The Atlanta Braves continue to do well with quiet, short-term moves this winter, this time by picking up veteran lefty Jaime Garcia from the St. Louis Cardinals. Garcia has one year remaining on his deal, and the Braves got him for three players who wouldn’t have made my rankings of their top 20 prospects this winter.
Garcia is set to make $12 million in 2017, well under the qualifying offer and less than he’d likely make on the open market. A year after a 2.43 ERA/3.00 FIP performance in an injury-shortened, 20-start 2015 season, Garcia threw 171 innings in 2016, the second-highest total of his career. Unfortunately, he gave up a career-high 26 home runs, leaving a lot of fastballs out over the plate for hitters to send out of the park and resulting in the worst ERA and FIP of his career.
