Diamondbacks Outright Aramis Garcia, Jesus Valdez
The Diamondbacks announced that they have outrighted catcher Aramis Garcia to Triple-A Reno and infielder Jesus Valdez to Double-A Amarillo. Garcia had been designated for assignment last week when Gabriel Moreno was activated from the 10-day injured list. There wasn’t any previous indication that Valdez had been removed from the 40-man roster. Arizona’s count on that 40-man is now down to 38.
Garcia, 33, is a veteran depth catcher who is out of options. He is a competent defender but is has hit just .210/.245/.321 in his career. That has put him in position to bounce on and off the Arizona roster with regularity. He signed a minor league deal with the Snakes ahead of the 2025 season. Last year, he was twice added to the big league roster. In both cases, he was designated for assignment a few days later and sent back to Reno after passing through waivers.
It’s possible the same sequence of events plays out this year. Garcia was called up to the big leagues to cover for Moreno’s injury and then was bumped off when Moreno was reinstated. Garcia has the right to elect free agency but might be comfortable sticking with the Aces and waiting for the next catching injury to pop up.
The Valdez outright might be a more unique situation. The 28-year-old was just added to the club’s roster a little over a week ago. The Diamondbacks and Padres were playing in Mexico City and were allowed a 27th man on the roster. Valdez was added to fill that extra bench spot for the Diamondbacks, getting called up from Double-A Amarillo. He didn’t appear in either of the Mexico City games and was optioned back to the Sod Poodles right after that series.
It appears that the Diamondbacks quietly put him on waivers and no one claimed him. That’s not especially surprising since Valdez hasn’t really been a notable prospect in his career and is a 28-year-old playing in Double-A, though he does have some Triple-A experience. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has a combined .241/.292/.401 line and 76 wRC+ in the minor leagues.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
D-backs Designate Aramis Garcia For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced this morning that they’ve designated catcher Aramis Garcia for assignment and reinstated fellow backstop Gabriel Moreno from the 10-day injured list. Additionally, the Snakes recalled lefty Brandyn Garcia from Triple-A Reno and optioned lefty Philip Abner in his place.
Aramis Garcia, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in the offseason. He started the year as Triple-A depth, as Arizona deployed a catching tandem of Moreno and James McCann. The season began with Adrian Del Castillo on the injured list with a calf strain but he was activated after a minimal stint. Injuries to Pavin Smith and Carlos Santana opened up the designated hitter spot and allowed the Diamondbacks to roll with three catchers, with Del Castillo getting a decent amount of DH time.
Moreno suffered an oblique strain in mid-April. Arizona could have continued with McCann and Del Castillo as the catching duo but they decided to add Garcia, keeping them at three backstops and giving them more freedom to keep Del Castillo in the DH mix. That didn’t leave a lot of playing time available for Garcia. He’s been on the roster for over two weeks and only appeared in three games, making three plate appearances. He went one for three with a single and a strikeout.
Del Castillo has options and could have been sent down today, especially since he’s hitting .207/.246/.362 so far this year, but the Diamondbacks have decided to keep him in the mix. He is much better against righties, so perhaps Moreno’s return will allow him to be deployed situationally instead of behind the plate.
Garcia is out of options, so he had to be bumped into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Diamondbacks could take five days to field trade interest, though they could also put him on waivers at any time before that. Garcia is probably not likely to garner too much interest. Given his out-of-options status, another club would have to be willing to plug him directly onto the big league roster.
He’s never been much more than a part-time catcher, as his career high for games in a season is 47. Over multiple seasons, he has appeared in 124 contests with a .210/.245/.321 line in 334 plate appearances. He’s a solid defender and framer but the bat is light and the lack of roster flexibility hurts him.
He has previously been outrighted in his career, which means he would have the right to elect free agency if he is passed through outright waivers again. Twice last year, he briefly joined the Arizona roster and then got bumped off, eventually ending up back in Reno. It seems the most likely scenario is that he clears waivers and then either accepts an assignment with the Aces or elects free agency and then re-signs on a new minor league deal.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
D-backs Announce Several Roster Moves
The Diamondbacks announced a slate of roster moves Tuesday. Catcher Gabriel Moreno was placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 11) due to an oblique strain. Fellow catcher Aramis Garcia has had his contract selected from Triple-A and will take Moreno’s spot on the roster, serving as a complement to veteran James McCann and 26-year-old Adrian Del Castillo. Arizona moved first baseman/designated hitter Pavin Smith from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot for Garcia. The Snakes also reinstated right-hander Merrill Kelly from the 15-day injured list and optioned right-hander Taylor Rashi to Triple-A Reno.
Moreno missed the past three games after what was originally termed as a back issue. The Diamondbacks haven’t provided a timetable, but historically speaking, it’s common for even low-grade oblique strains to sideline a player for close to a month. The former top prospect is one of baseball’s more complete catchers, combining elite defense with above-average offense in each season of his still-young big league career. He was out to a fine start in 2026, hitting .275/.333/.400 in 45 turns at the plate.
With Moreno sidelined, the D-backs can use the lefty-hitting Del Castillo against right-handed pitching and the righty-swinging McCann versus southpaws. Garcia provides a viable third catching option on the roster and also has some experience at first base. He’s probably relegated to third catcher status in this setup, with Del Castillo the most obvious beneficiary on paper. He hasn’t gotten a consistent look in the majors, thanks largely to Moreno’s presence, but Del Castillo is a .276/.322/.439 hitter in 239 big league plate appearances and touts a .292/.381/.535 line in parts of four seasons (712 plate appearances) in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Garcia, 33, has played sparingly in parts of six major league seasons — including a two-game cup of coffee in Arizona last year. He’s a lifetime .208/.245/.321 hitter in 331 plate appearances. He’s never logged more than 115 plate appearances in a given major league season but is a career .240/.316/.436 hitter in just under 1400 Triple-A plate appearances.
Kelly’s return from the injured list was expected. The team moved righty Brandon Pfaadt to the bullpen yesterday to clear a spot in the rotation, where Kelly will join Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryne Nelson and offseason signee Michael Soroka. The 37-year-old Kelly also signed with Arizona this winter, returning to the D-backs on a two-year, $40MM deal after closing out the 2025 season in Texas following a deadline trade that netted three pitching prospects from the Rangers (Kohl Drake, Mitch Bratt, David Hagaman).
Kelly will make his first start of the season for the Snakes tonight against the Orioles. He was slowed by back discomfort early in spring training and was thus limited to only two starts during exhibition play in the Cactus League. Kelly tossed five shutout frames for Triple-A Reno in what wound up being his only rehab outing. He might be on something of a pitch/workload limit in his season debut as he continues to build up, but it shouldn’t be long before he’s back to his workhorse ways atop manager Torey Lovullo’s rotation.
Diamondbacks Sign Aramis Garcia To Minors Contract
The Diamondbacks have re-signed catcher Aramis Garcia to a new minor league deal, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. Presumably the new contract contains an invitation for Garcia to attend Arizona’s big league Spring Training camp, just like the previous minors deal Garcia signed with the D’Backs almost exactly one year ago.
Gabriel Moreno‘s hand injury last June opened the door for Garcia to twice have his contract selected to the Diamondbacks’ active roster, though both of those promotions were soon followed by Garcia being designated for assignment and then outrighted off the 40-man roster. Garcia had the right to elect free agency after either of those outrights but he chose to remain in the organization on both occasions. He also was on track for minor league free agency once the season was over, but his time on the open market was pretty short, as he’ll now head back to the Diamondbacks.
Garcia’s time on the big league roster saw him appear in just two games in 2025, and he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his only four plate appearances. Between not playing in the majors at all in 2023 and going hitless in seven PA (over three games) with the Phillies in 2024, it has now been over three years since Garcia’s last MLB hit, which speaks to his career path as a journeyman. The catcher has hit .208/.245/.321 with 10 home runs over 331 career PA in the majors, suiting up with five different teams at the MLB level (and three more at the minor league level) since Garcia debuted during the 2018 season.
The D’Backs apparently liked what they saw from Garcia, both in his cups of coffee in the majors and in his more extended time at Triple-A Reno. With the caveat that the Pacific Coast League is a very hitter-friendly environment, Garcia had an impressive .266/.385/.481 slash line in 296 PA for Reno in 2025.
As it stands right now, Moreno and Garcia are the only two catchers in Arizona’s organization with any big league playing experience, since James McCann is a free agent. This makes Garcia the default as Moreno’s backup, but the Diamondbacks will surely add to their catching ranks between now and Spring Training, likely sending Garcia back to a Triple-A depth role once again.
Diamondbacks Outright Aramis Garcia
June 27: Garcia was outrighted back to Reno, per the MLB.com transaction log. He’ll have the right to elect free agency but may decide to accept the assignment as he did earlier in the year.
June 23: The Diamondbacks have announced their signing of catcher James McCann, which was reported yesterday. Fellow backstop Aramis Garcia has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
Garcia, 32, went 0-for-4 in his limited time with the D-backs. Arizona selected him to the 40-man roster last week after Gabriel Moreno was placed on the injured list due to a broken finger. It appeared as though he might get a bit of runtime with Jose Herrera — typically Moreno’s backup — struggling in an increased role since Moreno was first banged up. Instead, the D-backs scooped up the veteran McCann, who’s been playing with Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate but had a rolling opt-out/upward mobility clause in his minor league deal there.
Garcia has played in parts of six major league seasons and carries a career .208/.245/.321 batting line in 331 trips to the plate. He hit well with the Diamondbacks’ top minor league affiliate in Reno this year, slashing .250/.399/.524 in 38 games. Garcia is a lifetime .235/.306/.430 hitter in parts of seven Triple-A seasons.
This is the second time the D-backs have designated Garcia for assignment this year. He cleared waivers the first time and accepted an outright assignment back to Reno. Arizona will have five days to trade him before he has to be placed on waivers, although he can be placed on waivers at any point prior to that as well. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so we’ll know within a week’s time how his latest DFA will play out. If Garcia again passes through waivers unclaimed, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency (although he also had that right last time around and opted to stick with the D-backs).
D-backs Place Gabriel Moreno On Injured List, Select Aramis Garcia
The Diamondbacks announced Thursday that they’ve placed catcher Gabriel Moreno on the 10-day injured list due to a right hand contusion (retroactive to June 16) and selected the contract of fellow catcher Aramis Garcia from Triple-A Reno. Righty Christian Montes De Oca was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Garcia, who returns just nine days after being outrighted off the 40-man roster.
Moreno originally hurt his hand while trying to block a wild pitch earlier this month. He’s played just three games in 12 days since taking that errant pitch off his hand. Arizona was clearly hoping to avoid an IL stint, but things have reached a point where they’ll sit him down for the next week and get another catching option on the roster to complement Jose Herrera.
The 25-year-old Moreno is enjoying another solid all-around year. The former top prospect’s .270/.324/.414 batting line isn’t elite but is firmly above league average (106 wRC+). That’s big production from any catcher, a position that is regularly manned by below-average hitters, but it’s especially nice for a player with Moreno’s elite defensive grades. He draws plus marks for his framing, blocking and throwing alike. Since 2023, he ranks as the game’s third-best defender behind the plate, by measure of the Defensive Runs Saved metric, and the seventh-best in MLB according to Statcast. Because Moreno’s IL stint is backdated three days (the maximum allowed under MLB rules), he’ll be eligible to return a week from now.
As for Garcia, he’s a 32-year-old journeyman who was briefly up with the Snakes in the wake of the original injury to Moreno. He only appeared in one game, however, and didn’t take a plate appearance before being designated for assignment and passed through waivers. He’s played in parts of six big league seasons and carries a career .211/.248/.325 line in 327 trips to the plate during that time. He currently sports a .250/.399/.524 line in 38 Triple-A games and is a career .235/.306/.430 hitter in parts of seven seasons at that level.
Presumably, Garcia will see a bit more game action this time around. Herrera, who’ll serve as the primary catcher with Moreno down, has played eight games in 12 days since Moreno was originally banged up. It’s a heavy workload for any catcher but particularly a glove-first backup who’s hitting .171/.284/.244. Herrera is up to 101 plate appearances this year — already just 23 shy of his career-high in the majors, where he’s a lifetime .199/.279/.256 hitter.
The 60-day IL move for Montes De Oca was an inevitability. The 25-year-old righty landed on the injured list earlier this month due to elbow inflammation, but the D-backs announced five days ago that he was headed for surgery to repair a stress fracture in his lower back. That surgery was likely to take him out for most or all of the remaining season anyhow — a miserable turn of events for a young hurler who’d tossed 2 2/3 innings of scoreless ball in his MLB debut just days prior to landing on the injured list.
Diamondbacks Outright Aramis Garcia; Scott McGough Elects Free Agency
The Diamondbacks announced a pair of roster moves this evening, as right-hander Scott McGough elected free agency while catcher Aramis Garcia cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A. Both players had been designated for assignment by the club last week.
McGough, 35, was a fifth-round pick by the Dodgers back in 2011 but didn’t make his big league debut until 2015 when he made six ill-fated outings as a member of the Marlins. He surrendered seven runs on twelve hits and four walks while striking out four across 6 2/3 innings of work for Miami and did not appear in the majors again for quite some time. After spending the next few years bouncing around the Marlins’, Orioles’, and Rockies’ minor league systems McGough caught on overseas with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yakult Swallows. McGough ultimately spent four seasons in Japan and pitched quite well out of the bullpen there with a 26.0% strikeout rate and a 2.94 ERA across his 236 Central League appearances.
That work was enough to catch the attention of the Diamondbacks, who signed him to a deal worth $6.25MM guaranteed over two years ahead of the 2023 campaign. That signing did not go over well. McGough was a below average reliever by the numbers in 2023, with a 4.76 ERA (93 ERA+) in 70 1/3 innings, but some peripherals like his 25.6% strikeout rate and 3.49 SIERA suggested he had more to offer. Unfortunately, those underlying numbers collapsed in 2024 as he posted a 7.44 ERA and a 6.04 FIP across his 26 appearances while striking out just 16.7% of his opponents against a 14% walk rate. The Diamondbacks made the easy decision to decline a 2025 club option on his services last winter, though they eventually re-signed him to a minor league deal in February. When added to the roster back in April, McGough posted a 6.43 ERA in seven innings of work while walking (six) more batters than he struck out (five). He now returns to free agency in the midst of his age-35 season in search for a change of scenery as he looks to try and salvage his season.
As for Garcia, the 32-year-old was a second-rounder by the Giants in 2014 who made his big league debut during the 2018 season, when he helped fill the void when Buster Posey‘s season came to an abrupt end due to hip surgery. Garcia hit .286/.302/.492 (117 wRC+) across 19 games in his first taste of major league action, but he hasn’t hit a lick since. Garcia’s appeared in the majors for five different clubs since the start of the 2019 season, and in that time he’s hit just .192/.233/.282 with a 39 wRC+. Of course, that slash line comes across a sample of just 101 plate appearances in the big leagues as Garcia has been used primarily as a third-string catcher throughout his time as a big league option. Even so, there’s been very little over the years to suggest that he’s more than a depth option behind the plate for a big league club. That’s exactly how the Diamondbacks figure to use him going forward, as his outright means he can serve as non-roster depth behind the club’s primary catching tandem of Gabriel Moreno and Jose Herrera.
Diamondbacks Select Kyle Backhus, Designate Aramis Garcia
The Diamondbacks announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Kyle Backhus from Triple-A Reno. Catcher Aramis Garcia was designated for assignment in the corresponding move on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters.
Due to a suspended game on Friday, the D’Backs and Reds played a shortened version of a doubleheader on Saturday, and Arizona used five pitchers in a 13-1 loss in the full game of the twin bill. Backhus will therefore join the roster as a fresh arm for the beleaguered D’Backs pen, and is now in line to make his Major League debut.
Though Backhus wasn’t drafted when his college career at Sam Houston State came to a close, he signed a free agent deal with the Diamondbacks in 2021 and has posted some solid numbers over five seasons in the Arizona farm system. Pitching almost exclusively out of the bullpen over the last four years, Backhus reached Triple-A for the first time in 2023, and might have reached the majors last season if injuries didn’t limit him to just 35 2/3 total innings in 2024.
Backhus has a 2.22 ERA and a 33% strikeout rate over 24 1/3 innings and 24 games in Reno this season — impressive numbers in any case, but even more noteworthy coming in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Backhus’ 9.2% walk rate is on the high side but it represents an improvement from the larger control issues that hampered Backhus earlier in his career.
This may be just a cup of coffee for Backhus in the majors, but considering how the Diamondbacks’ bullpen has struggled this year, there’s not much to lose in giving the 27-year-old more of an extended look. Jalen Beeks is the only other left-hander in Arizona’s bullpen, so Backhus can add some more balance to the relief corps while A.J. Puk continues to be sidelined on the injured list.
Garcia’s contract was selected just yesterday, as the D’Backs wanted an extra catcher available since Gabriel Moreno was nursing a hand injury suffered in Friday’s game. Moreno didn’t play Saturday but is ready to go in at least a backup capacity today, as per reporter Jody Jackson, so Garcia will now head to DFA limbo after a single game in an Arizona uniform. That lone appearance means that Garcia has now appeared in six of the last eight Major League seasons, with only four of his 120 career games coming since the end of the 2022 campaign.
Garcia has hit .211/.248/.325 over 327 plate appearances during his journeyman career, and he landed in Arizona last November on a minors contract. Garcia is out of minor league options, so the D’Backs had to designate him before trying to move him back to Triple-A, and he’ll be outrighted off the 40-man roster if and when he clears waivers. Since Garcia has been outrighted in the past, he has the right to reject another outright assignment and instead become a free agent.
Diamondbacks Select Aramis Garcia
The Diamondbacks announced a series of roster moves this afternoon, headlined by the club selecting the contract of catcher Aramis Garcia. Right-hander Cristian Mena was placed on the 15-day injured list to make room for Garcia on the active roster, while the transfer of right-hander Corbin Burnes to the 60-day IL following yesterday’s news that the veteran is set to undergo Tommy John surgery cleared a 40-man roster spot for Garcia. In addition, Arizona appointed righty Christian Montes De Oca to the roster as their 27th-man for today’s doubleheader.
Garcia, 32, was a second-round pick by the Giants back in 2014 but didn’t ultimately make his big league debut until the 2018 season. Garcia came up to the majors in August of that year to help back up Nick Hundley after Buster Posey underwent season-ending hip surgery. He got time in both behind the plate and at first base that year, slashing .286/.302/.492 across 19 games in his first cup of coffee with the big league club, though that solid 117 wRC+ came in a sample of just 65 plate appearances. Still, Garcia’s work in that first taste of the majors was enough to convince the Giants to continue rostering him for the 2019 campaign.
Unfortunately, his performance took a nose dive in that second stint as a big leaguer. He ultimately hit just .143/.217/.310 in 46 trips to the plate for the Giants that year. Despite that lackluster performance, Garcia was still in line to make the Giants’ 2020 Opening Day roster as the primary backup to Posey. That’s not how things worked out, however, as an offseason hip injury combined with the shortened 60-game campaign left Garcia sidelined for the whole year. The Giants ultimately cut the catcher loose following the 2020 season and designated him for assignment. He was claimed off waivers by the Rangers and then included in the swap that sent Khris Davis to Dallas and Elvis Andrus to Oakland prior to the 2021 campaign.
Garcia’s largest contributions in the majors came during the next two seasons. He hit .205/.239/.318 (56 wRC+) in 32 games with the A’s in 2021, but was ultimately cut from the team’s roster and signed with the Reds on a minor league deal. In Cincinnati, Garcia appeared in a career-high 47 games but hit just .213/.248/.259 with a wRC+ of 37 before getting claimed by the Orioles following the 2022 season. He bounced between the Orioles and Phillies organizations over the past two years but made just three appearances in the majors in that time before signing with Arizona on a minor league deal this past winter. Now, he’s back in the majors as a depth option behind the plate with a doubleheader scheduled today and primary catcher Gabriel Moreno day-to-day following a hand injury he suffered in yesterday’s game.
Making room for Garcia on the active roster is Mena, who is being shelved with a right shoulder strain. The right-hander has long been regarded as a talented but raw pitching prospect and was acquired from the White Sox in exchange for outfielder Dominic Fletcher prior to the 2024 season. Mena made his big league debut last year and surrendered four runs across three innings in his lone appearance, but this year he’s looked quite good with 5 2/3 scoreless innings of work and a 35% strikeout rate in a multi-inning relief role. Unfortunately, he’ll now need to wait to heal up to build on that success. For today, Mena’s spot in the bullpen will be offered to Montes De Oca, who has not yet appeared in a big league game but has a 4.07 ERA in 24 1/3 innings of work at Triple-A this year.
Diamondbacks Sign Aramis Garcia To Minor League Deal
The D-Backs signed catcher Aramis Garcia and shortstop Connor Kaiser to minor league contracts. Both players will get invites to big league camp. The deals were announced by Arizona’s Triple-A club in Reno.
Garcia, 32 in January, has more big league experience of that duo. The righty-hitting catcher has appeared in parts of five MLB seasons, logging 119 games between four teams. That included three games and seven hitless at-bats with the Phillies this year. Garcia isn’t much of an offensive threat. He’s a career .211/.248/.325 hitter with a 35.8% strikeout rate across 327 plate appearances. He had an even poorer showing in the minors this past season, hitting .159/.216/.279 while punching out nearly 36% of the time in 76 Triple-A games.
Teams are always on the hunt for catching depth, so the Snakes will send Garcia to Reno to begin next season. Statcast hasn’t graded him favorably for his blocking skills but credits him with a plus arm. Garcia did a nice job controlling the run game in Triple-A this year. He cut down more than 32% of attempted basestealers over 584 innings behind the plate.
Kaiser, who turns 28 next week, is a glove-first infielder. A former third-round pick of the Pirates, he got into three big league games with the Rockies in 2023. That’s the extent of his MLB work. Colorado outrighted Kaiser off their 40-man roster midway through that season. He spent this year with the Rox’s top farm team in Albuquerque. Despite playing in an extreme hitter’s park, the Vanderbilt product put up a .221/.343/.339 line through 347 plate appearances. Kaiser took his share of walks but stuck out at a near-32% clip. He’s also likely to begin next season in Reno, potentially in a utility capacity.