A bargain NY Mets free agent reliever we can expect them to pursue

When trying to figure out who the New York Mets might want or not, it’s more complicated than looking at the best available players. We need to consider other factors. Now with the benefit of more than a year of seeing who David Stearns likes, it’s time to circle back to other names mentioned in previous Mets rumors.

Up for grabs in this winter’s free agent pool is a 12-year veteran reliever who at one point was a rumored Mets trade target. Luis Garcia who spent the first part of 2024 with the Los Angeles Angels before finishing with the Boston Red Sox is heading into his age 38 season. He is most certainly a bargain choice for a ball club unafraid to take some risks while also looking for value buys.

Would the Mets still want Luis Garcia even after such a disastrous ending?

Garcia was cruising with a 5-1 record and 3.71 ERA at the time he was traded to the Red Sox. Unfortunately, things went south along with the rest of the team. He had an 8.22 ERA in 15.1 innings of work for Boston. The 4 home runs he allowed matched what he gave up in 43.2 innings with the Angels. It was the death sentence on his campaign that saw his ERA go up more than a full run to 4.88.

As bad as it was, Garcia did other things well. He walked only one batter for Boston, an intentional one. His strikeout rate only fell slightly from 8.2 per 9 down to 7.6.

Some metrics actually improved. The average exit velocity against him went from 90 mph to 85.8 mph. The hard-hit percentage dropped to an impressive 32.8% versus the 42.4% he had with the Angels. 

We can try to rationalize why Garcia might’ve struggled so badly. Three of the four home runs allowed came in back-to-back-to-back games against three different opponents. The first game of this stretch included 5 earned runs against the Houston Astros with the last featuring 3 versus the Baltimore Orioles.

Folding late is a turnoff, but not a reason to believe the Mets have eliminated him from their list of potential targets. Several extremes in his career, Garcia had three very good years from 2021-2023 with the highest ERA falling at 4.07 and the lowest at 3.24. A poor ending in 2024 should help lower the cost, maybe even to something along the lines of last year’s $2 million deal with Jorge Lopez or, if we’re really lucky, the minor league deal they signed Genesis Cabrera to already.