ST. LOUIS – With Brandon Beachy returning to the disabled list for elbow tightness, the Braves added some starting-pitching depth by trading for 36-year-old Freddy Garcia of the Orioles on Friday.
The Braves got the right-hander in exchange for unspecified cash considerations, and general manager Frank Wren said they would assign him to Triple-A Gwinnett for the time being.
Garcia went 3-5 with a 5.77 ERA in 11 appearances (10 starts) for Baltimore before being outrighted to the Orioles’ Triple-A Norfolk affiliate 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.
The Braves hope he pitches like he did in May, when he allowed two runs or fewer in six or more innings in three of six starts. That included eight scoreless innings of three-hit ball in a May 30 win against the Nationals, with six strikeouts and no walks.
“Frank called me this morning and said, what do you think? We’ve got a chance to get Freddy,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “And I said, why not? Walk (hitting coach Greg Walker) knows him from when he was with the White Sox. He’s a guy who can work his way through a major league lineup at least a couple of times through the order.
“He adds some depth. Watch him pitch a couple of times at Triple-A, and he can come up here later on in September and help us. At the very least, if we don’t think he can help us starting, he can help us in the bullpen in September.”
Beachy was placed on the 15-day DL Friday and switch-hitting outfielder Todd Cunningham was recalled from Gwinnett. Beachy will see Dr. James Andrews on Monday to have his surgically repaired elbow examined. Andrews did Beachy’s “Tommy John” surgery in June 2012.
Garcia was 1-3 with a 10.19 ERA and .390 opponents’ average in his last five major league games, allowing 30 hits including nine homers in 17-2/3 innings. He was released by the Padres in the last week of spring training and signed with the Orioles three days later.
The Venezuela native has a 155-106 record and 4.18 ERA in 370 major league games (354 starts) with six teams in 15 seasons, including consecutive 12-win seasons with the White Sox and Yankees in 2010-2011. At the beginning of his career with the Mariners, Garcia 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 also has a lot of postseason experience, with a 6-3 record and 3.28 ERA in 10 starts, albeit all but one of those games before 2006.
“He knows how to pitch,” said Walker, 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.
“He’s a gutsy guy. In Chicago they used to call him ‘Big Game Freddy.’ I don’t know how he’s throwing now, but he can get people out just on smarts. If you haven’t (faced) him, he can get you out just on smarts. He’ll make you get yourself out.”
The Braves lost veteran starter Tim Hudson to a broken ankle last month, and Beachy had a setback Tuesday when he felt tightness in his elbow and noticed a significant drop in fastball velocity in the last two innings of his fifth start since coming back from a 13-month surgery rehab.
Without Beachy, the Braves still have five starters in Julio Teheran, Mike Minor, Kris Medlen, Alex Wood and Paul Maholm, who returned from the DL Wednesday. But the Braves would like to cut back on the innings of a few of the younger starters in the next month, and had planned to do that by skipping or pushing back a start or two for a few of them.
The addition of Garcia, and/or possible return of Beachy in a couple of weeks, could enable them to stay with that plan.
