Twins acquire Jaime Garcia and Anthony Recker from the Braves

Just when you thought the Twins had bungled that trade for Jaime Garcia, they go out and get things done.

The Twins announced late Monday that they have, in fact, acquired Jaime Garcia from the Braves, along with fringe-MLB catcher Anthony Recker and some cash. In return, the Twins are sending young pitching prospect Huascar Ynoa to Atlanta.

The move comes as a bit of a surprise, since it sounded like talks between the teams had fallen apart, and rumors that other teams were now interested continued to grow.

Jaime Garcia, 31, is a nine-year MLB veteran, having pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals for eight of those years before joining the Braves this year. He has a career 3.65 ERA, but a 4.30 ERA over 113.0 innings in 2017. He’s also struck out 85 this year (he struck out 150 last year). Basically, he’s a good 4th or 5th-ish starter option.

In his last start—which was ironically also against the Dodgers, who the Twins are facing this week—Garcia gave up three earned runs over 7 innings, and more impressively, hit a grand slam to give himself all the run supported he needed.

Garcia is a rental though—meaning he’ll be a free agent at the end of the year.

Interestingly enough, Garcia sounds like a fighter. He made it back from labrum and rotator-cuff issues in 2013, which is similar to the issues Glen Perkins has been dealing with (though maybe not quite as severe?). Garcia also underwent surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome—the same aliment Phil Hughes has been dealing with—in 2014.

Also included in the deal, for some reason, was Anthony Recker. Recker is a fringe-MLB, backup-catcher type, having appeared in 206 major league games over seven seasons. He has a .199 career batting average and 18 home runs. I’m not really sure why the Twins wanted him? They already have four catchers on their 40-man roster (Jason Castro, Chris Gimenez, Mitch Garver, and John Ryan Murphy).

These players weren’t free, of course. In return, the Twins gave up young pitching prospect Huascar Ynoa. Ynoa, who is currently 19 years old, has been pitching for the baby Twins in the Appalachian Rookie League this year, where he has a 5.26 ERA and 23 strikeouts over 25.2 innings pitched.

What we still don’t know, however, is how the Twins are going to make space for these guys on the roster, or where exactly Recker is going to go. There is also the issue of Justin Haley, who has to be re-added to the 25-man roster by tomorrow. The team has said they will make the corresponding moves after tonight’s game against the Dodgers.

This might be bad news for Bartolo Colon.

UPDATE [6:12 pm CT]:

Further details on the money involved in this trade: