Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Yimi Garcia

Jan 24, 2023 - 1:45 PM

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Sorry I took a couple of days away to have my birthday weekend. I had a great time with friends and family. Getting older doesn’t seem too scary.

Yimi Garcia was a free agent signing at the end of November 2021. He signed for two years plus a vesting/team option. He’s to get $5 million this season and would get $6 million if he totals 110 innings or 110 games in the first two seasons or 60 innings or games this coming season.

If he misses out on the vesting option, there is a team option for $5 million. There are also $250,000 bonuses for getting to 50, 55 and 60 innings. It does seem needlessly complicated.

Yimi had a good 2022 season. He pitched in 61 games with a 3.10 ERA, 16 walks and 58 strikeouts. He had 23 holds. Batters hit .215/.275/.345 against him. He was much better vs RHB (.211/.252/.308) than LHB (.222/.308/.400). He gave up more than one earned run in just four outings. He missed a couple of weeks’ worth of games with a back strain.

He was pretty much a 1-inning pitcher. He got four outs or more in just nine games and got two full innings just twice. He did most of his work in the 8th inning last year.

Garcia threw a bunch of different pitches. Fourseam fastball (44.2% of the time, averaging 94.9 MPH), Cutter (17.7%), Slider (16.6%), Sinker (14.2%) and Change (7.3). He was in the 88th percentile on the spin rate on his fastball.

Yimi’s been pretty consistent in his career, but Steamer seems to think he will have a bit of an off-year this year. They are calling for a 4.06 ERA in 70 games, and 70 innings. I’d guess he won’t get to 70 games if his ERA is over 4.