Brewers land free agent Matt Garza

The Milwaukee Brewers have signed free agent starting pitcher Matt Garza to a four-year contract. Garza's contract is worth $50 million. The deal includes a vesting $13 million option for a fifth year. He can earn an additional $1 million in each year in incentives, if they are reached. So the deal could be up being $67 million for Garza. He was one of the top free agent starting pitchers on the market. Teams pretty much didn't sign him earlier in free agency because he's had injury problems in the past couple of seasons.

Garza, 30, was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the 2005 MLB draft. He was picked 25th overall in the draft. He spent two seasons with the Twins, 2006 and 2007. The Twins traded Garza to the Tampa Bay Rays after the 2007 season. He stayed with the Rays from 2008-2010. While with the Rays, he helped lead them to the 2008 World Series. He also lead the American League in shutouts in 2008 with two. In 2010 against the Detroit Tigers, he threw a no-hitter. That became the Tampa Bay Rays' first no-hitter thrown in franchise history. After 2010, the Rays traded him to the Chicago Cubs.

He spent two and a half seasons with the Cubs. The Cubs traded him to the Texas Rangers in the middle of the 2013 season for third baseman Mike Olt, starting pitcher Justin Grimm, starting pitcher C. J. Edwards, and pitcher Neil Ramirez.

Garza's career stats in eight seasons are: 194 games played, 191 starts, 67 wins, 67 losses, 3.84 era, 1182.1 innings pitched, and 1,001 strikeouts, with a whip of 1.28. His best season was in 2010, when he went 15-10 with an era of 3.91.

The Brewers have good team built, and pretty much needed pitching. If Garza is healthy, he should be able to help out their starting rotation. Their rotation already includes: Kyle Lohse, Yovani Gallardo, Wily Peralta, and Marco Estrada. I like the move by the Brewers. They added someone who they needed. Not all teams not named the Cardinals in the NL Central have tried to improve their team. But the Brewers have tried to improve with the likes of Garza, and signing Mark Reynolds.