{"id":531772,"date":"2026-01-22T00:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/531772\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T00:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:11:12","slug":"mets-sign-luis-garcia-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/531772\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets Sign Luis Garc\u00eda – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

3:55pm: The mets have now officially announced the Garcia signing. Infielder Tsung-Che Cheng<\/a> was designated for assignment<\/a> as the corresponding move.<\/p>\n

2:40pm: Garc\u00eda has passed his physical, MLBTR has learned.<\/p>\n

1:02pm: The Mets and veteran right-handed reliever Luis Garc\u00eda<\/a> are in agreement on a contract, reports<\/a> Joel Sherman of the New York Post. It\u2019s a one-year, $1.75MM major league deal that can be worth up to $3MM after incentives, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today<\/a>. The deal is pending a physical. Garc\u00eda is represented by agents Larry Reynolds, Rosie-Lopez Herrera and Noah Herrera.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda, 39 next week, is a veteran of 13 big league seasons who\u2019s pitched for eight clubs to this point in his career. He sports a lifetime 4.07 earned run average but has pitched better than that in the latter stages of his career; dating back to 2021, he carries a 3.86 ERA with even better marks from metrics like SIERA (3.55) and FIP (3.45). Garc\u00eda split the 2025 season between the Dodgers, Nationals and Angels, combining for a 3.42 ERA. His strikeout rate (20.6%) and walk rate (11.2%) were both worse than average, but he induced grounders at a strong 49.7% clip and averaged just under 97 mph on his sinker.<\/p>\n

While Garc\u00eda almost certainly won\u2019t sustain a minuscule 0.33 HR\/9 mark and 4.7% homer-to-flyball ratio moving forward, there\u2019s a good chance he can improve on last year\u2019s command. He entered the 2025 season with a 7.8% walk rate across the four prior seasons, making last year\u2019s 11.2% clip somewhat uncharacteristic. Garc\u00eda\u2019s roughly average swinging-strike and opponents\u2019 chase rates would support a modest bump in strikeouts as well, though he\u2019s now turned in a below-average strikeout rate in three consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

The Mets have now added three free agent relievers to the bullpen this winter, although Garc\u00eda\u2019s contract is obviously on a much smaller scale than those of presumptive closer Devin Williams<\/a> (three years, $51MM) and top setup man Luke Weaver<\/a> (two years, $22MM). Garc\u00eda will slot into the middle-relief mix and figures to work lower-leverage situations than Williams, Weaver, A.J. Minter<\/a> and Brooks Raley<\/a>, although with 17 career saves and 117 holds, he\u2019s no stranger to high-pressure settings.<\/p>\n

With the Mets already in the top tier of luxury penalization, Garc\u00eda\u2019s $1.75MM base salary will actually cost the team $3.675MM. The additional $1.25MM worth of incentives, if unlocked in full, would cost the club a total of $2.625MM. Of course, if he maxes out his incentive package, it\u2019ll likely because he\u2019s pitched well enough to make the end-of-day $6.3MM price point well worth the cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3:55pm: The mets have now officially announced the Garcia signing. Infielder Tsung-Che Cheng was designated for assignment as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,2098],"class_list":{"0":"post-531772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-luis-garcia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115935856994033541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}