Friday, December 11, 2015

OLMECAS DEAL KARIM GARCIA TO SALTILLO

Former major league outfielder Karim Garcia has been traded to the Mexican League's Saltillo Saraperos by the Tabasco Olmecas.  A 40-year-old Obregon native, Garcia spent all or part of ten seasons in MLB playing for seven teams between 1995 and 2004, batting .279 with 66 homers for his career.  His best season was in 2002, when he hit .292 and whacked 16 roundtrippers in 53 games for Cleveland and the New York Yankees.  Garcia batted .286 for the Yanks in their 2003 World Series loss to the Florida Marlins.
After his MLB playing days ended, Garcia toiled for Japan's Orix Blue Wave and the Mexican League's Monterrey Sultanes before embarking on a four-year run in Korea from 2008 and 2011.  He hit .264 with 103 homers for the Lotte Giants and Hanwha Eagles, including a .283/30/111 campaign for Lotte in 2008.  Garcia has played the last four years in the LMB for Monterrey, Quintana Roo and Tabasco, batting .230 with 4 homers as a part-timer with the Tigres and Olmecas in 2015.

To bring the former KBO All-Star to Saltillo, the Saraperos parted with veteran first baseman and DH Refugio Cervantes.  After breaking into the Liga as a teen with Nuevo Laredo in 1997, the 37-year-old Cervantes has appeared in 19 seasons in the LMB, batting .295 with 195 homers and 749 RBIs for six teams.  He's had three stints in Saltillo, including an eight-year stretch between 2006 and 2013.  In 91 games with the Saraperos last summer, he posted a .258/10/42 slash line.

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