Rico Garcia is probably getting plenty used to the New York City subway system.
The Mets and Yankees keep passing him back and forth like some kind of inter-borough relief pitcher experiment.
Garcia was on the Mets 10 days ago. They waived him, and the Yankees claimed him off waivers.
The righty reliever then made a 2.2-inning appearance for the Yankees on Friday night. Didn’t go great. They placed him on waivers Saturday.
And on Monday, the Mets claimed Garcia back off waivers, the team announced.
Talk about a round trip.
Garcia gave up three runs in his brief Yankees stint – those 2.2 innings.
Before that cross-town adventure, he’d thrown 4.2 scoreless innings for the Mets. Which probably explains why they wanted him back.
The 31-year-old reliever is from Honolulu. The Rockies picked him in the 30th round of the 2016 draft after he starred at Hawaii Pacific University.
He’s pitched for seven different teams in five scattered seasons: the Rockies in 2019, the Giants in 2020, the Orioles in 2022, plus the Athletics and Nationals in 2023. Now the Mets and Yankees can both say they’ve had him.
This is the life of a journeyman reliever. Garcia, from one borough to another and back again, keeps grinding. The Mets clearly see something they like – enough to reclaim him after a rough outing in pinstripes.
It’s not everyday you see a player change New York uniforms twice in less than two weeks. But that’s baseball for you.
