Jaime Garcia signs with Blue Jays for one year, $10M with club option

Free agent starting pitching Jamie Garcia has agreed to a one year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays for $8 million which includes a 2019 team option with a $2 million buyout. Garcia, like Andrew Cashner, who reportedly agreed to terms with the Baltimore Orioles earlier today, is part of the tier of free agent starting pitchers behind the big four free agents — Yu Darvish, Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb.

Garcia, like Cashner, was someone I mentioned as a possible target for the Rangers with their six man rotation plans, and I’m a bit baffled why, at this price point, the Rangers wouldn’t have been on Garcia. The 31 year old lefthander has had an injury-plagued, up-and-down career, but put up a league-average ERA last season while splitting time between the Minnesota Twins, the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees. For a team like the Rangers that is currently allocating two spots in its rotation to some combination of converted relievers Mike Minor and Matt Bush and re-treads Bartolo Colon and Jon Niese, and that is currently about $30 million below its 2017 payroll, Garcia would seem to be a reasonable short-term option to shore up the rotation.