The Astros and right-hander Luis Garcia have averted arbitration, per the Related Press. The righty will make a wage of $1.875MM in 2025. That’s the identical wage he made in 2024, a 12 months he missed whereas recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure.
The arbitration system operates in such a manner that salaries nearly by no means go down. As such, it’s pretty frequent for a participant to overlook a whole season after which see his wage maintain regular into the subsequent 12 months.
Tomorrow is the deadline for gamers and groups to trade wage figures, so a lot of arb-eligible gamers ought to have their salaries finalized within the subsequent 24 hours or so. Those that don’t attain agreements will likely be slated for arbitration hearings within the coming weeks. With Garcia now settled, the Astros nonetheless have an arb class consisting of Framber Valdez, Mauricio Dubón, Bryan Abreu, Chas McCormick, Isaac Paredes, Jake Meyers and Jeremy Pena.
Garcia has a profession earned run common of three.61 in his 352 innings, largely as a starter, although he has been on ice for fairly some time now. He had his surgical procedure in Could of 2023 and tried to return to the mound final summer time, although he had some hassle recovering between outings throughout his rehab task and was ultimately shut down. In a current mailbag, Chandler Rome of The Athletic urged it is probably not doubtless that he’s prepared for Opening Day of 2025.
As spring coaching ramps up subsequent month, it’s doable that there will likely be extra readability on his standing, although the Astros have a infamous status for obfuscating on the subject of the well being of their gamers. Every time Garcia will get again on the mound, he ought to slot right into a rotation combine alongside Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, Spencer Arrighetti and Hayden Wesneski. Like Garcia, pitchers like Lance McCullers Jr., J.P. France and Cristian Javier will likely be trying to come again from surgical procedures this 12 months.
