Blue Jays designate Jaime Garcia for assignment

The Blue Jays have designated left-handed pitcher Jaime Garcia for assignment, per a club announcement Saturday:

Garcia, 32, struggled to a 5.93 ERA and 1.53 WHIP over 25 appearances (13 starts) with Toronto this year. He was moved to the bullpen after coming off the DL in mid-July, and aside from a blow-up outing on July 30 in which he gave up six runs (five earned) over 1.1 innings, he’d been pretty good as a reliever, going unscored upon in 10 of his 12 appearances out of the bullpen.

Garcia will now have an opportunity to latch on with another team for the final month of the season, though he’ll need to be in a new organization by the last day of this month in order to be eligible for the postseason (which is probably a stretch anyway considering his performance this year).

It’s safe to say that the Blue Jays made a regrettable investment in Garcia this year, giving him an $8 million salary for 2018 plus a $10 million option with a $2 million buyout for 2019. But since he didn’t appear to have a long-term future in their bullpen anyway, getting rid of him right now and admitting the mistake makes sense.