The Orioles have decisions to make with their 40-man roster as players on the 60-day injured list are reinstated after the World Series.
Rico Garcia is holding onto his spot.
The right-hander signed a one-year major league contract earlier today to thrust himself into the bullpen picture for 2026, though he’s got to hold onto the job in camp.
Garcia, who turns 32 in January, appeared in 20 games with the Orioles and posted a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings. They claimed him on waivers from the Mets on Aug. 5.
Garcia also pitched for the Yankees and compiled a 3.15 ERA and 1.194 ERA in 29 appearances this summer. His five-year major league career includes six appearances with the Orioles in 2022.
The bizarre twists to the Orioles’ 2025 season includes Garcia becoming a high-leverage reliever who specialized in escaping jams. Opponents were 0-for-10 against him with the bases loaded, with nine of those at-bats coming while he pitched for the Orioles.
Perhaps the most memorable was the Aug. 19 game in Boston, when he inherited a bases-loaded, no-out jam from Kade Strowd and struck out Jarren Duran, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida. The Orioles won 4-3 in 11 innings.
The Rays led 5-2 in the eighth inning of a Sept. 25 game at Camden Yards when Garcia replaced Strowd and allowed three consecutive singles. He struck out the next two batters, retired another on a line drive, and home runs from Coby Mayo and Dylan Beavers ignited a 6-5 walk-off win.
Garcia joined Ken Holtzman in 1976, George Sherrill in 2008 and Chris Tillman in 2014 as Orioles pitchers who escaped bases-loaded, no-out jams twice in the same season.
“I try not to think about it,” he said on Sept. 26. “That could change real quick.”
“I think it’s just one of those things like, for some reason, when guys get in scoring position, I just get, like, pissed, I guess you could say,” he added. “So in that sense I guess it kind of helps me lock in more, just because it’s one of those things like, ‘OK, here we go. Base hit, they’re scoring runs.’ As opposed to bases empty.
“But not to say that I’m not always trying to pitch mad or whatever it may be. It’s just that, when there’s guys that are threatening to score, it’s just kind of a little more extra on it, I guess you could say.”