{"id":109037,"date":"2025-10-31T20:36:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T00:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=109037"},"modified":"2025-10-31T20:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T00:36:54","slug":"rico-garcia-orioles-first-offseason-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/10\/31\/rico-garcia-orioles-first-offseason-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Rico Garcia, The Orioles&#8217; First Offseason Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles announced the re-signing of bullpen pitcher Rico Garcia to their staff on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The deal, first reported by <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/10\/30\/orioles-sign-reliever-rico-garcia\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Baltimore Sun<\/a>, is for the 2026 season and valued at $900,000. Garcia will also earn an extra $225,000 while in the minors, according to the outlet. The move is also alongside the team&#8217;s re-signing of utilityman Luis Vazquez.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Orioles, Rico Garcia Agree To Terms On 2026 Salary <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BVPPiE2iAd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/BVPPiE2iAd<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mV2XClhXtj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/mV2XClhXtj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mlbtraderumors\/status\/1983985582574342315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Pitching is one of the team&#8217;s biggest needs heading into the offseason, which ranked near the bottom in almost every important category. Garcia&#8217;s return to the bullpen is a strong first step for the team, but it almost certainly won&#8217;t be the only one.<\/p>\n<h3>Who Is Rico Garcia?<\/h3>\n<p>The 31-year-old veteran started the season with the New York Mets on a minor league contract, pitching 12.2 innings in eight games when called to the majors. Garcia&#8217;s numbers were respectable, throwing 16 strikeouts, only walking two, and surrendering seven hits. The Mets designated him for assignment, where he ended up with the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n<p>After a second stint with the Mets, he was picked up by the Orioles on Aug. 5. Garcia&#8217;s strong season continued with Baltimore, throwing 20 strikeouts over 19 innings and walking six. He did surrender three home runs and 21 hits but left runners on base.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Rico Garcia recorded a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings as an Oriole in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>More on the signing of the bullpen arm: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GrL3fDTgCB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/GrL3fDTgCB<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gQ1BjvsuJO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/gQ1BjvsuJO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Orioles on MASN (@masnOrioles) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/masnOrioles\/status\/1984009921374163437?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Before 2025, Garcia threw for five teams and struggled with an incredibly high ERA and home run rate. His newfound success could be pivotal for the team in 2026.<\/p>\n<h3>Why Is Garcia So Important?<\/h3>\n<p>The Orioles lost closer Felix Bautista to injury in August 2025 with a torn rotator cuff and labrum. Both injuries will keep the veteran completely out of action for 2026. It&#8217;s left the team scrambling for a bullpen piece while completely readjusting the rotation.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia is not Bautista&#8217;s replacement, but he could serve as a setup man if his numbers continue to improve or remain the same. He holds a strong whiff and strikeout rate if his number qualified. The veteran also has a nearly 1:1 groundball-to-flyball ratio.<\/p>\n<p>His numbers are largely due to his new slider pitch, which has been effective. Across 25 at-bats, he hasn&#8217;t allowed an extra-base hit and struck out five with the slider. Garcia&#8217;s revamped four-seam fastball also saw a jump in strikeouts and a steep drop in batting average.<\/p>\n<p>The downside for Garcia is that he has issues giving up hard contact and getting batters to chase. His curveball isn&#8217;t great either, so we might see it drop off in 2026. His developed fastball and new slider earn him enough credibility to give him some reps as a setup man.<\/p>\n<p>Fangraphs <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/roster-resource\/depth-charts\/orioles\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">places<\/a> Garcia as a middle reliever, which is suitable in low or mid-risk situations. If he does succeed, it&#8217;s a really good investment given the team didn&#8217;t blow even $1 million on him.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles announced the re-signing of bullpen pitcher Rico Garcia to their staff on Thursday. The deal, first reported by The Baltimore Sun, is for the 2026 season and valued at $900,000. Garcia will also earn an extra $225,000 while in the minors, according to the outlet. The move is also alongside the team&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5304,"featured_media":109043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1071],"tags":[29175],"class_list":["post-109037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-mlb","tag-rico-garcia"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109037"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109045,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109037\/revisions\/109045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}