I was sorta surprised when the Braves cut Freddy Garcia, seeing as though they were down a couple of arms and Garcia had pitched pretty competently this spring. Then Aaron Harang took his place and has been pretty fantastic so far, so what the hell do I know?
And that question is doubly apt given that, apparently, the rest of Major League Baseball is giving a miss to Garcia. Chris Cotillo reports:
Veteran right-hander Freddy Garcia is close to signing with an undisclosed team in Asia, according to major league sources. It is currently unclear which country the 37-year old will be heading to, but it appears as though he will be leaving the U.S. after being released by the Braves at the end of spring training.
Garcia said that he wanted to start, so this may be the only opportunity he has to start someplace. Or the money may be great.
Or, though Garcia said after his release that he was eager to spend some time with his wife and newborn baby, maybe he realized a month later what all of us parents figured out the hard way: being around newborns is a special circle of hell and if someone gave us the opportunity to leave the continent for the few months between their birth and the time they’re sleeping through the night, well, we’d all take it too.