Freddy Garcia: Either You Start Me Or I’m Outta Here

Although everyone expects that Freddy Garcia will win the battle for the final rotation spot anyway, Garcia put a big exclamation point on it yesterday.

While being interviewed by Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post, Freddy Garcia shed some light on his surgically repaired shoulder and then made a bold prediction about his future.

“Yeah, yeah, 100 percent – of course I expect to be in the rotation. If I don’t make the rotation, I’ll be somewhere else [in the majors],” he said. “If I can pitch, I don’t have nothing to prove in the minor leagues. I’m too old for that.”

As I’ve written before, I fully expect Garcia to win that final spot, but geez how about a little humility…

Luckily for the Mets, when reporters later interviewed Tim Redding and Jon Niese, each of them were quite gracious and said they preferred to start, but would be happy to help the team out of the bullpen with Niese adding that he would understand it if he were to start the season in the minors.

I wonder how this plays out if both Redding and Niese out-pitch Garcia?

I would imagine Garcia’s tenure with the Mets would come to an abrupt end.