Saturday, 9:43am: Jon Heyman and Jon Paul Morosi both report that Garcia’s base salary is $4M, with the rest tied up in incentives. Not bad at all, now they just need to work on some of the other rotation spots.
Thursday, 12:10pm: Buster Olney (Insider req’d) says the two sides have agreed to a deal, and Jon Heyman reports that it’s worth about $5M. Reasonable, and right around what we expected. Basically all that’s left is the physical, which might not happen for a while. Certainly not until after the Thanksgiving weekend, I would imagine.
Wednesday, 11:21pm: Via David Waldstein and Efrain Ruiz Pantin, the Yankees are close to re-signing Freddy Garcia to a one-year contract. Freddy still needs to take his physical. No word on the money just yet, but I can’t imagine it’ll be much more than the ~$3.5M he made last season (after incentives). The Yankees offered Garcia arbitration earlier tonight, so they will get a supplemental first round pick in the now unlikely event that he ends up signing elsewhere.
I like Garcia as a back-end starter, but the Yankees shouldn’t count on him masquerading as their number three again in 2012. He’ll give up some homers and allow a lot of balls in play, but he’s a solid bet for six innings a start and keeping his team in the game. He’s also pitched through everything and brings some high-quality veteran presents. I welcome Sweaty Freddy’s return.