TODAY: The Marlins have officially released Garcia after he cleared waivers, as per Isaac Azout of FishOnFirst and the Miami Herald (X link).
JUNE 4: The Marlins are designating veteran outfielder Avisail Garcia for assignment, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. The 32-year-old Garcia (33 next week) is in the third season of a four-year, $53MM contract that has proven to be a substantial misstep for the organization. Craig Mish of the Miami Herald writes that former Marlins CEO Derek Jeter “had exclusive control” over negotiations with Garcia and his representation.
That four-year contract with the Fish came on the heels of a productive 29-homer showing in Milwaukee. Garcia had hit .262/.330/.490 in his final season with the Brewers, and while he’d been inconsistent on a year-over-year basis in the seasons leading up to his big Miami payday, he notched an overall .278/.335/.464 batting line in a half-decade’s worth of at-bats prior to putting pen to paper as a free agent in South Florida. He’d also shown a repeated knack for hard contact, logging an 89.9 mph average exit velocity, 10% barrel rate and 42% hard-hit rate in that five-year span (all via Statcast).
A downward spiral for Garcia began almost immediately with the Marlins. He struggled right out of the gate in 2022, and while he did get hot for a bit in June, his overall batting line in year one of that four-year contract checked in at a tepid .224/.266/.317. By measure of wRC+, he was 37% worse than league-average at the plate. Even a modest rebound in 2023 seemed likely, but Garcia’s numbers went further in the wrong direction. Injuries limited him to only 118 plate appearances, during which he hit just .185/.241/.315 while fanning in an uncharacteristic 33% of his plate appearances. This season, he’s been on the injured list since late April due to a hamstring strain.
All in all, Garcia’s time with the Marlins will all but certainly draw to a close with a disastrous .217/.260/.322 batting line (61 wRC+). He’s still owed the balance of a $12MM salary this season (about $7.612MM), plus another $12MM in 2025 and a $5MM buyout on a 2026 club option. The Marlins technically have a week to try to trade Garcia, but a release is a near inevitability. He can’t be placed on outright waivers because he’s on the injured list — and he’d clear and reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency anyhow — and no other club is going to take on any portion of that contract.
Once Garcia clears release waivers, he’ll be a free agent who’s able to sign with any club. A new team would only owe the former Tigers, White Sox, Rays and Brewers slugger the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster/injured list. That sum would be subtracted from what the Marlins owe him, but by designating him for assignment now, Miami is effectively conceding that it will eat the overwhelming majority of the dead money on Garcia’s contract.
With Garcia no longer in the fold, the Marlins will continue to deploy an outfield/DH mix including Bryan De La Cruz, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Jesus Sanchez, Nick Gordon and Dane Myers. Triple-A outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. could eventually join that mix if he can keep up his solid .280/.347/.466 start in Jacksonville — particularly if the Marlins end up moving any of their more experienced outfield options in the run-up to next month’s trade deadline.
!!!!!!!!! The day has come!
Thank God. I wish him the worst.
Aren’t you a big man on the keyboard! WOW you’re sooooo amazing!
I saw it was a sunny day, and I knew something good had happened somewhere. I thought it was the Panthers had a legit shot at winning the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but then I saw this.
To quote the philospher of Hip Hop, Ice Cube. “It was a good day.”
You like hockey
“Today was a good day” but keep banging tho
@pogo
I think you need to re-read. Both lines were used.
But keep doing you.
Avi had an OPS of 0.719 in home games this year.
Which is a good reminder why statistics sometimes do not tell the whole story.
Well said. I still get a kick when guys who only look at statistics will argue with people that actually watch the games or the player being discussed. I watch the games far more than statistics, but then will be in debates with guys who clearly don’t watch the games much – with most of their baseball involvement being fantasy league or MLB the Show.
About time.
Hallelujahhh
Has the LOLMarlins meme started yet?
Nope, the Mets will always own that moniker.
@Big Smoke
Yep, the Mets always will. If they want to prove it, they can confirm it by just signing Avi next. And if they pick Avi off waivers to take over his contract, they would cement it throughout eternity.
No one is “taking over” that contract. Anyone signing Garcia (yup, even the Mets) will pay him the league minimum, with the Marlins picking up the rest.
@Old York
It hasn’t, but it this move would be more like HALLEJUAHMarlins!
No reason to go over everything. Let’s just move forward, and be glad it’s mostly over
Yep! Yep!
Terrible signing, although maybe somewhat understandable at the time. Lot of money for the non-spendthrift Marlins to walk away from.
It wasn’t somewhat understandable at all for several reasons; things that happened before that, and then what it precluded them from doing, also the lack of an actual need, with several young guys blocked from an opportunity. Maybe 4 years earlier for almost nothing, it made sense, but in the situation they were in, it was an unfortunate decision
His defense is still good I think
He could be the 2024 version of AA RON
Very limited range, though .
If your team has the misfortune of signing him, then good luck
Well, if it is the league minimum, I don’t see the issue
Damn he was bad. All that money for a triple slash of 217/.260/.322 for a 62 ops+ with Miami
Unmitigated disaster! Why they even thought he was worth anywhere near that kind of money ?!?!
for real, he’s not even cute
@FemboySportsFan
Are you Prince Fielder’s account?
No, Im Anderson Comas’s account :3
Jeff Bagwell?
Jeff Bagwell didn’t using his PEDs after he got paid. Clearly Avi did.
Avi used peds AFTER getting paid?! Then why was he such a steaming pile of dump?
Ever heard of Marlon Byrd?
@AppleBottomChrist
Sorry, it was a typo that missed a word.
I meant to say as follows:
Jeff Bagwell didn’t STOP using his PEDs after he got paid. Clearly Avi did.
As he should. Why should he risk getting suspended? If the Marlins signed him, even though PEDs looked fairly possible, they have only themselves to blame.
Same with Soler. One good year with KC, gets traded to Atlanta and has two excellent months. Stinks his first year with the Marlins, and with the opt-out as a motivating factor, has a great year two. Signs with SF and is back t the usual Soler stats. A career 5.7 bWAR, 6.4 of which was one year in KC, and his two FA opportunities.
$42M/3 and he is back to his usual negative bWAR.
I agree that when something seems off prior to a contract, the team does need to own their failure. But
I do feel that there should be something in place that allows a contract to be voided if a guy can get busted or evidence be obtained that shows that a player was using PEDs to deceive a potential suitor (employer).
As for him stopping, yes him stopping use to avoid suspension was something he definitely needed to do as he clearly has, but somehow I think there’s more to it when you see guys do that. For me, it also gives the air that, whatever they were previously using, was probably something that had some serious long-term effects from continued use. I think Avi falls in line with that considering that he seemed to only use in contract years, and no other years when he was getting 2-year deals before this 4-year deal. Whatever he and guys like him use prior to the contract, they were clearly able to use and not fail MLB’s PED testing, so suspension may not have been the reason. Not sure what to think of it when a guy will risk his health to cheat the system in the first place. But clearly something he should’ve stopped…or really, should have never done in the first place due to rules, laws, ethics, and personal health risks. Again, not sure what to think of it overall when thinking about guys that do it the way Avi does sporadically to their own benefit while screwing countless others from the clean players, team management, team owners, and fans.
he will be a Tiger by wednesday
Not if the White Sox have anything to say about it.
White Sox are trying to get rid of garbage not pick more up
that was a lot of money for a low spending club on a guy that never put together back to back decent seasons. he’s always been incredibly mediocre. you wonder what goes through these GM’s heads, I would have never signed this guy for that kind of contract.
Jeter was b!+@#!ng and moaning they hadn’t done anything yet, when they shouldn’t have been. All the clown fans wanted it too.
Clown fans? It’s been almost three years and I yet to hear anyone celebrate this signing
Meaning those that only complain about spending, rather than the extremely poor decisions that were made the last 4 years
Hey guys, if we really want to think about how bad a move this was for Ng, we can really dig into it big time.
1 – this move was made by her to fill in a corner OF that she caused into happening because one of her first decisions she made when she arrived was DFA-ing Harold Ramirez in order to hold onto Lewis Brinson, Magneuris Sierra and Mote Harrison.
2 – then, in order to accomodate this move, she sent Jesus Sanchez to CF, and orginally wanted to send Bryan De La Cruz to AAA.
3 – And best yet, because she made sure to also sign Jorge Soler, she essentially blew all the money she was given that offseason for upgrades on two corner OFs when she only needed one – and she still didn’t add a much-needed Closer among the few she could have had that offseason for less money.
OK, now I’ll try to refrain from my sour grapes now that Avi and Ng are now both gone.
Wait…I still have a gripe about this. Why didn’t this happen before May 1st like I predicted!?!? Avi hasn’t played a game since before then! He was already done!
Duh—it was Jeter’s call all the way, not Ng’s.
Can’t you even read before libeling Ng?
“Craig Mish of the Miami Herald writes that former Marlins CEO Derek Jeter “had exclusive control” over negotiations with Garcia and his representation.”
Another jack*ass that just can’t get over women in positions of responsibilty.
You really think Ng was not part of that? I don’t go by the journalists. They have been pro-Ng all the way…trying to paint her failures as not her failures.
Kim ng is your daddy
Its ok he used to love Kim Ng now really despises her its really funny how easily how they change their tune about someone so fast.
There was actually more that went into this, but ya…this is all stuff that has been gone over ad nauseum, so it is what it is at this point
I will also stick to my original point that they didn’t need a corner OFer/multiple DHs at all
@formerlyz
Agreed. Us Marlins fans all questioned it the very second they made those Avi and Soler moves.
It’s funny how the Marlins turn a decent hitter bad so fast. They’re worse than the Mets.
It has everything to do with the stadiums.
lesterdnightfly
Duh—it was Jeter’s call all the way, not Ng’s.
================================
“Avi is a very good, multidimensional player,” general manager Kim Ng said. “He can hit, hit for power, he can play defense, has a great arm. And those are all the things that really led us to him, one of the most impactful outfield bats on the free-agent market this year.”
It sounds like Ng loved the guy. But that’s not the important part. The important part is that you cannot separate the GM from the moves. The person is either the GM, and gets blame and credit for every move, or they are just a figurehead.
I see this a lot. Fans of a given GM always credit the GM for the good moves, and always blame someone else for the bad moves.
She throws like a girl.
When me and @JoeBrady agree, it shows that someone opposing both of us has to recheck their logic.
Jeter wanted Nick Castellanos. Jeter wanted a Rolls but was only given the money for a Yugo
@Rsox
See the combined totals of both Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler (when the Marlins only needed one corner OF). Jeter was given enough for Castellanos. Unfortunately the call was made to go with Avi. Then, after Jeter left, Ng felt they needed another corner OF because, in her eyes, they didn’t have enough OFs with Avi, Sanchez and De La Cruz or DHs with Aguilar and Cooper. And she felt she had enough Closers with Anthony Bass, with Dylan Floro ready to jump into the role.
Money well used!
Prince Fielder’s long-time friend
Garcia cost the Tigers the 2013 championship as he was the cause of the fight between Fielder and Canberra that hurt Cabrerra’s shoulder and impacting his playoff performance that year
You hate to see that. I believe that the ‘dians would have won it all in 2016 if not for Ian Kinsler’s line drive that put Carrasco on the IL for the whole postseason
JRam, I’ve always felt that Kinsler should have struck out on purpose during that at-bat.
Actually, it wasn’t a fight between Cabrera and Fielder. It was a fight between Avi and Miggy. Miggy was returning from the IL, and then, after hearing what Avi did, Miggy went to confront Avi because, up until that point, Miggy used to be Avi’s biggest defender when people would take issue with Avi, so Miggy was ticked off at Avi. That confrontation with Avi caused Miggy to get reinjured.
Avi is trash no matter what.
Avi slept with Fielder’s wife. Fielder had a knife and confronted Avi. Miggy tried to keep them a part from each other and ended up getting stabbed is how I heard it.
He’s not welcome in Detroit
Farhan Zaidi on line one
he will hold….until DFA is completed with no contract takeover
There is a God!
Unfortunately, you’re right on. He’s probably already contacted Garcia’s agent
Does he play decent enough outfield? Braves might want to take a chance on him at league minimum or a minor league deal. Might be a decent bench/depth piece.
His inability to get healthy enough to even play is probably worse than his lack of production, so he’s not even worth league minimum at this point.
Avi’s biggest problem is that he stopped using whatever he was using before he got the big contract.
Mini Miggy might be out only a year after Regular Miggy goes out.
for AAAA Marlins to cut bait and eat all that salary tells you that he has nothing left.
Or they really want him out of that clubhouse.
Florida man steals $53 million from Marlins, organization blames Derek Jeter.
Somewhere Kim Ng stays silent in hopes that no one remembers she signed this guy. And if someone mentions it, she can always pull the red herring card on Mike Hill and mention the Miggy trade and the Yelich trade.
“Craig Mish of the Miami Herald writes that former Marlins CEO Derek Jeter “had exclusive control” over negotiations with Garcia and his representation.”
Another jack*ss can’t read the facts before he picks on a woman.
You waited 3 years to post that article lmfao. A woman ran a baseball organization get over it dude plenty of other men did much worse than her. You must be a really enjoyable person to be around irl
I actually don’t have an issue with her gender. I was one of her supporters when she was first hired. And I still say she is a better GM than Mike Hill.
And sorry, but a defense that she wasn’t as bad as many men should not be a defense for anyone. And for you to do this with a female GM kind of points to you thinking that this is the best a woman can do. There are many women who will be better GMs than Kim Ng. I hope the Marlins hire one that brings us a championship someday. Let’s not try to defend someone that did a poor job. And sure as heck don’t use the ‘she’s not as bad as many men’ argument. I want one of the GMs that will do a good job – no matter the gender. I want Marlins championships and I don’t care who is the GM to get it for us. Kim Ng will not be anything close to the best female GM that MLB will ever have, and I hope she sure as heck isn’t the best female GM that the Marlins ever hire because that would mean we have a bigger problem in Miami than we think we do. Give me a good female GM and let’s see what you all have to say then. Don’t give me this ‘she’s not as bad as many of the men’ excuse. I don’t want those men running my team either.
Assuming you know someone that you clearly are wrong about must really make you a pleasure to be around in real life. But you’re a North Floridian, so assuming things about people is not a surprise.
“Avi is a very good, multidimensional player,” general manager Kim Ng said. “He can hit, hit for power, he can play defense, has a great arm. And those are all the things that really led us to him, one of the most impactful outfield bats on the free-agent market this year.”
I always hated if for banging prince fielders wife while the Tigers were on there world series run back in 2013. Toxic club house guy.
Was that true? Happened a long time ago!
It’s true.
Jeter’s big mistake has gone. Good.
Wait, are we really ignoring that Kim Ng signed this guy…and Jeter quit months later?
Again, for the repeatedly illiterate:
“Craig Mish of the Miami Herald writes that former Marlins CEO Derek Jeter “had exclusive control” over negotiations with Garcia and his representation.”
Kim ng is your daddy
And maturity sets in.
Marlins finally had enough of Avi and his anemic bat. I actually thought that deal was pretty good at the time since he had a great year with the Brewers, and had been productive in previous years. Oh well, every team has a bad contract every once in a while.
Um, the problem was that the Marlins only needed one corner OF, but signed both Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler, then moved avergae fielding corner OF Jesus Sanchez to CF, and planned to send Bryan De La Cruz to AAA to accomodate this move. It was a questioned move from Day 1, especially after signing Soler. They didn’t even have room at DH because they had Garrett Cooper and Jesus Aguilar was coming off a big year.
I think Jeter and Kim Ng wanted to make a splashy move during that off-season, which it certainly was, that didn’t pan out at all sadly.
When young cub prospect Chisolm plays defense, does he deploy jazz hands? Asking for a friend
Jeter ouch .
Bigger ouch to Kim Ng.
Kim ng is your daddy
About six years too late
Avsail What a retirement nest egg….at 33 —am so jealous.
How can a team with such poor fan support eat this kind of salary dump. Hope the ownership has lots of money to burn. As bad as his play has been, He should have been given a chance to rehab himself. he could have improved and traded for something!
You mean to tell me waiting through a third season was not enough time?
Kim Ng is your daddy
Rumors on the streets of Bridgeport Chicago is that he is heading back to the south side . You heard it hear first baseball fans
Great day! My only complaint. Why didn’t the Marlins just do this before instead of putting him on the IL? I would’ve been right in my prediction that he would be DFA-ed before May 1st! Darn Marlins!
But otherwise, the last time I’ve been this happy about a Marlins departure was last year when we traded away Garrett Cooper. Before that, maybe when we released Renyel Pinto the same day we fired Fredi Gonzalez in what looked like a ‘get out and take your cruddy reliever with you’ type of day.
I can’t wait until we sucker some team into giving us something for Tanner Scott. Addition by subtraction…that’s the way to go with some of these guys!
Freddie getting fired was garbage. They gave him a joke bullpen from the beginning. He had literally no options
But you gotta remember, he was the defender of Renyel Pinto. While he didn’t build that bullpen, we do all know that his determination to keep throwing Pinto in when there were less damaging options, was pretty bad…even comical at times…especially when he would talk about any one stat that favored Renyel in his defenses of Renyel. It seemed fitting that the team got rid of both on the same day. It seemed like Renyel was not the organization’s choice the way they booted both Fredi and Renyel together. I honestly expected Fredi to convince the Braves to bring Renyel in when Fredi got that gig. For all we know, he may have tried, but the Braves knew better.
I could swear you have the timeline wrong b/c I 100% celebrated when Renyel Punto was gone, and I don’t remember it being the same time as Fredi Gonzalez being fired for the terrible bullpen he was given
I think Pinto got designated for assignment before that and finally got released, but maybe I just think of it differently in my head b/c the dfa is all the same, as it is here…
Yeah Renyel got DFA-ed the 10 days before, then was released the same exact day they fired Fredi. I celebrated the DFA day, but when I saw they fired Fredi the same day Renyel was offically gone for good, I remember thinking that was a clear message because we all remember Fredi would defend Renyel with some ridiculous stuff by handpicking whichever stat favored Renyel at the moment – usually his ERA until that didn’t work anymore.
Oh well,,,funny times.
I don’t remember Fredi having literally any choices. That bullpen was a clown show of clown shows, and he wasn’t ever going to say how Renyel Pinto is the sneakiest pitcher of all time and it’s mind boggling how he’s still on the roster, given his insane inherited runners allowed to score, just b/c his own ERA is low b/c he only allows everyone else’s runs to score…I don’t remember him going out of his way to praise renyel pinto, and if anything he lowkey blamed the bullpen, as he should, after he got fired
Yeah, I remember when he took those shots after he was already gone. Those were hilarious…not so much for the content, but because he should’ve taken a little bit of that aggressive approach to call them out when they were blowing every lead in sight – especially Pinto and Gregg.
Funny thing about us talking about them years later. It just shows how bad our current bullpen is to the point they have given us Marlins flashbacks to the Gregg and Pinto duo of self-destruction back in the day.
Leo nunez, refusing to throw a fastball and literally looking over his shoulder all the time, and then we find out there was a reason for the second thing lol
lol!
Classic!
Since this season is lost, I think us Marlins can play a sort of lousy Marlins reliever game.
Hmmm…if you have a 5-run lead heading into the 9th inning, who from Marlins history do you think has a chance of not blowing the lead between Kevin Gregg, Renyel Pinto, Leo Nunez, Vic Darensbourg, Anthony Bass, Andrew Nardi, Yimi Garcia, or Tanner Scott?
Oh geez, we’ve had some implosive guys! And I didn’t even mention Mike Dunn, Logan Kensing, or Matt Lindstrom in this!
Armando Almanza was brutal as well.
Freddie got Fired? Wasn’t that a terrible Tom Green movie?
Queue up “Go on, take the money and run” – Steve Miller Band.
Not too shabby a deal for him, and that puts him on Swindlers list.
It seems like just yesterday that he was a young Tigers player with loads of promise banging Prince Fielder’s wife. Time sure does fly by.
Is there a team willing to give him a chance now that he can be had for minimum wage? (Everyone looks at Steve Fisher)…
We’re down so bad I hope the Braves sign him.
Tigers need to do this with Javy Baez. Unmitigated disaster.
Interesting fact he recorded a hit in his final regular season game with every team he has played for except Detroit.
I don’t get this move with all that $ owed and injuries possibly contributing to underperformance.
This dude a clubhouse cancer or what?
Yes. Clubhouse cancer.
Shouldn’t he give back a bunch of money? Doesn’t he have any integrity. Cant perform don’t get paid is my opinion.
At least donate a ton of money to charity
You’re not a bad person but I’m afraid to say you are a moron
CaptainMike
“Shouldn’t he give back a bunch of money?”
No
“Doesn’t he have any integrity. ”
Almost certainly he does.
Seems like you’re a baseball fan who doesn’t really like baseball players. Why?
Avi does not have integrity. Zero. He had an affair with his teammates wife. Should he give any back? No. That is how his contract works.
HCU
So, anyone who ever cheated, no matter what else they’ve done in their life , doesn’t have integrity?
That’s how your mind works?
If all I knew about a player was that he was hooking up with a teammate’s wife, then that is exactly the opinion I would form.
But if you have evidence to the contrary, I am more than willing to listen to his positive attributes.
But no, he doesn’t give the money back. If my employer gives me a bad deal, I don’t offer the money back.
JB
Luckily,,that’s not all that you know.
You know that people are complex. You know from your own experience that know one is completely perfect and no one is completely imperfect. You know from your own experience that you’ve shown a lack of integrity on occasion, but that that doesn’t mean you have no integrity at all.
Or, at least I know that since I’m not a complete idiot
I judge everyone based on everything I know about the person. If the only thing I know about someone is that they hooked up with coworkers’ spouse, or was a drunk driver, or harassed women at work, then I can only base my judgement on what I know.
JB
Again, you also know that people are not one dimensional.
Or, at least I do, because I’m not a complete idiot
Using one data point to come to a conclusion is what people who didn’t understand data might do. Do you understand data, or nah, not really?
I understand everything you say. But like every other decision in life, if you only have one data point, you have to rely on that one data point.
If I see the entrance to the parkway is crowded, barring any other input, I assume the parkway is crowded. If I see ominous clouds at 4 PM in the summer, I anticipate stormy weather.
Perhaps you can agree that you do not approve of his actions in this particular case?
We do not only have 1 data point
We have a lot
We have the fact that we have never encountered a person with zero integrity
We have the data point that other people who have cheated have integrity
We have have another that saya people are complex and are not reduceable to a single data point.
I mean, it’s absurd to think that because you see a person do something that we should assume that is the only part of their character. Absurd!
Every year it becomes a little more clear to teams that giving a free agent contract of this size to an over 30 player of Garcia’s talents just isn’t worth it.
You absolutely need some of those age 27-28 years on a long-term contract.
But Garcia was never worth it and not even close. He had a career bWAR of 11 after leaving Mil, and most of that had come in 2017. He had only 3 season with a bWAR north of 0.9, and there id circumstantial evidence that he used PEDs in two of his three good years.
Word on the streets in Bridgeport Chicago is that a whitesox reunion is not too far off. Also the sox still suck ass!! You heard it here first baseball fans
I can’t believe he’s only 32. Seems like he’s been in the league forever.
Little Miggy went into full Contract Miggy mode.
The Yankees need to do this with Anthony Rizzo, he used to be great, but now he is a washed up bum that sucks ass.
The fact the marlins optioned edwards today so tim anderson can play is ridiculous for a team in thier state , anderson has been horrible and has zero trade value ..play the kid
I thought it was an okay gamble, but as badly as TA has played, and given the Marlins record, Edwards should be given a shot.
NA NA NA NAAAA! NA NA NA NAAAA! Hey hey hey! Goooood bye! And good riddance!
Just weak hitting enough to go back to the White Sox, but he was not a KC Royal in his career so maybe not.