Pittsburgh Pirates Sign Solid 6-Year Veteran Reliever

The Pittsburgh Pirates are getting busy at these Winter Meetings, signing another pitcher to beef up their staff. This time it's a solid 6-year veteran, left-hander Jarlin Garcia. 

Source confirms Pirates set to sign lefty reliever Jarlín García. Nickname: The Elephant. 3.74 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 7.8 K/9 last season in 58 outings w Giants

— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) December 6, 2022

Garcia's deal is for $2.5M in 2023 with a $3.25M club option for 2024.

The southpaw had a 3.74 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, and 7.8 K/9 last season in 65 innings with the San Francisco Giants. But even better than that, García, who turns 30 next month, has a 2.89 ERA in 188 appearances since the start of 2019. In his two years with the Giants, he compiled a 2.84 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP. Nice numbers and a nice pickup for the Pirates. 

Garcia became a free agent for the first time this winter, after earning $1.75M in his last year of arbitration with the Giants. They decided to DFA him after the season. 

If the Pirates pick up their club option in 2024, he'll earn far more on this two-year deal than he had in his entire 6-year career. 

Although his player profile on all sources says he's nicknamed "The Elephant", no one has dared step forward to explain why that is. 

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