Former Seattle Mariners, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Freddy Garcia made a brief appearance at the Red Sox’s spring training complex this morning. Garcia stopped in for an evaluation of his health, a sign that the Red Sox may be looking to beef up their pitching depth even more by inking the right-hander to a deal.
The former All-Star earned $10 million last year and delivered exactly one win for the Phillies last year, causing the to-be NL East champions to struggle with pitching depth the entire year. He had shoulder surgery in August and finished 1-5 with a 5.90 ERA in 58 innings.
The year previous he had went 17-9 with a 4.53 ERA in 216.1 IP for the White Sox. In 2005, he was a workhorse, hurling 228.0 IP of a 3.87 ERA en route to helping the White Sox win the World Series.
For his career, he’s got a record of 117-76 with a 4.07 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 1,701.2 IP, 548 BB and 1,252 K.
I’m more optimistic about Garcia helping the Red Sox this season than I am Colon, so I’m rooting for this signing.
Hat tip to the Boston Herald.
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That’s like saying you’re more confident Napoleon will show up to help France than Charlemagne.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if we had a real pitcher like Santana, our CF situation solved with Jacoby’s departure, and a dramatically better chance at winning both now and into the future?
But, good point Theo, everybody loves no-upside pitchers like Garcia.
How is Garcia not no-upside? If we sign him and he sucks, we don’t bring him up. If he’s okay and Beckett goes on the DL for two weeks to freshen up for the postseason, Garcia gives us innings. If he makes a full recovery … that’s fantastic.
It’s NO-lose.
This makes me wonder how serious the Sox are about having Buccholz on the ML roster. It’s been rumored that they think he’s still immature, but the run for the No. 5 spot just got even more interesting!
ps. I agree with Evan, with these guys waiting in AAA, the Sox have depth. If they never get it together, it’s only money and the Sox have plenty…
Watching Garcia last year, albeit in a short sample size, he had some moments where he was unhittable…literally… as in the batters couldn’t even foul a pitch off. They swung and miss a lot. But the bad outweighed the good and he missed most of the season. I had actually hoped they brought him back this year. It’s a can’t lose but a probably-not-win.
CF solved by getting rid of Ellsbury? Sounds more like Red Sox Nation could be solved by getting rid of Sean O.
Relax Sean O. It seems the more successful the team is, the more you hate on them. Take a step back and look at yourself. You can’t always be right. In fact, the team would be in serious trouble if you ran it. So stop hating on Theo for doing things you don’t want him to do. The things he’s done have won us championships.
What do you judge teams by? How much you like the personalities on the team?
Actually baroloco, SO is one of the few who does not judge teams by personalities. He goes by these crazy things called stats, and balances them out with pretty well reasoned assessments of needs and demands throughout the league. Kind of seems reasonable to me.
The argument goes something like this: Jacoby will never hit close to .350 for an entire season, and his value will never be higher. By spinning him and Lester, who even the biggest homer admits will never be more than a #3, for Santana we would have improved the team. Or, the two could have garnered Cabrera and we wouldn’t be stuck with a declining 3rd baseman.
That’s essentially the argument, and though I don’t agree with it, it’s a heck of a lot more articulate and reasonable than “Theo wins championships so shut up.”
Well, Theo’s won two more championships than anybody else in Red Sox Nation. Maybe… just maybe… he knows what he’s doing.
It’d be nice to have Santana, but if the Sox had made the trade, they’d be looking to fill Lester’s slot in the rotation (and they’d be down at least one top pitching prospect), so they’d probably be signing Colon and Garcia anyway.
I don’t know whether Ellsbury is overrated or not. I’m not penciling him in for stardom, just a Brett Butler-type career: high OBA, good BA, not a lot of power, and excellent defense. I don’t think anybody expects him OR ANY OTHER PLAYER to hit .350. Come on, now. You don’t strengthen your arguments by setting up straw men and knocking them down.
Mostly, I’m not talking about what Sean O said this one time. I’m talking about his CONSTANT whining, sometimes over things as trivial as the personalities of the players. In fact, I think he said Tavarez was the only reason he still likes the team because he likes Tavarez’ personality.
Come on, are you gonna try to act like that’s logical?
Thank you JV. Classic case of straw man. Mostly’s arguing points I never made.
Hi SeanO.
MR is right on about your insights. IMO, if it’s just about winning at any cost, right now, then we should have gone for Santana and a couple of top FA’s, to add power, as pitching is already our strong point.
Most wanted Santana and more, but rejected the cost in young talent and $$, which would have been crippling, and embarrasing to most of us, who don’t want to become Steinbrunner Yankee Clones. Alot of us really like this championship team and its MiLB players.
Ellsbury, Lowrie, Lester, Masterson and Bowden are worth keeping, not just because they are talented, but because they are already becoming part of us; part of Red Sox Nation, the connectedness which brings us to the game and keeps us there. And the Twins wanted Buckholz too. The nerve!!!
While critics differ on their upsides, no one is projecting any losers in this group. If we face Johan in the WS, he will be formidable, but our team’s talent and depth is greater than theirs, partly because we kept these kids.
In addition to our own formidable 5, and 5 more solid #5’s in the wings, maybe several of Garcia, Colon, Kolb, Aardsma, Breslow, Hansen will regain, at low risk and in our system, their formidable talents for another WS run. Santana might have been more certain, but not as much fun
Hi MR.
Would we be totally surprised if J.E. actually did have a.350 year? He already did this, in limited games, in AA and at Fenway. If he has done it, then theoretically, he can do it. Jacoby may not be he second coming of Fred Lynn, but maybe Pistol Pete?
Other variables: Will Lester or Buckholz or Colon or Garcia win 15? Will Lowrie bring .300/350/500 to Fenway? Will Masterson come up and light it up like Bucholz did last year? Will Aardsma or Hansen or Kolb do what Gagne couldn’t.
The point is, we don’t really know, which is the fun part, and a huge part of enjoying the game.
In the meantime, with their early exploits, Dustin, Jacoby and Jon are already joining Papi, Manny, Tek, Schill, Wake, Youk as the faces of Red Sox Nation.
[...] Fire Brand of the American League is hoping the Red Sox will sign Garcia as they believe he will be more dependable than Colon. [...]
it a real good thing
it a good sine if he is healty look at what he did with the m’s