth.
Farmer is the new short side platoon guy. Hopefully Garlick clears waivers. Twins will need him at some point next season.
With those platoon numbers he likely won’t.
Texas better claim him fast.
Pretty hard to pick the shortest straw in Twins collection of outfield spares. Garlick will resign and spend the summer in St. Paul with the rest of the bent nails.
Spicy news.
I guess that Garlick couldn’t wing it?
personally….im glad they got rid of Garlick. signed…….C.Dracula
But it still bothers me when STAKE is served in the clubhouse.!!
The assignment? Roll.
He must be salty about this one
Vampires least favorite player
Went for the more seasoned player
Shouldn’t take long for the vampire slayer to get some work
Yeah, I don’t know why they did that anyway. He can’t play center so they had to keep Celestino around
Carlos Correa, Carlos O’Kelley, Carlos Martinez, Carlos Boozer…it won’t matter who the Twins sign. They still won’t mess with the heavyweights in the A.L. plus they’re only the 3rd best team in their division behind Cleveland and Chicago.
He would make a decent low-cost pickup to platoon with Thompson or Smith in LF if the Rangers don’t trade for Kepler, Santander, Happ, or Winker. I could see RAngers offer Dunning, Martin, Sborz, and Church for Kepler/Larnach and Garlick/Wallman.
Braves give him a look
Until there’s a major leaguer named Basil, we’ll never get much pesto out of this guy.
Former Minnesota North Star tough guy Basil McRae. You’ll find him swinging at hockeyfights.com
Playing hockey and having the name Basil pretty much guarantees fighting will be involved.
Gallo fears not the platoon
The Tigers will
take him…. Now !!
Would love to see the Red Sox take a flyer on Garlick, especially with Story’s injury likely pushing Hernández to shortstop. They need some kind of right-handed complement to Verdugo, Yoshida, and (if they don’t make more moves) Duran.
I agree
So long Garlick. You will be minced.
Well played haha
Perhaps next they’ll kick the tires on Paul Parsley, Stevie Sage, Ronnie Rosemary and Brett Lawry’s Seasoning Salt.
Garlick would be a good 4th OF for the Blue Jays. He hits lefties well, which Kiermeier and Varsho do not.
Possible, but another roster move would have to be made. Hatch’s career transition to grocery bagger seems an inevitable.
I came here for the garlic puns and was not disappointed.
He would make a good RH platoon partner with Vogelbach as Mets’ DH.
Garlick is going back into the soup.
That will be Ruf for him.
Welcome to Toronto Mr. Garlick
Welcome to Miami, Mr. Garlick.
At least he can some day tell his grandkids “I got released so my club could sign a one-legged cheater”.
Almost sounds as good as his grandfather tellig him about how he stormed Omaha beach!
Now he needs to join the same roster as Rougned Odor.
Even vs southpaws he doesn’t get on base. That, combined with his injury issues are enough for me to pass.
One sign you won’t see; “Welcome to Transylvania Mr. Garlick”
This move makes scents.
Summit Beer is really good.
It’s made near the former home of Schmidt and in the shadow of the brewery that brought you Hamm’s. You ain’t got to be old to enjoy the beers that were former Twins sponsors.
Used to be a strip club in that area. Odd configuration with a glass wall that was a separate address of the bar next door. Always worth a stop after roadie for a game. Remarkably, the homeliest girl in the world danced one night. I recall a chant of “sympathy dollar” for her.
Now they are free to sign Kyle Vampire.
Garlick is far from being toast and will make bread signing with his next cream once he pasta physical.
Could work as a platoon outfielder for the Jays.
As an added bonus maybe he can help them slow down Judge. There is obviously SOMETHING supernatural going on there. Do we know for sure he’s not a vampire? Fess up Yankee fans, how many of you have woken up with twin holes in your neck right after one of Judge’s multi homer games?
Since we have yet to even prove the existence of vampires it seems likely he wouldn’t get popped on PED test for it.