Tigers right-hander Bryan Garcia went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Toledo, per a team announcement. He’ll remain with the organization but will no longer occupy a place on the 40-man roster.
Garcia will be sticking with the only organization he’s ever known, as the 27-year-old was drafted by Detroit back in 2016. He showed enough potential as he climbed up the minor league ranks to be deemed one of the club’s best prospects. Baseball America ranked Garcia between #16 and #22 in Detroit’s system for four straight years, from 2017 to 2020.
After getting a cup of coffee in 2019, he seemed to be delivering on his promise in 2020. During that shortened season, he threw 21 2/3 innings out of the Tigers’ bullpen with a 1.66 ERA. That was a largely unsustainable ERA, however, as evidenced by his 12.9% strikeout rate and 10.8% walk rate. In 2021, the wheel of fortune spun him around the other way, as his strikeout rate ticked up to 16.7%, but his walk rate climbed to 13% and his ERA jumped to 7.55.
Garcia will now try to work his way back into the team’s plans with a good showing in Triple-A. He’s off to a good start, having thrown 3 2/3 scoreless innings so far this year, but with a troublesome 20% walk rate in that small sample. If he can get his roster spot back, he still has two option years and a service time count of 1.148, meaning he’d still need over a year of time in the big leagues to earn a raise through arbitration.