At age 36, with 19 years of professional treadwear and a 5.39 ERA over his past two major league seasons, Freddy Garcia – a.k.a. “Big Game Freddy” – doesn’t know how many more big games he’ll be asked to pitch. And so, joining a first-place Braves in the throes of a pennant race was not something the well-traveled veteran took lightly.
“I’m really excited to be here,” Garcia said Sunday morning, after having his contract purchased from Triple-A Gwinett and becoming the first September callup for the Braves. “I’m going to try to help the team, pitch some innings, do some work here, man. Whatever they need me to do.”
The Braves needed him right away for long relief Sunday, and Garcia responded in impressive fashion with 4-2/3 scoreless innings (three hits, one walk) against the Marlins. He came in after rookie starter Alex Wood got knocked around for seven runs in 2-1/3 innings.
The Braves got Garcia in an Aug. 23 trade with Baltimore in exchange for cash considerations, and he gave up seven hits, eight runs and five walks in 3-2/3 innings in his only start for Triple-A Gwinnett on Monday. He has 155 wins in 15 major league seasons, and a 6-3 record and 3.28 ERA in 10 postseason starts, all but one of those coming before 2006.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez said the Braves could use Garcia in long relief or to make a start or two if they want to give a young starter a few extra days of rest of skip a start to help keep their innings down.
“Whatever we see fit,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a veteran guy that can navigate through a major league lineup. We’ll see where he can help us. He could spot-start if somebody needs it, you could plug him in there, like we were trying to do with (Paul) Maholm (before Brandon Beachy returned to the disabled list). We could do that if we choose to, which is probably a good thing, to have him do that.”
Garcia was 3-5 with a 5.77 ERA in 11 appearances (10 starts) for the Baltimore Orioles before being outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk in late June. He was 8-3 with a 2.84 ERA in 13 starts for Norfolk, with 61 strikeouts in 82-1/3 innings.
With the big-league Orioles, he allowed two runs or fewer in six or more innings in three of six starts in May. That included eight scoreless innings with only three hits allowed in a May 30 win against the Nationals, with six strikeouts and no walks. Things went south for him soon after, but Garcia said he feels good now and believes he can help the Braves.
“I was down in Norfolk when I got the call that I’d been traded,” he said. “To a good organization, a first-place team. You’ve got to be excited. Hopefully I can do my job and (help do) whatever it takes to win.”
Garcia has been a starter for all but 16 of his 370 major league games, but made 13 relief appearances for the Yankees last season.
“I don’t have any problem with that (role),” he said. “I did it before.”
The Venezuela native has a 155-106 record and 4.18 ERA in 370 major league games (354 starts) with six teams, including consecutive 12-win seasons with the White Sox and Yankees in 2010-2011. At the start of his career with the Mariners, he won 16 or more games three times in a four-year span through 2002, including an 18-6 season in 2001 when he led the American League in innings (238-2/3) and ERA (3.05).
“He knows how to pitch,” said Braves hitting coach Greg Walker, who was the White Sox hitting coach when Garcia pitched there from 2004-2006 and again in 2009-2010. “He doesn’t have all the stuff he used to have obviously, but he knows how to pitch and get you out. As long as his arm’s still connected, he can still pitch…. I don’t know how he’s throwing now, but he can get people out just on smarts.”
Garcia is the first to admit he doesn’t throw anywhere near as hard as he once did.
“I do anything to get people out,” he said. “Whatever it takes. It doesn’t matter how hard you throw, it’s how you get people out. Some guys throw hard and don’t get anybody out. I used to throw hard; I don’t anymore. But I figured out how to get people out.”
Gattis and more callups: The Braves are expected to add two or possibly three more callups in the next several days, after minor league seasons conclude. That's in addition to catcher/outfielder Evan Gattis, who will rejoin the team on Tuesday, and pitcher Brandon Beachy and outfielders Jason Heyward (broken jaw) and Reed Johnson (Achilles tendinitis), all of whom the Braves hope to have back from the disabled list later this month.
Gattis was sent to Gwinnett over the weekend to play three games and get a dozen or so at-bats, after not seeing much playing time in recent weeks with the Braves. He had two doubles off the wall in his first two at-bats for Gwinnett on Saturday and caught nine innings.
Gonzalez said he hopes to have Johnson back by the middle of the month and Heyward by late September, although there is no specific timetable for either.
The other callups are likely to include at least one position player — outfielder Todd Cunningham is a strong possibility – and one more pitcher.
