Both Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia and general manager John Mozeliak responded Thursday to a report that the left-hander had agreed to a new contract extension with the club. And while neither side was willing to confirm it, they didn't deny it either.
An employee of KTRS Radio posted a Twitter message Thursday afternoon that said the Cardinals had agreed to a four-year deal with Garcia for $27.5 million with team options for 2016 and 2017.
Asked about the potential deal, Mozeliak said, "I can tell you that any contract discussions that we have with any player will be done privately and when we have an announcement, we'll have an announcement.
"In context of why, there's always a lot of details behind things and you don't want to get ahead of yourself. Nothing is done until it's done. In this case, again, I'm not going to talk about any specific player."
Garcia went 13-8 with a 2.70 ERA last year and finished third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. He is 8-3 with a 3.23 ERA this year.
The left-hander is eligible for arbitration at the end of the year, meaning a four-year contract would buy out the remaining three years of arbitration and the first year he would have been eligible for free agency.
The KTRS report said that the deal was "pending a physical" and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported later Thursday that a physical was been scheduled for Garcia.
"I'm not saying yes or no, but if something is going on, when the time comes, you guys will find out," Garcia said. "I feel that's private and if something is going on, you guys will know when it's time to talk about it.
"Obviously anytime you get any kind of security, it's good. But like I said, right now something I'm really focusing on is going out there and pitching and working as hard as I can. Basically that's all I can worry about and if something happens, obviously it's exciting, but I'm not really focused on that right now."
Garcia added that, "I'm not going to lie to you, some security is always good, but like I said, right now all I'm focusing on is pitching and that's it."
Both sides declined to comment further on the report.
"We make announcements when we have something to announce," Mozeliak said.
Source: BJ Rains
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