Atlanta Braves Acquire Jaime Garcia
By Fred Owens
Finally a Lefty. . .
Jaime Garcia give the Braves something their rotation hasn’t had since Alex Wood left for the Dodgers; a left handed starter. Selected in the 22nd round of the 2005 draft Garcia made his major league debut in 2008. Nine relief appearances later he landed on the DL for TJ surgery.
Garcia returned in 2010 rejuvenated and dominant. He made 28 starts that season posting a 13-8 record with a 2.70 ERA (3.41 FIP), 1.316 WHIP while striking out 132 hitters in 163 1/3 innings. That performance earned him a third place finish in Rookie of the Year voting.
His ERA came back to earth in 2011 when he posted a 13-7 record in 32 starts over 194 2/3 innings with a 3.56 ERA (3.23 WHIP). In spite of nagging injuries he posted similar numbers in 2012 before requiring rotator cuff surgery in October. He tried to return early in 2013 but was back on the DL for the rest of the season after only nine games.
Injuries abound
Looking at Garcia’s disabled list stints I wonder why doctors didn’t simply install a zipper on his shoulder. Rather than recount the full litany of injury I’ll include a table (reformatted) from Pro Sports Transactions.
| Date On the DL or began to miss games | Returned | Notes |
| 9/1/2008 | 10/8/2008 | Elbow Surgery (date approximate) |
| 3/28/2009 | 8/20/2009 | placed on 15-day DL with sore left elbow |
| 9/20/2010 | 4/1/2011 | left shoulder injury (out for season) (return date approximate) |
| 8/30/2011 | 9/3/2011 | fatigue (DTD) |
| 5/30/2012 | 6/5/2012 | left elbow injury (DTD) |
| 6/6/2012 | shoulder injury (DTD) Labrum and rotator cuff tear |
|
| 6/7/2012 | placed on 15-day DL with strained left shoulder | |
| 5/1/2013 | 11/1/2013 | surgery on left shoulder (out indefinitely) (date approximate) Torn Labrum |
| 3/29/2014 | 5/18/2014 | placed on 15-day DL with left shoulder inflammation |
| 6/22/2014 | placed on 15-day DL with left shoulder inflammation | |
| 7/1/2014 | 10/31/2014 | Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery |
| 3/30/2015 | 5/21/2015 | placed on 15-day DL with recovering from surgery on left shoulder |
| 6/27/2015 | 7/28/2015 | strained left groin (DTD) (Moved to DL 6/27/15) |
Garcia did throw 171 2/3 innings last year but with a 4.67 ERA(4.49 FIP) and 1.375 WHIP. He also managed to give up 1.4 home runs per nine 25 in his 30 starts and another in one of his two relief appearances. That all sounds pretty bad so why give up three players for him?