The Padres announced today that they have claimed infielder Greg Garcia off waivers from the Cardinals. He’ll head out west after spending his entire professional career in the St. Louis organization.
Garcia, a native of the San Diego area, has received significant MLB playing time in the past three campaigns. All told, he’s a .248/.356/.339 hitter in the big leagues. With just ten career home runs, there isn’t much pop, though Garcia has managed a 12.3% walk rate in the bigs.
Unfortunately, the 29-year-old oversaw a downturn at the plate last year, with his walk rate sinking into the single digits and his overall output falling along with it. Garcia managed only a 72 wRC+ on the year.
With experience playing all over the infield, Garcia could represent a utility option for the Pads. At the moment, the San Diego organization is largely unsettled on the left side of the dirt.
Cards fans everywhere rejoice
yea, send jose martinez packing as well
I want Jose traded too but for some value. He still hit .300 with decent pop. Sucks a Defense but could net a top 10 prospect from an AL team
Matt Carpenter with no power. I had higher hopes.
Not even close
Don’t they have enough clutter on their 40-man as it is? Maybe they’ll also try to pass him through waivers.
Them trying to pass him through waivers is by far the likeliest outcome.
Really? They’re going to claim him off waivers and then put him on waivers?
That’s not how any of this works.
Except it is. Teams try to do it all the time. Alex Anthopolus did it all the time when he was GM in Toronto.
Um that’s exactly how this work eatoncurlo. Every offseason there’s at least a couple guys who end up on waivers at three or four times…
It’s a nice, inexpensive, gamble-free version of restocking your Triple-A depth.
Ask David Rollins who got DFA’d six times two offseasons ago if that is how any of this works
Yup. Happens all the time.
How many players is that now that SD has claimed from STL in recent years? Lol
Padres claimed 2 (Wick and Garcia) in 2018 – the same number the Cardinals claimed from the Padres (Ross and Webb). The padres hadn’t claimed anyone from the Cardinals the past 4 years.
I think Fully6822 is thinking about Rule 5 as well.
Córdoba was a rule 5 pick as was Perdomo (although technically a Rockies’s pick and was sold immediately to the Padres). Padres and Cards also traded Gyorko/Jay.
How many teams have a former employee in prison for hacking in recent years? lol
How many teams have a GM who was suspended twice by MLB, and got his team fined one other time?
And how many teams have the best farm systems by a mile?
We had the top-ranked system in 2012. We were also top 5 when Preller took over. It doesn’t mean a thing until they prove it where it counts.
And none of those “can’t miss” prospects have exactly dominated in the minors. Some have been good, but none have been great.
Bottom line, you can’t make that specious criticism of a Cards employee who was caught, tried, went to jail, and will never work inbaseball again. Not when we have a sitting GM who already has three strikes against him for cheating.
If you’re referring to John Mozeliak as the GM, he’s now the president of baseball operations. He must have a Cush job, because he hasn’t done anything but cost the Cards Owners money, grief, and reputation through the Houston Scandal of which he claimed he knew nothing about. (Bull…he knew something was going on)
Mozeliak is not perfect, but to say he has only caused negative outcomes for the Cardinals is foolish. Since 1998 he has served as Assistant Scouting Director, Scouting Director, Assistant GM, GM, and now President of Baseball Ops. Mozeliak has hard a part in the process that brought almost every player to St. Louis from 2001 onwards, when he became Assistant GM. He doesn’t have a perfect track record (or even that good, really) in FA but no one does. To ignore his impact on the organization beyond FA signings is shortsighted.
I bet he is a great leader. Great in the clubhouse. More than anything that is what the padres value.
Take heart. I got the sarcasm.
I wonder if a deal involving Cory Spangenberg is in the works. They’re both lefty-hitting infielders. Garcia can play shortstop, so he’s a more useful utility player for the Padres.
Having watched Spangenberg play the past couple of years, I still don’t see what he does well. He has speed but doesn’t really get on base. He strikes out a bunch but not much pop. He seems pretty limited defensively.
Spangenberg’s only real value at this point is his ability to play multiple positions. If they do trade him, maybe it will be as part of a package with some minor leaguers in order to make room for the Rule 5 draft.
Cards must be planning on using Munoz as their utility swing man in 19. That will work, although Garcia was the lefty off the bench.
As long as Munoz learns to play defense. He was brutal in the field.
Can Garcia play Shortstop? With Galvis walking we need a cheap stopgap prob for half a season until Tatis JR comes up.
I wouldn’t want GG to play everyday. Good clubhouse guy, though. It’s cool that he’s going back home.
Greg Garcia is an underrated player. Believe it or not, this guy hit over .200 last year. He hit .221 with 40 hits, 3 hrs, 15 rbis, and 3 steals last season. He is a good utility guy and the Padres are most likely to use him at short this season. I think this is a good move because it gives the Padres more utility and a better core in the infield.
SD loves Cards farmhands and fringe players.
I can guarantee you the Cardinals have plenty of fringe players. Many of them in the starting lineup every day.
STL also does baseballpun, Jed Gyorko and Miles Mikolas both day hello.
Well when your scouting department has to hack other teams to even be sub par at its job…half the team are going to be fringe players. Have fun with that 5 year rebuild. Wouldn’t be surprised if Cards are below Cinny next year in the standings
You like beating that drum, don’t you?
Better to beat a drum then be passed around by convicts. lol
Don’t think you realize just how good the Card’s youngsters are. They were 62 games over .500 at AAA, Memphis. Flaherty, Hudson, Reyes, Bader, Gomber, Poncedeleon, Hicks, Kelly, and Munoz plus plenty more coming. Add them to the existing vets Waino, Mikolas, Martinez, Carpenter, Martinez, Gyroko, Ozuna, Wong, and DeJong they are seriously underrated.
Don’t think you realize just how down the division has been the past three years (except the Cubs) and you guys still missed the playoffs.
better look at thise division stats again
Brewers record the two years before? Cinny? Pittsburgh?
Im looking right at Cinny Pittsburgh and St louis stats compared to league average…not good
lol, 5 year rebuild? Yes the Cards haven’t been in the playoffs for 3 years now, but they have still been competitive each year, and have had a winning record every year, over the last decade. What other franchises can say that?
Those winning records but not making the playoffs is costing you talent in the draft, so they call up talent like Jose Martinez and Tyler O’neill lol.
The draft? Really? This isn’t the NFL or NBA. I doubt most teams care as much about their draft position as some people believe.
Even if it’s not the NFL or NBA, drafting higher is still objectively better. Although the difference from pick to pick gets smaller the lower you go and considering the Cardinals were the last team to get eliminated from contention in the NL, the benefit to drafting a spot or two higher probably wouldn’t have been worth the chance of getting that second WC spot.
You better look at the data before you claim the MLB draft is the yellow brick road.
Even Billy Beane has called it “nothing more than an expensive dice roll.” And, “If you hit on one out of 50, you’re successful.” And then, there’s the actual data …
Martinez and O’Neill who right now is better than 50 percent of your major league roster? Lol. Martinez was worth more than Hosmer who you guys paid a fortune for. I think Garcia will do well for you guys. Also the central almost sent 3 teams to the playoffs, downturn? Funny guy
Wow…. so you’re a baseball fan you say? There was a big difference between #3 Jon Gray and #4 Kohl Stewart. look at the top ten players drafted in each class then look at 11-25 and tell me there isn’t a HUGE drop-off
haha “almost”… I wasn’t talking about this year exclusively. I said the past 3 years. You know the years you have played as many playoff games as the Padres
good luck over the next 5-7 years playing in the same division as the Brewers and Cubs.
Like I said juicy, you should look at the data. Especially the first round. Moving the goal posts won’t help your argument.
Mark Appel … Brady Aiken … Pierce Johnson … Paul Blackburn … Albert Almora … There are far more busts than successes, and that is a fact. Only about 30% of 1st rounders ever get to the big leagues, even for a cup of coffee.
Cardinals scouting department sucks anyway. That why thrre has only been one to EVER go to prison for what your team did. SHAME. Look what Voit is doing in NYC. No one on your staff saw that coming cause they are inept.
Yes and the actual data says that on average, the career WAR of a draft pick goes down as you get lower in the draft.
I can cherry-pick random examples that help my case too. Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa, Buster Posey, Aaron Nola, Anthony Rendon, etc…
No need to cherry pick. The data is there for all to see. I’ve posted the details before.
WAR? Roflmao.
“No need to cherry pick.”
Which explains why you are doing it.
“The data is there for all to see. I’ve posted the details before.”
You did no such thing.
Yeah, I did. And that wasn’t “cherry-picking.” Those guys were drafted by your “model” teams. You should have known that.
And yeah, I posted the percentages before. Maybe the math was too much for you to grasp.
Yeah, you did cherry pick. And watch it with the “Maybe the math was too much for you to grasp” thing. I’m willing to bet that I know way more about math than you do.
And then you woke up
Replacement for Spangenberg or Pirela? Or just depth in the minors?
Hopefully both are out of here. Tired of those two.
Maybe he’ll serve as a stopgap at SS until Tatis Jr gets promoted?
Hopefully, Pirela. At least Spangenberg has a few tools.
Hopefully Greg doesn’t have compromising pictures of your manager too, this guy will drive you crazy
He appears to be out of options. They will probably try to sneak him through waivers when they need to clear space for Rule 5 protections.
DFA and then AAA fodder. Will be our next Diego Goris
Nice to see him being able to play close to home. A lot of fans fail to see it, but he has been a valuable depth piece for the Cardinals over the years.
Off topic but when do teams have to reinstate players from the 60-day DL?
Tomorrow
Greg Garcia- 2016 Playing the Atlanta Braves, Jeremy Hazelbaker, Aledmys Díaz, and he established a new MLB record by each hitting a pinch hit home run, becoming the first to hit three pinch hit home runs in one game for the same team.
greg hit the longest cardinal home run in 17
Thanks! Fun things to know.