Rico Garcia was drafted in the 30th round of the 2016 draft, a round that no longer exists. When you take that into account, the fact that he has appeared in 59 major league games is pretty impressive. Not many 30th rounders ever see a major league game. And based on his performance in 2025, he’ll probably add to his total before he calls it quits.
The Orioles bullpen was terrible this year, there’s no doubt about that. That was especially true after the trade deadline, when Félix Bautista was hurt
and Mike Elias had sent every viable relief pitcher packing. Needing to refill the depleted pen, Elias claimed Rico Garcia off waivers from the New York Mets on August 5th. And it turns out that Garcia wasn’t half bad.
When Garcia made his Orioles debut on August 12th, it marked his third MLB team of the season. He started the year in Triple-A with the Syracuse Mets, where he appeared in 24 games. The Mets called him up in early July for two games, the second of which was against the Orioles on July 10th. He pitched 2.2 hitless innings for the Mets in a 7-3 Orioles win. Did those 2.2 innings make a big impression on Mike Elias? Probably not. But maybe!
After the game, which was the second game of a doubleheader, the Mets designated Garcia for assignment, but he did not clear waivers. The Yankees claimed him and put him in their bullpen. On July 18th, Garcia made his only appearance as a Yankee and allowed three runs. The Yankees didn’t care for that and DFA’d him as well. The Mets, who apparently regretted their earlier decision, claimed him back.
Garcia had a decent six-game stretch with the Mets, but after allowing two runs in an inning on August 2nd, the Mets needed to make a move and once again DFA’d him. The Orioles, fresh off of cleaning out their bullpen at the deadline, jumped in and nabbed him.
You may not remember, but 2025 was Garcia’s second go-round with the Orioles. Back in 2022, Garcia spent the entire season in the Orioles’ system. He appeared in six games with the big league club, in three separate two-game stints. He otherwise spent the year in the minors, where he pitched in 24 games.
Anyway, back to 2025. I was honestly barely paying attention to the relief corps by the time Garcia rolled into town. It was a bullpen full of minor leaguers in a lost season as far as I was concerned. But then Garcia did something that made me sit up and take notice.
On August 19th, the Orioles were playing the Boston Red Sox in Boston. They took a 3-1 lead into the eighth inning, and Kade Strowd came in to pitch. Strowd had nothing. He gave up two singles, threw a wild pitch, and then walked a guy to load the bases.
Enter Rico Garcia, making his fourth appearance as an Oriole. It felt inevitable that the Red Sox would take the lead. They had the bases loaded with no outs and their 3, 4, and 5 batters coming up to face Garcia, who none of us had heard of. What did Garcia do? He struck out Jarren Duran, Trevor Story, and Masataka Yoshida to get out of the game. All three went down swinging.
I watched, thrilled at the outcome. Who was this guy? Was he something? I was now paying attention.
Over the final month of the season, Garcia joined Strowd as one of the go-to righties in the bullpen. He pitched in 20 games for Baltimore, 14 of which were scoreless. In the other six games, he allowed just a single run each time. He even had another appearance where he stranded three inherited runners, and again it was Strowd who he bailed out.
On September 2nd, the Orioles led the Padres, 5-2, after six innings. Strowd started the seventh and he did get one out, but he also walked the bases loaded. Garcia was called on to face Luis Arráez and Manny Machado. He retired them both, including striking out Arráez! Arráez played in 154 games in 2025 and only struck out 21 times.
In 20 games with the Orioles, Rico Garcia had a 2.84 ERA. He allowed his share of baserunners with 21 hits and six walks in 19 innings pitched, but he had good strikeout (24.4%) and ground ball (50%) rates. He save his best of 2025 for his third team, which also happened to be the only one that really gave him a chance.
The Orioles need to rebuild their bullpen for 2026. If it doesn’t look a lot different than the end of 2025, the Orioles will be failures again. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Garcia can’t be a part of it. But he does not have the track record to show that he’s capable of pitching the way he did over a longer stretch.
His 29 games between the Mets, Yankees, and Orioles this season represent half of his major league experience, which stretches back to 2019. Every stop he made before 2025 was brief and ineffective. Those are things to keep in mind for Garcia going forward. It would not surprise me if Elias keeps him in the fold at least to start, but his past doesn’t make me optimistic for the future.
