Angels right-hander Luis Garcia is drawing widespread trade interest, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Heyman names the Yankees, Red Sox and Royals as among the interested teams.
Garcia, 37, is a veteran of 12 MLB seasons and has been a steady middle relief arm for many years. After pitching to roughly league average results (99 ERA+) in six years with the Phillies to start his career, Garcia has bounced around the league to pitch for the Angels, Rangers, Cardinals and Padres over the past half decade. With a better ERA+ than average in each of the last five 162-game seasons, Garcia sports a 3.94 ERA (107 ERA+) and a 4.00 FIP since the start of the 2019 campaign, though he’s only collected nine saves in that time as clubs have generally utilized him in the middle innings.
The veteran righty has put together a solid season this year in his second stint with the Angels, posting a 3.80 ERA with even stronger peripherals (3.68 FIP, 3.44 SIERA). Garcia’s 22.3% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate this year, while perfectly solid, don’t exactly jump off the page, but in conjunction with his excellent 50.8% groundball rate they make for a quality relief arm who would improve the majority of the bullpens around the league. With so many teams in contention and a number of them facing bullpen struggles this year, it’s hardly a surprise that teams would be interested in Garcia’s services. For their part, the Angels removed any doubt regarding their willingness to deal rental players earlier Saturday by shipping closer Carlos Estevez to Philadelphia.
As for Garcia’s potential suitors, each is known to be on the hunt for bullpen help this summer. Earlier reporting has indicated that the Yankees hope to add two relievers to their bullpen before the deadline and while Garcia is unlikely to be the sort of shutdown closer New York is seemingly hoping to add in front of struggling righty Clay Holmes, Garcia could be an excellent secondary addition to work lower-leverage spots alongside arms such as Michael Tonkin and Tim Hill. The Red Sox, meanwhile, are also in the market for a reliever or two (as noted by MassLive’s Sean McAdam) following injuries to leverage righties Justin Slaten and Chris Martin. While Garcia’s 112 ERA+ isn’t quite on the level of Slaten’s 129 or Martin’s 128, he could certainly join the late-inning mix alongside Brennan Bernadino, Zack Kelly and closer Kenley Jansen for a few weeks until Slaten and Martin can return to action for Boston.
The Royals may be the best fit for Garcia’s services of the three, however. MLB.com’s Anne Rogers reports that Kansas City was in on Estevez prior to him landing in Philadelphia, but were ultimately unwilling to part with their top tier of prospects in order to acquire a rental piece like Estevez. While Garcia is also a rental piece, his price tag shouldn’t approach that of Estevez, a former All-Star with a 180 ERA+ and 20 saves this year. A lower price tag doesn’t mean Garcia couldn’t still be impactful for the Royals, however, as the club’s 4.18 bullpen ERA ranks in the bottom 10 in the majors this year. That leaves them likely to benefit considerably from the addition of a player of Garcia’s caliber, even after they swung a deal with the Nationals to acquire Hunter Harvey earlier this month.
