The Mets announced that right-hander Luis Garcia has been designated for assignment, as reported by Will Sammon of The Athletic shortly before the team’s official news release. The right hand Joey Gerber he’s moving up from Triple-A to replace Garcia on the active roster, and Gerber is already on the 40-man roster so no other moves were necessary.
Garcia arrived in New York on a one-year, $1.75MM free agent deal back in January, as the Mets became the ninth team Garcia has pitched for at the MLB level in his 14 major league seasons. Unfortunately for Garcia, his tenure in Queens got off to a rough start, as he had a 7.11 strikeout rate and a 12.5% strikeout rate in his first 6 1/3 innings and six appearances in a Mets uniform. Four of those six appearances resulted in scoreless work, but Garcia was tagged for two runs in one inning on Opening Day, and was charged with three runs over a third of an inning of work in Thursday’s 7-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.
Yesterday’s 11-6 loss to the A’s saw the Mets use Garcia and four other pitchers in relief. Kodai Sengawho was chased after allowing seven runs in 2 1/3 innings. So today’s action may be about putting Gerber’s new arm in New York’s bullpen, and the lack of flexibility within the relief group (in terms of minor league options) may have simply made Garcia the odd man out.
Still, it’s a little surprising to see the Mets pursue the DFA route with Garcia so soon after signing the veteran to a guaranteed contract. Garcia has a .423 BABIP over his small sample this season, so it could be argued that bad luck has played a large role in Garcia’s struggles, especially for a pitcher with a career-low 53.9% strikeout rate. Garcia’s drop in sinker velocity (from 96.9 mph in 2025 to 94 mph this year) may have been a concern for the Mets, but it’s not uncommon for pitchers to lack velo at first.
Garcia has had a lot of ups and downs in his long career, but he was posting solid numbers last year, when he had a 3.42 ERA over 55 1/3 innings with the Dodgers, Nationals, and Angels, though he averaged a lower K% and BB%. Teams in need of bullpen help may want to opt out at age 39, though that would mean taking the remainder of Garcia’s $1.75MM salary.
If he clears waivers and declares, Garcia has enough additional MLB service time to decline a direct assignment and elect free agency, while retaining all of his salary owed. The new team could sign Garcia and owe him a split portion of the minimum salary for any time spent on the big league roster. The Mets will still be in the balance of $1.75MM, minus that split total.
Signing Garcia cost the Mets more than just $1.75MM, as the total price came to $3.675MM when factoring in the 110% tax that New York charges for being at the top of the luxury tax exemption. In a sense, DFA’ing Garcia early is another sign of how money isn’t the Mets’ thing, and how the team will also keep trading the bullpen to keep new arms ready.
