Brewers outfielder Avisail Garcia has declined his half of a $12MM mutual option for the 2022 season, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). He’ll instead receive a $2MM buyout and head out into the free agent market in search of another multi-year deal.
Garcia, 31 next June, struggled through the 2020 season in Milwaukee but enjoyed one of the finest seasons of his career in a rebound 2021 showing. The former Tigers, White Sox and Rays slugger swatted a career-best 29 home runs this season while posting a strong .262/.330/.490 batting line — about 15 percent better than league-average production, by measure of wRC+. His original two-year, $20MM deal with the Brewers came with a $12MM club option that the team could very well have exercised. However, the contract also contained a provision that converted that option into a mutual option with enough plate appearances, and Garcia reached that threshold back in September, earning the right to return to the free-agent market.
This will be the second foray into the free-agent market for Garcia, who posted a similar 113 wRC+ mark in his last platform year (2019). However, Garcia hit for more power in ’21 than he did in ’19 and also drew better defensive grades for his outfield work this year (in part because the 2019 Rays occasionally deployed him in center, to sub-par results).
Another multi-year deal for Garcia seems quite likely, as he’s wrapped up a strong season and further solidified the notion that he’s capable of being a team’s everyday right fielder. Garcia crushed lefties in 2021 (.279/.406/.529), as he is wont to do, and delivered league-average output against right-handed opponents. The question for him in free agency will be the extent by which he can eclipse his prior contract.
The improved power output and defensive ratings are obvious points in Garcia’s favor, but he’s now also two years older than last time around. His 2021 Statcast profile is quite appealing, as Garcia ranked in the 73rd percentile of MLB hitters in average exit velocity and had strong percentile showings in hard-hit rate (78th), expected batting average (83rd), expected slugging (87th), expected wOBA (85th) and sprint speed (88th). Then again, much of that was true in 2019 (albeit not quite to this extent).
Garcia has long shown a knack for hard contact and far more speed than one would expect from a player listed at 6’4″ and 250 pounds. The 2021 season, however, is the first that he’s delivered truly high-end power output with the type of plus defensive ratings that align with his tantalizing tool set. The Brewers technically have the right to make him an $18.4MM qualifying offer, but that’d register as something of a surprise given the typically tight payroll in Milwaukee.
The Brewers should have benched him for the end of the regular season after they had the division locked up. Or they at least should have throttled his at bats. They were going to win the division anyway and Garcia could still have played in the playoffs. Now they are either going to lose him or have to pay him a lot more money. They could have had him on a cheaper contract next year. The Brewers decided to hurt next season just to try and win games that didn’t matter at the end of this season. I guess they probably had to so the MLBPA didn’t give them backlash. It would have been much better to keep Garcia around in the cheaper one year deal next season though.
What are you going on about? He didn’t even have a full season’s worth of PA’s.
seamaholic 2
He didn’t even have a full season’s worth of PA’s.
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What difference does a full season’s worth of PA’s make?
If the Brewers had given Garcia 24 fewer at bats this season he wouldn’t be a free agent. The Brewers would have been able to keep him next season and only pay an extra $8 million. He’s going to make way more than that in free agency. He needed 492 plate appearances this season to opt out and the Brewers gave him 515. I could see if they really needed him at the end of the season or if he was going to blow away the PA limit anyway. They really didn’t need him at the end though because the division was blown out and he still barely passed the limit. If the Brewers had just benched Garcia for a few extra games this season against rightys (because he is a righty) or pulled him from the game a few times because a righty came in they would be able to keep him next season at a steal of a price. Now they have to pay him $2 million just to watch him become a free agent instead of actually keeping him for another 8. All because they wanted him to get an extra 24 plate appearances at the end of the season when they had the division won anyway. It’s really easy to give 24 plate appearances to another player. It would have been less than a 5% reduction in plate appearances and Garcia would still be a Brewer next season and at a good price for a low budget team.
According to Cots:
“2022 club option will convert to a mutual option if Garcia has 550 plate appearances in 2020 or 1,050 PAs in 2020-21 combined”
Since it is an ‘or’ stipulation, he only needed 550 PAs in 2020. He had 207 PAs in 2020, and everything is being marked up by a factor of 2.7.
Check the game logs. They sat him a number of games in September. With the already oft-repeated mention of his every-other-year hot and cold performance, I kinda doubt adding a month’s worth of DNP’s/contract related would motivate him to give 100% as a Brewer next year.
24 ABs is a long layoff for player who then would be absolutely cold in the playoffs for them. A player knowing their employer did this to him would go on autopilot and become a cancer in clubhouse and other players would see brewers in negative light as well
That’s called a CBA violation
The Brewers want an upgrade.
The Mets “Missed WAR”
The Brewers should have benched him for the end of the regular season
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I believe the option converted to a mutual option at the end of 2020 (207 PAs * 2.7 = 559). However, unless my math has failed me, the buyout should only be $1.5M, not $2.0M.
It’s that’s the case Garcia should’ve just say out the playoffs. Players don’t get paid during the playoffs so why risk getting hurt in the playoffs and ruining next year’s contract? Works both ways, also a good way to never get another player to ever sign a incentive based deal with your team.
Players do get paid in the playoffs. They get paid the prorated version of their salary each game they play. Some even get bonuses for winning playoff games. I could see players not wanting to go there if it was obvious but we are talking about 24 at bats over 162 games here. Less than a 5% reduction. Just bench him a few games when a righty starts and say it’s for the lefty/righty matchup. Or pull him from the game a few times when a righty reliever comes in. They could have played him the same in 85% of the games and in the other 15% just given him 1 fewer plate appearance. No one is going to notice that. Over a 162 game season there had to be 5% of the time that it could make sense to bat a lefty against a righty instead of a righty like Garcia against him. It’s just such a small margin to break the limit by it’s impossible players would have been certain it was even intentional to reduce it by that few. They could even have done it earlier in the season and then played him everyday at the end and players would think they are trying to get him there. He was injured some. 24 plate appearances is really easy to make up for over 162 games. I mean think about it. Say over the first 15% of the season the Brewers give Garcia 1 fewer plate appearance per game. Then the last 85% of the season they just go full boar and use him as much as possible. Do you think anyone would call foul then?
Hey Mets Missed War. Everything you are pointing out is true, but you also need to see the larger picture and put the Garcia stuff in proper context. The Brewers have a very large arbitration class this season, prob around 40 million, and they’re already paying 3 outfielders, Cain Yelich and Bradley, more than 40 million for next season. My guess is the Brewers are happy to see Garcia go so they can reallocate that money. Having 4 players in your outfield that combine to make over 50 million for this mid market team is a bad idea and that is where they would be if they had Garcia under contract for next season. Plus they have Tyrone Taylor making league minimum next year and he deserves a shot. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Taylor outperforms Garcia next season.
@stevewpants: I see what you are saying. That could be true. I’m not sure if it is but it’s possible. Regardless, a player like Garcia on a 1-year $10M contract would have a lot of value on the market. Many teams would love to pay him that. The Brewers could have easily found a team to eat the entire salary and received something valuable in return for a trade. I agree what I’m saying would be kind of a crappy thing to do to a player. It would just be so easy to cover up though. We’re talking about him missing no more than 1 at bat per game over a span of less than a month total though and it could all happen against the pitchers he hits weakest against. It’s very arguable that there are at least 24 at bats this season that the Brewers would have been better off with going to a lefty to hit against a righty rather than Garcia. Probably more than that. It’s actually very probable that the Brewers hurt themselves by going righty vs. righty with Garcia at least 24 times when they could’ve gone lefty vs. righty. I am certain Garcia had at least 24 terrible at bats this season. Replacing him with an opposite handed hitter could do nothing but help the team. It’s not like he’s a lefty so opposite handed pitchers are usually on the mound. Garcia is a righty. Most pitchers are rightys. Why not bring in a lefty to spell him a couple dozen times over 162 games? It can’t really hurt the team to do that but it will help the team next year for sure if they do.
Cuz the lefty is JBJ, who couldn’t hit a beach ball off a tee.
Yeah, why didn’t the Brewers screw over a player like Charlie Comiskey did with the Black Sox players 100 years ago? Won’t the owners ever learn?
6-10 the last games of regular season. The whole team “throttled” down. Garcia is a hot commodity. He would not have taken a one year deal after the season he just had. He is going to grab the money.
Lmao Mets war…..you have to be the loneliest man alive
Do you really think the Brewers would have a happy and productive Garcia on their team in 2022 if they intentionally screwed him like that?
If anything, it speaks to the integrity of ownership and management of the Brewers to let him play when he could even after they had the division locked down. Anything less would make the practice just as shady as teams waiting to promote prospects that are MLB ready just to gain an extra year of control.
There goes all the offense
This guy is infinitely replaceable in the FA market. The Brewers have already seen the best of Garcia. Money best spent on someone else.
Remember last off season when everyone was skeptical about the brewers pitching outside of the 8th and 9th? It worked out.
My guess is Stearns only has offense on the mind this off season. It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens, and ai’m looking forward to it.
Someone will over pay him to put up a very avg .720-.760 OPS with 20 HRs.
Probably someone will bite, but I doubt that he will get more than 12MM…
Reminds me of the Moustakas deal with Cinci
Someone will bite on it…overpay him, and regret it immediately.
Rangers I think need to kick the tires here and what type of deal he wants. Seems to be a relatively inexpensive trade deadline candidate that might net you a mid level prospect while giving some ABs in LF and DH.
If you ask any Brewer fan on here they would rather use that money and go in a different direction. Yes, Avi had a nice season, but i would not be comfortable giving him a 3-4 year deal. I was also very tired of his 2 week hot stretches followed by a 1-30 slump
The JBJ sign hurts bad as well. What a complete waste of 9 million. Id rather go all in on Castellanos than on Avi to be honest. Plus, Tyrone Taylor deserves more time in the outfield. Kid can hit
All does not matter unless Yelich returns to MVP caliber form, and Huira can be an impact bat. I still believe in both bats. Way too talented
If the DH comes to the NL the Brewers will be outbid for Castellanos. If it doesn’t, I doubt they would sign him knowing he had to play the OF. They value D too much (and Castellanos is possibly the biggest butcher in the field of any MLB player).
They’ll do what they always do – that the Rays and others do – scour the FA lists, potential trade targets, and later the waiver wire to find veteran run-producing OF’s that are in a downtrend. From there they whittle down a list of the candidates and have their scouting and coaching areas look at video to determine if they can rework him and get him back on track……as both the Rays and Brewers did with Garcia. Neither of those teams are going to get stuck for much more than a 2 year contract with a team option.
Yelich caught a case of the Bellingers. Hopefully he can figure out how to get out of that and find his power stroke again, otherwise the Brewers are going to be stuck with an albatross contract for the next 7 years!
I didn’t realize the extension won’t even kick in until 2022. Seemed like a safe bet at the time, but that was then. He’s far more talented than he showed this year, but results are what matters. If we see the 2021 version of Yelich going forward, that contract will be an unmitigated disaster.
Stearns will go find another “project” outfielder to fill in the Garcia spot. Brewers won’t spend big money on that position because they already have $50+ million in Bradley, Yelich, and Cain. That god Cain contract is over soon.
Stearns needs a first baseman that can actually hit versus just home runs. Plus someone who can field would be nice too. last season was a rotation of DH’s at first.
I think that the Brewers should offer him a QO. It is an overpay, but better than a multi-year deal of Avisail or someone comparable. They just need a one-year bridge to Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick and Hedbert Perez. The one-year overpay fits their needs and attaching compensation decreases the likelihood that the AAV that Avisail is offered on a multi-year deal makes it better than the QO.
Don’t even think about it, White Sox.
That is not a relationship we need to revisit.
Kenny always gets his man
Tyrone Taylor is a better hitter, better fielder, younger & cheaper.
This is a win.