Cardinals sign veteran reliever Luis Garcia

The Cardinals announced Friday that they’ve signed free-agent righty Luis Garcia to an MLB contract. He’ll take the 26-man roster spot of Johan Oviedo, who was optioned to Triple-A Memphis Thursday. Carlos Martinez has been moved to the 60-day injured list in order to create a roster spot.

Garcia, 34, spent the first part of the season in the Yankees organization and pitched well for their Triple-A affiliate before being granted his release a couple days ago. In 17 1/3 frames with Scranton, he pitched to a 3.63 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate and a 4.3% walk rate.

While Garcia didn’t make it to the big leagues with the Yankees, he’s racked up 315 innings across parts of eight MLB seasons — mostly coming with the Phillies. From 2013-18, Garcia was an oft-used member of the Philadelphia bullpen, pitching to a 4.15 ERA over the life of 244 2/3 innings. His age-30 season, in particular, was an excellent campaign that saw the righty post a career-best 2.65 ERA in a career-high 71 1/3 innings.

Garcia has struggled in the three seasons since that outstanding effort, however, posting a combined 5.26 ERA and 4.94 FIP with the Phillies, Angels and Rangers in that time. He’ll look to right the ship with his fourth big-league organization and also give the Cards some depth at a time when their pitching staff has been hit hard by injuries.