Red Sox shouldn’t re-sign right-handed reliever in free agency

The Boston Red Sox have 11 players hitting the market in the coming weeks once either the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series.

At that point, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and his staff will have to decide what they want to do with all of their pending free agents, including right-handed relief pitcher Luis Garcia.

Garcia, 37, originally signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 2004. After some time out of baseball, Garcia signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2013. In 2018, he was traded to the Los Angeles Angels and proceeded to have stints with the Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres and Angels again.

Boston acquired Garcia at this year’s trade deadline for Niko Kavadas, Matthew Lugo, Yeferson Vargas and Ryan Zeferjahn. He appeared in just 15 games after the deadline due to injury and poor performance which included posting an 8.22 ERA, 1.630 WHIP and 7.6 K/9 in 15 1/3 innings.

Now, he’ll hit free agency again, and according to Spotrac, he’s projected to make just over $1 million in 2025. While that’s an affordable price for a team that has open spots in the bullpen and money to spend, the Red Sox should be looking for other options.

Garcia could bounce back and pitch as he had with Los Angeles before the trade (3,71 ERA, 1.168 WHIP and 8.2 K/9), but it wouldn’t be surprising if Breslow and company just wanted to move on from him to leave that dud of a trade deadline in the past (aside from Quinn Priester).

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