The Orioles have claimed right-hander Rico Garcia off waivers from the Mets, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The latter club designated him for assignment earlier this week. The O’s have multiple 40-man roster vacancies from their deadline dealings. Garcia is out of options, so the O’s will need to make a corresponding active roster move whenever he reports to the team.
Garcia, 31, has been a fringe bullpen arm for the two New York clubs this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the winter and got called up in early July. He later went to the Yankees and then back to the Mets via waiver claims.
Around the transactions, his results have been quite good. He has thrown 15 1/3 innings over nine big league appearances this year, with a 3.52 earned run average. His 30% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 45.9% ground ball rate this year are all above-average figures.
That’s a small sample of work and he may not be able to maintain it over a larger time frame, particularly the control. Before getting called up, he tossed 30 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 4.45 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate, 14.8% walk rate and 34.2% ground ball rate. He walked 11.5% of minor league batters faced last year and 17.2% in 2023. Put together, he has a 13.7% walk rate in 119 2/3 minor league innings dating back to the start of 2023.
Even if his major league numbers regress a bit, he’s a sensible flier for the O’s. They stripped down their bullpen ahead of the deadline, trading away Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto and Andrew Kittredge. They have also lost Félix Bautista, Scott Blewett and Colin Selby to the injured list in recent weeks.
Those trades and injuries have opened up lots of opportunities in the Baltimore bullpen. As the club plays out the string on this lost season, they can pick up guys like this and give them auditions down the stretch. If things go well with Garcia, he can be cheaply retained beyond this season. He’ll finish 2025 with less than two years of service time, meaning he still won’t have qualified for arbitration and will be controllable for five more seasons.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
Nooo, was hoping he cleared waivers and the Mets could bring him back. I’m mostly kidding but he was a solid back end bullpen guy for the Mets.
he is definitely someone they would have wanted to stash… got too crowded. I wish him the best.
Relievers can be volatile, but he’s pitched enough innings to earn a spot on a club for the rest of the season. The Mets have become very good at identifying and improving pitchers.
The Orioles are punishing that waiver wire!
And every claim is punishing O’s fans.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the Rockies didn’t claim him. Much better to claim a 28 year old first baseman instead. Why on Earth would Colorado ever need pitching?
Long live, Uncle Rico!!!
No surprise after last night.
Odd way of Spelling Marcus Stroman
Odd baseball player.
Elias and his dumpster diving has put the great DDDD to shame!
What a tire fire they’ve become in such a short order- the GM has to go; in fact they probably shouldn’t have fired Hyde…
He’s a good grab by the O’s. Journeyman type who has been VERY good for the Mets in fill-in work. His peripherals aren’t anything crazy, but he has performed way above what most of us Met fans expected. They stacked their BP, otherwise I would have liked them to give him the rest of the season to show he can hang in a solid BP.
I’d rather have Rico Brogna over Rico Garcia pitching
Maybe Rico Petrocelli could!
Oh Garcia, we barely knew thee. Was hoping he’d pass thru waivers and kept as a depth arm.
Mets should’ve kept him, he can’t possibly be worse than Stanek.