The New York Mets have followed up their Luis Robert Jr. trade with an improvement elsewhere, possibly finalizing the 2026 bullpen. They’re in agreement on a deal with Luis Garcia.
Which one is it? Three players in the league have this name, two are relievers. It’s apparently the nearly 39-year-old one who’d make more sense anyway rather than the ex-starter for the Houston Astros.
Garcia turns 39 later this month and comes to the Mets with parts of 13 seasons of MLB experience. He’ll be that missing mid-level arm for the bullpen. He’s coming off of a very strange year where he was released in July by the Los Angeles Dodgers, signed by the Washington Nationals, and traded to the Los Angeles Angels.
Luis Garcia is someone the Mets have had eyes for in the past and he fits them right now
Garcia isn’t a new player for the Mets to target. At the 2024 trade deadline, he was pitching for the Los Angeles Angels and a rumored target of theirs. He ended up traded to the Boston Red Sox where he pitched badly with an 8.22 ERA but better peripherals.
More recently, in his three-team season, Garcia had a 3.42 ERA overall. The appeal is obvious. He has a lifetime 53.8% ground ball rate. It was still a solid 48.4% last year, over 50% with the Dodgers and Nationals.
This would appear to complete the Mets bullpen. Garcia is a hybrid replacement for Tyler Rogers and Reed Garrett, the former with the ground ball ratio and the latter as a sixth-inning type of reliever. It’s the third free agent reliever the Mets have signed this offseason, possibly putting an end to one of the bigger ideas this offseason, trading for a San Diego Padres bullpen arm.
The Mets will need to make a corresponding roster move. Is it today when they DFA Richard Lovelady and float him around waivers hoping his split contract keeps others away? We’ll find out soon enough. They have a couple of arms who should be in danger of losing a roster spot.
