Zell's Pinstriped Blog, A New York Yankees Fan Blog

Garcia tosses a pitch against the Yankees

Well, maybe not. It was widely reported last night that the Yankees inked Freddie Garcia to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training, pending a physical. Assuming Garcia passes and earns a spot on the team, the contract is rumored to be worth as much as $5.1M, with incentives. He had a similar opportunity with the Mets in 2009 and didn’t cash in,  but it turns out he was injured then.

Garcia isn’t as terrible a pickup as some have complained, particularly on a minor league deal. Like every starting pitcher still currently available, his career has basically been that of a middle-of-the-rotation guy coming off injuries. He did make 28 starts for the White Sox last year, but that was more than he made in the previous 3 seasons combined. He wasn’t terrible; he wasn’t great. He did allow a .293 average on balls in play and only struck out 15.5% of the batters he faced, which means he wasn’t fooling too many hitters. But he also figured out ways to limit the damage, going at least 6 innings in 22 of his starts.

The real point of this signing is trying to build up some depth for the back-end of the rotation. Expect Garcia to compete with Ivan Nova, Bartolo Colon, Sergio Mitre and possibly rookie Hector Noesi for one of the two remaining spots in the starting rotation. (Unless Mitre turns in a lights-out performance this spring, expect him to wind up in the bullpen – but more on that later.) In that context, it’s another low-risk, high-reward move that might actually help the Yanks in 2011.