July 11: Garcia has rejected his outright assignment and elected free agency, reports A’s broadcaster Jessica Kleinschmidt (Twitter link).
July 10: The A’s have sent reliever Rico Garcia outright to Triple-A Las Vegas, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment on Friday.
Garcia, 29, appeared in seven big league contests with Oakland after they selected his contract in early May. The right-hander has gotten to the highest level in four of the past five seasons. He’s up to 32 2/3 career frames of 6.89 ERA ball. That includes eight runs allowed in 8 2/3 innings with Oakland this year.
While Garcia hasn’t found a ton of MLB success, he’s been effective at the top minor league level. He posted a 2.34 ERA over 34 2/3 Triple-A frames in the Orioles’ system last season. He’s allowing 3.20 earned runs per nine there this year despite pitching in the extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting. Garcia has fanned an impressive 29.2% of batters faced for the Aviators, though he’s also handed out free passes at an alarming 18.6% clip.
The Orioles successfully passed Garcia through outright waivers last September. Players with multiple career outrights have the ability to decline the assignment in favor of minor league free agency. The A’s haven’t announced whether Garcia has done so or will stick with Las Vegas as a non-roster player.
If only the MLB would outright the A’s. I wish our sports had relegation.
Come on man, the A’s have been solid until the last 2 years.
11 Playoff appearances since year 2000, all on annual Bottom 5 team payrolls. Way more playoff appearances than our Division rivals, who always spend more than us ( Angels, Rangers, Mariners ).
Have you ever seen one of the big market teams try and reach the playoffs on a bottom 5 payroll. ?
The only Small Market team that has accomplished more with similar resources is Tampa Bay.
Its the Owner that has ruined the A’s Franchise, not the Fans.
Agreed. If everyone operated on essentially the same budget like the NFL. Some of these small market front offices and owners would run circles around some of their larger market brethren. Mets come to mind.
I was also an A’s fan and if we had relegation there would be no intentional tanking. I think most Pirates/Royals/Tigers/etc… fans would agree that the prospect of having your team go down a division isn’t as bad decades of intentional mismanagement safe in the knowledge that revenue sharing and salary slashing will always make you a profit.
Carousel of mediocre relievers last couple seasons. Although Jimenez and Jackson were solid last season and injuries. Sam moll might be tradeable since he’s a lefty. Erceg trade from brewers has great stuff, although struggled recently
Back to Baltimore.
Who does this bum think he is to reject anything? Negative WAR and a career ERA around 7 and he thinks he’s could do better than AAA.