Why The Hell Is Freddy Garcia Still On The Roster?

(I think your time has come, fella.  Courtesy of The AP)

Real talk for a minute, why the hell is Freddy Garcia still a Yankee?  Can anybody explain it to me?  What's the point?  He's been equally useless as a starter and a reliever this season (5.56 FIP as starter, 4.50 as reliever) and currently brings no value to the table as a bullpen option.  Since being demoted after his start on April 28th, he's worked 9.1 innings in relief in 5 appearances.  He went 10 days in early May without seeing any game action, and currently hasn't pitched since May 21st.  None of his appearances have been in games where the Yankees were winning, and only 2 of them have been in games where they were within 3 runs.  Both of those times Garcia allowed more runs to score, effectively killing any real chance of a Yankee comeback in the 8th or 9th.  On the 12-man pitching staff, he's firmly entrenched in the 12th spot, and is damn close to being 13th.


It's painfully clear that Joe has no faith in Freddy as an option to pitch meaningful innings for this bullpen, even as it operates shorthanded and with some key contributors (Cory Wade and Clay Rapada) not pitching as well as they did in April.  That being the case, why not dump Garcia and open up a spot in the 'pen for somebody else who could contribute in higher-leverage situations.  I can think of at least 4 guys in Triple-A off the top of my head that are pitching better than Freddy and could presumably pitch better than him at the Major League level.

The Phillies are hurting for pitching depth right now, and I'm sure there are other teams out there who would be interested in a possible innings eater.  Garcia's junk stuff should play a little better in the NL, and if Cash can't find any takers, just DFA him and be done with it.  It's a $4 million loss on a risk that you knew you were taking when you brought him back after his overachievement in 2011.  The Yankees have gotten all they could out of their low-risk gamble on Garcia.  Now they're at a point where they could use another useful arm in the bullpen and Freddy doesn't appear to be in the cards at all as an option.  Get rid of his ass and open up a spot for somebody better so we don't have to watch Cody Eppley give up late-inning runs in close games anymore.