Lower than 24 hours after beefing up their lineup with the acquisition of Randy Arozarena, the Mariners have bolstered their bullpen by buying right-hander Yimi Garcia from the Blue Jays. Outfielder Jonatan Clase and minor league catcher Jacob Sharp are going from Seattle to Toronto in return.
Garcia, 34 subsequent month, is in his third season with the Jays. He initially signed a two-year, $11MM contract with Toronto, however he’s beefed up that contract by means of his efficiency. Garcia pitched sufficient video games to vest a $6MM choice for the present season and likewise picked up an extra $1MM of incentives in years one and two of the contract, finally turning it right into a three-year, $18MM pact. He’s a rental for the Jays who’ll be owed $2.1MM from now till season’s finish. Garcia is a free agent thereafter.
Thought to be one of many higher reduction arms on this 12 months’s market, Garcia will bolster a bullpen that appeared like one of many strongest within the recreation heading into the season however has been hit with some notable accidents. Star setup man Matt Brash required Tommy John surgical procedure that knocked him out for the season, whereas offseason commerce acquisition Gregory Santos solely just lately made his workforce debut after struggling a big lat pressure in spring coaching. The precise-hander was faraway from his most up-to-date look with a knee difficulty. Maybe that pushed the Mariners to make this transfer, however Santos has not but been positioned on the injured record, nor has the workforce introduced a considerable harm for the right-hander.
Seattle has spent a lot of the season patching issues collectively on the bridge to supervisor Scott Servais’ wonderful nearer, Andres Munoz. Now, if Santos’ knee harm proves minor they might from a piecemeal strategy to a pair of high-octane setup males in a matter of weeks.
Garcia has been a pressure this 12 months, sporting a career-high 96.7 mph common fastball en path to a mammoth 36.5% strikeout fee that tops his prior career-high by almost 5 proportion factors. He’s coupled that with a powerful 7% stroll fee.
Over the previous two seasons, Garcia has notably reduce on the utilization of that fastball and considerably upped his curveball utilization, serving to to contribute to the rise in punchouts. He’s sitting on a superb 2.70 ERA that metrics like FIP (2.64) and SIERA (2.30) counsel may undersell his efficiency thus far. Garcia has gone 5-for-6 in save alternatives (bringing his profession complete to 26) and picked up 10 holds this 12 months as effectively. He solely simply returned from a monthlong keep on the injured record as a consequence of a bout of elbow neuritis (nerve irritation), however Garcia has tossed two innings, confronted eight batters and punched out 5 of them whereas averaging 96.6 mph on his fastball; the elbow doesn’t appear to be bothering him.
In return for Garcia, the Jays will add an enormous league-ready outfielder with a full six seasons of membership management: Clase. The 22-year-old speedster made his huge league debut with the M’s earlier this season and .195/.233/.220 slash in a tiny pattern of 44 plate appearances. That’s a sufficiently small variety of plate appearances at a younger sufficient age that it’s not price studying into; Clase has had a pleasant season in Triple-A Tacoma this 12 months, slashing .274/.373/.483 with 10 homers, 11 doubles, 4 triples and 26 steals in 35 makes an attempt. His 25.7% strikeout fee there’s increased than one would like for a participant who’s thought-about to have below-average energy, however Clase has additionally walked in almost 15% of his plate appearances.
This 12 months’s 26 steals are a pleasant mark however they don’t inform the total story of Clase’s pace. Baseball America pegs him as a 70-grade runner (on the 20-80 scale), whereas FanGraphs lists him as a real 80-grade burner. His 29.6 ft/sec common dash pace this season (as measured by Statcast) ranks within the 97th percentile of MLB gamers. Clase swiped a whopping 79 bases (94 makes an attempt) in simply 129 video games between Excessive-A and Double-A final 12 months — all whereas hitting .242/.353/.449.
For a Jays membership that’ll see Kevin Kiermaier retire at season’s finish, he stands as a possible on a regular basis participant as quickly as 2025 … if he could make sufficient high quality contact to maintain himself within the lineup. The Blue Jays have one of many recreation’s finest outfield defenders in Daulton Varsho, who may slide to middle rather than Kiermaier subsequent 12 months, however Clase could have an opportunity to win an on a regular basis function no matter whether or not it’s in left or middle. Regardless of all his pace, Clase isn’t thought to be the identical degree of defender as Varsho, although he’s younger sufficient that he may after all enhance his reads, jumps and routes within the years forward.
Sharp, 22, was Seattle’s Seventeenth-round decide simply final summer time. The previous UNLV backstop is a right-handed hitter who’s spent the season to date in Class-A, hitting .255/.339/.435 (105 wRC+). He’s a bit previous for that degree, but it surely’s nonetheless arduous to miss his eye-catching bat-to-ball abilities. Sharp has struck out in solely 9.9% of his plate appearances — a mark that’s barely increased than his 9.4% stroll fee. He’s thrown out 21% of runners who’ve tried to steal in opposition to him since being drafted. He’s a longer-term play than Clase, however a catcher with that sort of really feel for contact makes for an attention-grabbing add to the decrease ranges of the farm.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported that the Mariners had been buying Garcia and sending Clase to Toronto. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith first reported Sharp’s inclusion within the commerce.
