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Rico Garcia

Orioles Claim Rico Garcia

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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

Mets Select Dom Hamel

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The Mets announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Dom Hamel. Fellow righty Austin Warren has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse as the corresponding active roster move. The 40-man roster had a vacancy with righty Rico Garcia being designated for assignment yesterday.

Hamel, 26, gets called up to the big leagues for the first time and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He was picked by the Mets in the third round of the 2021 draft. As he climbed the minor league ladder, he worked as a starter and got some love from prospect evaluators. The short version of his scouting report is that he doesn’t have overpowering stuff but has a five-pitch mix that allows him to get outs against batters from either side of the plate.

For his first few professional seasons, Baseball America ranked Hamel as one of the Mets’ top 11 or 12 prospects. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 246 innings over various levels with a 3.51 earned run average, 30.4% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate. However, he hit a wall last year, with a 6.79 ERA in 27 Double-A starts. His strikeout rate fell to 21.3% while his walk rate climbed to 13.2%. That got him bumped out of BA’s top 30 coming into 2025.

He’s been in more a swing role at Triple-A this year, having started eight of his 22 appearances. In his 53 1/3 innings, he has a 4.73 ERA, not amazing but much better than last year. His 25.8% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate are also encouraging. At the end of June, FanGraphs ranked him as the #22 prospect in the system, noting that he should be able to serve as a decent bulk reliever.

The Mets got crushed yesterday, losing 12-4 to the Giants. Even though starter Frankie Montas was getting hit around, he was pushed through four innings. Then Warren came in and saved the bullpen by tossing four innings of relief, tossing 68 pitches in the process. Ryne Stanek came in to get the ninth but struggled badly, allowing five earned runs while only getting two outs. Catcher Luis Torrens came in to get the final out of the ninth.

Warren wasn’t going to be available for a few days, so he’s been subbed out for Hamel. If tonight’s game turns out to be a laugher, then Hamel will likely be the one tapped to soak up some innings out of the bullpen. Since this is his first big league call, he has a full slate of options and could easily be sent back to the minors when the Mets again want to bring in a fresh arm.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Mets To Designate Rico Garcia For Assignment

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The Mets are set to designate right-hander Rico Garcia for assignment according to a report from Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Garcia’s departure opens up spots on both the 40-man and active rosters, but it’s not yet clear what the corresponding move will be to replace Garcia.

Garcia, 31, was a 30th-round pick by the Rockies back in 2016 who made the majors with Colorado during the 2019 season. The journeyman has gone on to pitch in parts of five big league seasons over the past seven years with seven different organizations but has never pitched more than a handful of times in a single season. He’s accrued exactly 50 innings of work overall in his MLB career, and in that time he’s pitched to a 5.94 ERA with a 6.09 FIP for the Rockies, Giants, Orioles, A’s, Nationals, Yankees, and Mets.

Weak as those overall numbers may be, Garcia has actually pitched quite well during his time in Queens. In 11 2/3 innings of work across seven outings, Garcia entered today with a 0.77 ERA while punching out 35.7% of his opponents. It’s an extremely small sample, of course, but that dominance could be enough to create optimism that Garcia has figured something out. Of course, the right-hander’s DFA comes off the back of a performance where he surrendered two runs on two hits while recording a strikeout in one inning of work. Even that weak performance leaves him with a 3.52 ERA, a 3.23 FIP, and a 30% strikeout rate across 15 1/3 innings of work this season between the Mets and the Yankees.

If those solid numbers (albeit in a somewhat limited body of work) sell a club on Garcia’s ability to contribute to their bullpen, they’ll have the opportunity to claim the right-hander once the Mets place him on waivers. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, the Mets could send him outright to Triple-A. With that being said, Garcia has been outrighted to the minor leagues before and could reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he so chooses. If he did so, he would then be free to sign with any of the league’s 30 clubs. If a team picks him up and his success continues, Garcia can theoretically be controlled through the end of the 2030 season and won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2026 season at the earliest.

While Castillo is certainly a player who’s flashed some interesting upside this year, the Mets figure to do just fine without him in their bullpen. Star closer Edwin Diaz still leads the club’s bullpen, which was reinforced heavily at the trade deadline this past week by the additions of southpaw Gregory Soto as well as high-leverage arms Ryan Helsley and Tyler Rogers. That quartet figures to pair with Brooks Raley and Ryne Stanek to form one of the better bullpens in the entire sport down the stretch this year.

Mets Designate Chris Devenski For Assignment

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today. Outfielder/designated hitter Starling Marte has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Infielder Jared Young has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse in a corresponding move. The club also activated recent waiver claimee Rico Garcia and recalled right-hander Justin Garza. To open spots for those two arms, the club optioned right-hander Kevin Herget and designated right-hander Chris Devenski for assignment. Additionally, left-hander Brandon Waddell’s optional assignment was reversed and he has instead been placed on the major league 15-day injured list due to a right hip impingement.

Devenski, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. He was selected to the big league roster in April. As a veteran with well over five years of major league service time, he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. The Mets have optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse three times this year, so he presumably agreed to those transactions.

This time, instead of being optioned, he’s been designated for assignment. The Mets didn’t need to open a 40-man spot today, so it’s unclear why they’ve done so. With the deadline coming up, they are expected to pursue bullpen upgrades. Perhaps the Mets, or Devenski, realized that their relationship might not extend much farther. From Devenski’s perspective, if he’s going to get squeezed down the depth chart, perhaps now is a good time to open himself up to other clubs rather than accept another stint in Syracuse.

Whatever the reasoning, he is now in DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Mets could take five days to explore trade interest. Around his optional assignments, Devenski has tossed 11 1/3 innings big league innings for the Mets this year, allowing three earned runs on seven hits, three walks and two hit-by-pitches while striking out nine. He has also thrown 25 Triple-A innings with a 4.32 ERA, 17.2% strikeout rate, 4% walk rate and 50.6% ground ball rate.

Devenski’s best seasons came with the Astros almost a decade ago. More recently, his results have been up and down. He had an encouraging showing in 2023, split between the Angels and Rays. That year, he tossed 42 1/3 innings with a 4.46 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. The Rays re-signed him for 2024 but Devenski posted a 6.75 ERA last year. He was released by July and was stuck in the minors the rest of the year.

Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images

Mets Recall Francisco Alvarez, Outright Richard Lovelady

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported claimed of right-hander Rico Garcia off waivers from the Yankees. Righty Dedniel Núñez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot for Garcia. It was recently reported that Núñez will require Tommy John surgery. The Mets will need to open an active roster spot for Garcia once he reports to the club. The Mets also recalled catcher Francisco Alvarez and optioned fellow backstop Hayden Senger. Additionally, left-hander Richard Lovelady has been sent outright to Triple-A Syracuse. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He has the right to elect free agency though it’s not yet clear if he has done so.

Alvarez got out to a bit of a slow start this year. The Mets optioned him to Triple-A about a month ago, as he was sitting on a .236/.319/.333 slash line at that time. He had hit just three home runs, after having missed the first month of the season due to a hamate fracture.

The optional assignment has seemingly lit a fire under him. He has 12 home runs in 29 games since being sent down, leading to a gargantuan .255/.352/.623 batting line for Syracuse. Now that he’s in a groove, the Mets have called him up and will see if he can carry that over at the major league level.

While the optional assignment ended up being relatively brief, it will be costly for Alvarez. He came into this year with two years and six days of service time, putting him on track for free agency after 2028. By spending a month in the minors, he won’t be able to push his service clock to the three-year line in 2025. That means the Mets have gained an extra year of club control over Alvarez, pushing his path to free agency until after 2029. He was going to reach free agency after his age-26 season but that will now be pushed until after his age-27 season. He is on track to qualify for arbitration this winter as a Super Two player, giving him four passes through arb instead of the usual three, but the delayed free agency is a hit to his career earning power.

As for Lovelady, he’s a veteran lefty who is out of options, which has led to him being on the fringes of a few rosters this year. He started the year with the Blue Jays but was designated for assignment after two appearances. He elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Twins, pitched well at Triple-A for a couple of months and then opted out of that deal. He has bounced on and off the Mets roster since then, twice getting added and then cut after a brief stint in both cases.

For the whole season, Lovelady has a 10.80 earned run average in 8 1/3 innings, though mostly due to allowing four earned runs in his second outing of the year. During his time in the Twins’ system, he tossed 20 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.31 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 60.4% ground ball rate. Every other time he has cleared waivers this year, he has elected free agency, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he does so again in the coming days.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Mets Claim Rico Garcia

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The Mets have claimed right-hander Rico Garcia off waivers from the Yankees, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The Yanks designated him for assignment last week. Garcia is out of options, so the Mets will need to open space for him on the active and 40-man rosters.

Garcia, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. He reported to Triple-A Syracuse and missed a bunch of bats but also missed the plate a lot. In 30 1/3 innings, he had a 27.4% strikeout rate and 14.8% walk rate. That led to a 4.45 earned run average in that time.

It wasn’t an overwhelming performance but the Mets’ bullpen has been hit hard by injuries this year. They currently have A.J. Minter, Danny Young, Drew Smith, Dedniel Núñez, Max Kranick and José Buttó on the shelf. The mounting injuries have prompted the club to frequently cycle arms on and off their roster.

Garcia was selected to the big league roster in early July as one of those arms. Due to his aforementioned out-of-options status, he was designated for assignment about a week later. The Yankees claimed him off waivers but he lasted just a few days before another DFA. The Mets have claimed him to once again bring a fresh arm into the relief mix. Around those transactions, Garcia has pitched 7 1/3 innings over three appearances, having allowed three earned runs on four hits and two walks while striking out five.

It’s likely that Garcia has a tenuous grip on a roster spot again. The trade deadline is next week and the Mets will surely be adding bullpen reinforcements between now and then. For now, they’ll grab Garcia and plug him into the mix.

Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Yankees To Designate Rico Garcia For Assignment

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10:17pm: Winans will indeed be recalled in the corresponding move, Sherman reports.

10:03pm: The Yankees are designating reliever Rico Garcia for assignment, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. They’ll promote a fresh arm to take his spot in the bullpen tomorrow. The 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Garcia’s stint on the roster lasted a few days and one game. The Yanks had claimed him off waivers from the Mets during the All-Star Break. The 31-year-old righty tossed 2 2/3 innings during tonight’s bullpen game in Atlanta. He allowed three runs on as many hits and a pair of walks. Garcia surrendered a three-run homer to Ozzie Albies that quickly broke the game open in what would eventually be a 7-3 loss.

After throwing 53 pitches, Garcia would have been unavailable for the next few days. He’s out of options, so the Yankees couldn’t send him to the minors. As the eighth man in the bullpen, he gets bumped off so they can make a move tomorrow. Bringing up Allan Winans as a long reliever makes the most sense.

Winans and Michael Arias, who is pitching in High-A, are the only healthy pitchers on the 40-man roster who can be recalled unless someone else is going on the injured list. Clayton Beeter and Jayvien Sandridge have each been optioned within the past 15 days; Brent Headrick is on the Triple-A injured list.

Garcia had worked 4 2/3 scoreless innings over two appearances with the Mets earlier this month. He’d missed plenty of bats in Triple-A before being called up. Garcia struck out 27.4% of batters faced across 30 1/3 minor league frames, but he also walked nearly 15% of opponents. He’ll likely be placed back on waivers in the next few days.

Yankees Claim Rico Garcia

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The Yankees have claimed right-hander Rico Garcia off waivers from the Mets, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Mets designated Garcia for assignment last week. The Yankees had an open 40-man spot. Garcia is out of options, so they will need to open an active roster spot for him.

Garcia, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. He then tossed 30 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 4.45 earned run average. He struck out 27.4% of batters faced but also gave out walks at a 14.8% clip.

The Mets lost a number of pitchers to the injured list in recent weeks and called Garcia up to the big leagues at the start of July. He got into two games and gave them 4 2/3 scoreless innings. He averaged over 96 miles per hour on his fastball while also throwing a slider, curveball and changeup. The Mets bumped him off the roster when Kodai Senga was reinstated from the IL.

The Yankee bullpen has recently taken a number of hits. Mark Leiter Jr., Fernando Cruz and Yerry De los Santos all hit the IL in the past few weeks. Jake Cousins has been on the IL all year but recently required Tommy John surgery.

Garcia was a freely-available arm who has posted some intriguing strikeout numbers this year, so the Yanks have grabbed him off the wire. Since he’s out of options, his grip on a roster spot may be tenuous. The Yanks, like all contenders, will surely be looking to make bullpen additions before the deadline.

The righty has also pitched for the Rockies, Giants, Orioles, Athletics and Nationals, but always in fairly limited stints. He has appeared in five major league seasons but has just 40 1/3 innings under his belt, posting a 6.47 ERA in that time. From 2022 to the present, he has 165 minor league innings with a 3.33 ERA, 31.7% strikeout rate and 12.7% walk rate.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Mets Designate Rico Garcia For Assignment

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2:40pm: The Mets have now officially announced these moves and a few others. They also optioned right-hander Justin Hagenman and placed outfielder/designated hitter Jesse Winker on the 10-day IL due to back inflammation. Right-hander Austin Warren and infielder Jared Young were recalled to take those two spots.

10:21am: The Mets will designate right-hander Rico Garcia for assignment today in order to open a spot on the roster for the return of ace Kodai Senga, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Garcia is out of minor league options and couldn’t be sent back to Triple-A without being exposed to waivers.

Garcia signed a minor league deal with the Mets over the winter. The 31-year-old righty was selected to the major league roster eight days ago and has since pitched in two games, tossing 4 2/3 shutout frames with just one hit and no walks allowed. He’s punched out three hitters and shown career-best velocity on his four-seamer, averaging 96.1 mph and topping out at 98 mph. He’s using that four-seamer less than in prior seasons, in large part due to a newly incorporated slider/cutter he’s added to his typical four-seam/curveball/changeup repertoire.

That short run was Garcia’s first big league work since 2023, when he pitched 11 2/3 innings between the A’s and Nats but was tagged for a dozen runs. He’s spent the rest of the 2025 season in Triple-A Syracuse, pitching to a 4.45 ERA with a strong 27.4% strikeout rate but also an alarming 14.8% walk rate in 30 1/3 innings. Garcia has had plenty of success in Triple-A, regularly showing better-than-average ability to miss bats but also below-average command. He has a 6.47 ERA in 40 1/3 MLB frames split between the Rockies, Mets, A’s, Nats, Giants and Orioles.

The Mets have regularly cycled through journeymen relievers with the final couple spots in their bullpen. Garcia has pitched better than the others in his brief look but will still meet the same fate. He’ll be placed on waivers or traded within the next five days. He’s been outrighted in the past, so if he clears waivers he’ll be able to reject an outright assignment to the minors in favor of free agency.

Mets Place Paul Blackburn, Dedniel Núñez On Injured List

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3:20pm: Núñez tells Anthony DiComo of MLB.com that Tommy John surgery is a possibility for him. Presumably, he will undergo some more tests before a final determination is made.

2:05pm: The Mets announced a series of roster moves today. Right-hander Paul Blackburn has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 30th, with a right shoulder impingement. Righty Dedniel Núñez has also been placed on the 15-day IL, in his case due to a right elbow sprain. Righty Blade Tidwell was also optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. To take those three roster spots, they recalled righties Austin Warren and Justin Hagenman and selected Rico Garcia. The Garcia move was reported last night and there was an open 40-man spot for him.

It’s unclear when Blackburn’s injury popped up or how serious it is. He started for the Mets on Saturday and only went one inning, though that didn’t appear to be an injury situation. He recorded three outs before a rain delay of an hour and a half commenced. He returned to the mound after that delay but allowed five straight hits before being pulled.

Updates will surely be forthcoming but it’s a notable situation regardless. Just a few weeks ago, the Mets had so much starting pitching that Blackburn himself was the subject of trade rumors and it seemed like Frankie Montas might end up in a long relief role. But at the very moment those Blackburn rumors were trickling out to the public, Kodai Senga collapsed on the field with an obvious injury. He went on the IL with a strained hamstring. A few days later, Tylor Megill hit the IL with a sprained elbow. Then Griffin Canning ruptured his Achilles. Now Blackburn follows that group to the IL.

It highlights how quickly a pitching surplus can evaporate and puts the Mets in a tough spot. Their previously overloaded rotation is now down to Montas, Clay Holmes and David Peterson. The club played a doubleheader yesterday, with Holmes starting one game and Tidwell serving as a bulk reliever in the second.

In the immediate short term, Peterson is starting tonight. Hagenman and Garcia can pitch multiple innings per outing. Brandon Waddell is also an option for that, though he covered three frames yesterday behind Holmes. In coming days or weeks, Sean Manaea could come off the IL and rejoin the rotation, as he has been on a rehab assignment lately. Despite being on the IL for an oblique strain, he recently required a cortisone shot for a loose body in his elbow. The Mets have downplayed that, however, and he tossed three innings in a Double-A start yesterday.

The Mets have an off-day on Monday and then the All-Star break is just over the horizon, which could give them a chance to reset. They have other guys they could call upon, with Jonathan Pintaro on the 40-man roster. Prospect Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean are in Triple-A but neither is one the 40-man and Sproat has a 5.43 earned run average on the year.

Add it all up and it seems highly likely that the Mets will be looking to add starting pitching at the deadline later this month, which is quite a turnaround from a few weeks ago, when they almost sold some off.

Núñez is a reliever but his injury is just an additional challenge for the taxed pitching staff. It’s unclear how serious his injury is but anything involving a pitcher’s elbow is always a concern. Between last year and this year, he has given the Mets 44 2/3 relief innings with a 2.82 ERA.

Photo courtesy of Jason Parkhurst, Imagn Images

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