Jon Garland

Jon Steven Garland was born September 27, 1979, and was raised in Granada Hills, California. He was raised by his mother, Vikki, after she and his father divorced.1 As a pitcher at Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, he finished his varsity career with a 27-4 record over three seasons. On June 2, 1997, he was drafted in the first round of that year’s amateur draft, the 10th overall selection, by the Chicago Cubs, turning down a full scholarship to University of Southern California to sign with the Cubs for $1.325 million. He and reported to the Arizona Fall League on June 27, 1997, and quickly established himself as a top prospect.

With the Cubs’ rookie league team, Garland posted a 3-2 record with a 2.70 ERA. However, his performance dipped in the following year, 1998, with Class-A Rockford (4-7, 5.03), and the Cubs, seeking bullpen help, traded the 6-foot-6 righty to the crosstown White Sox in June for major-league right-hander Matt Karchner. The Cubs were looking to bolster the path to closer Rod Beck. Garland said of the trade, “My manager, my pitching coach, and the director of minor league operations pulled me into their office and told me I’d been traded. It was my first full season of baseball it was a big shock.”2

Assigned to the Single-A Hickory Crawdads, Garland went 1-1 in his first two starts. “I had one good start, and in the other one I threw good pitches, but the breaks just didn’t go my way,” he said.3 Despite a mixed start to his tenure with the White Sox, Garland showed glimpses of his potential. With Hickory, he helped contribute to White Sox efforts to rebuild for the future with a high-ceiling rotation that included Aaron Myette and Josh Fogg and future White Sox fan favorite center fielder Aaron Rowand.

The 1999 season saw Garland split time between Double A and Triple A,4 where he compiled an 8-8 record with a 3.59 ERA. His performance earned him a call-up to the Charlotte Knights for the International League playoffs against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. In his first minor-league playoff start, with the best-of-five series tied at 1-1, he lasted 5⅓ innings, surrendering 10 hits and four earned runs. Garland left with an 8-3 lead, but his team ultimately fell short in a close 10-9 loss.

After sticking with Charlotte in 2000 and pitching to a 9-2 record with a 2.26 ERA, Garland was given the chance to prove himself. On Independence Day in 2000, Garland was called up to the White Sox, to take the place of Triple-A teammate Kip Wells who had been recently sent down “to get his confidence back” according to manager Jerry Manuel.5 His first start was against the divisional foe, Kansas City Royals. When he took the mound that day, at 20 years old, he was the youngest player in the major leagues. Garland surrendered eight hits and seven earned runs in three innings pitched. He said of the tough start, “It was a dream come true tonight. It could have gone better, but it happens.”6 He made 13 starts (15 games) and had a 4-8 record with a 6.46 ERA for the 2000 American League Central Division champion White Sox, who ended the season being swept by the Seattle Mariners in the Division Series. He did not pitch in the postseason.

Garland started the 2001 season in Charlotte again and went 0-3 but with a 2.73 ERA, and quickly made it back to the White Sox, making his first start on May 2 against Anaheim. He pitched 2⅔ innings, surrendering six runs (three earned) on six hits and took the loss. Throughout the season he jumped between the bullpen and rotation, pitching in 35 games, starting in 16 of them. He also earned his only save of his career. Going into the 2002 season, Garland had a spot in the rotation lined up.

From 2002 through the 2004 season, Garland started 98 games and had a record of 36-36 but had become a reliable member of the White Sox staff, averaging 200 innings pitched and 33 starts per season and winning 12 games in each of the three seasons with an average of 12 losses over the three years. Heading into the 2005 season, the White Sox made some wholesale changes including trading slugger Carlos Lee to the Milwaukee Brewers for Scott Podsednik and Luis Vizcaíno and signing right fielder Jermaine Dye, catcher A.J. Pierzynski, and second baseman Tadahito Iguchi.

Garland enjoyed a remarkable start to the 2005 season. He won his first eight decisions, posting a stellar 2.41 ERA. His dominance included two shutouts, showcasing his ability to pitch deep into games. The second half of the season was not quite as impressive as the first. Garland went 5-6 with a 3.65 ERA. But overall, it was his best season in the majors to that point, including logging his most innings, 221.

The 2005 season marked a career milestone for Garland as he made his first All-Star Game appearance, pitching one inning surrendering two bases on balls, but zero hits and zero runs, and finished sixth in the Cy Young Award voting.

Garland’s postseason debut in 2005 was memorable for the White Sox. In Game Three of the American League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Angels, Garland took the mound at Anaheim with the series tied at 1-1, the game following the infamous “Pierzynski dropped third strike game.” The Angels presented a formidable lineup that included future Hall of Famer Vlad Guerrero.

Garland’s teammates presented him with a three-run lead in the top of the first. In the bottom of the inning, he issued a leadoff walk to Chone Figgins, but quickly settled down, striking out Orlando Cabrera – who was in his first season with the Angels and who would be traded for Garland two years later – then inducing a 4-3 double play groundout from Guerrero.

With the White Sox leading 5-0 after five innings, the Angels attempted to stage a comeback in the bottom of the sixth. Garland allowed a two-run home run to Cabrera on a 2-and-2 pitch, following Adam Kennedy’s base hit. But he held the Angels off the bases for the remainder of the game, retiring 10 straight batters as the White Sox won, 5-2, on Garland’s four-hit complete game. The White Sox went on to win the series, four games to one.

Up two games to none in the World Series, the White Sox looked again to Garland for a Game Three start. He faced off against Houston Astros starter Roy Oswalt, who was coming off his second consecutive 20-win season.

Garland faced adversity out of the gate, surrendering a leadoff double to future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio. Lance Berkman drove Biggio home one batter later.

In the bottom of the third, Biggio drove in shortstop Adam Everett on a single to right and Biggio again was driven home by Berkman, expanding Houston’s lead to a 3-0. In the bottom of the fourth, Garland surrendered a leadoff homer to Jason Lane.

The White Sox came back in the top of the fifth, taking a 5-4 lead behind a Joe Crede solo home run, RBI singles from Tadahito Iguchi and Jermaine Dye, and a two-run double by A.J. Pierzynski. During the inning, manager Ozzie Guillén, instead of pinch-hitting for Garland, sent the pitcher up to hit against Astros starter Oswalt. Garland ended up unable to lay down a bunt and striking out.

Garland settled down from the fifth to the seventh, surrendering only a walk to Brad Ausmus. He was pulled after the seventh inning and left with the lead. The Astros tied the score in the eighth inning, but after a 14-inning nailbiter, highlighted by Geoff Blum’s home run in the final inning, the White Sox went on to win both the game, 7-5, and the Series.

Amid trade speculation, Garland signed a three-year, $29 million contract to stay in the White Sox rotation.7 He then spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons with the White Sox going a combined 28-20 with a 4.37 ERA. On May 22, 2006, Garland was the pitcher when Frank Thomas returned to the Chicago as a member of the Oakland Athletics and hit two home runs off Garland: one in the second inning and one in the fifth.

After the 2007 season, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams was attempting to shore up the team’s defense in an attempt to make the roster more attractive to free-agent outfielder Torii Hunter. Williams traded Garland to the Angels for slick-fielding shortstop Orlando Cabrera.8

Garland went 14-8 with a 4.90 ERA for the Angels in 2008. He fell 3⅓ innings short of pitching 200 innings for the fifth season in a row. Garland was granted free agency after the season.9 He signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 2009.

Garland pitched in 27 games with the Diamondbacks, winning 8 against 11 losses. On August 31 he was traded to the eventual division winner Los Angeles Dodgers for a player to be named later (Tony Abreu). After six starts with his childhood team (he was 3-2, with a 2.72 ERA), Garland did not see any action in the playoffs for the Dodgers. After the season the Dodgers declined the option on Garland and he became a free agent.

Garland stayed in the National League West, signing a one-year, $5.3 million contract with the San Diego Padres, joining former White Sox pitcher Clayton Richard. Garland said, “A place like San Diego was so appealing to me because it’s one of the few remaining parks that is a pitcher’s park.”10 Garland was saddled with the loss in the season opener, going only four innings and surrendering six runs (two earned). He started 33 games for the second-place Padres, with a record of 14-12 (3.47).

After the season Garland became a free agent again, and he signed again with the Dodgers on another one-year contract for $5 million; the deal included a team option. His second stint with the Dodgers did not produce similar results as the first. Following nine starts that earned him a 1-5 record and a 4.33 ERA, he was sidelined with shoulder discomfort. On July 5 it was announced that he would undergo surgery to clean his shoulder and would be out for the remainder of the season.

As one might expect, the Dodgers declined the option on Garland, making him a free agent once again. Garland signed a minor-league contract with the Cleveland Indians in early 2012 but he never took the required physical and the deal was canceled.11

Garland sat out the 2012 season. He was offered a contract by the Seattle Mariners in February 2013, with an invitation to spring training. Speaking about 2012 season, he said, “Every time I got on the mound, it was getting weaker, and it wasn’t recovering well. And I knew right then and there that I had to shut it down and give it the time it needed,” After he pitched for Seattle during spring training. Garland exercised his opt-out clause due to the Mariners’ inability to commit to providing him with a rotation spot. Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said, “We weren’t prepared to – at this moment in time – commit a roster spot and one of the starting spots in the rotation to Jon (Garland).”12

Garland quickly signed a free-agent contract with the Colorado Rockies. In his first start in the major leagues since 2011, he went six innings on April 6, 2013, and surrendered two earned runs on five hits and earned the 6-3 victory against San Diego. By early June he was 4-6 with a 5.82 ERA, lasting into the seventh inning only once. On June 9, the Rockies designated him for assignment, and he cleared waivers and was released.13 He ended his career with a record of 136-125, with a 4.37 ERA.

Since leaving baseball, Garland has stayed out of the limelight save for a few instances of 2005 White Sox reunions. As of late 2024, he was dating Lovieanne Jung, a former collegiate softball player.

Last revised: March 1, 2025

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Steve Henson, “Full Speed Ahead,” Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1997: 42.

2 Reid Spencer, “He’s a Quick-Change Artist.” Charlotte Observer, August 16, 1998: 282.

3 “He’s a Quick-Change Artist.”

4 Dan Collins, “Juggler: Terrell Handling Hogs’ Changing Roster,” Winston-Salem Journal, June 14, 1999: 19.

5 Marty Maciaszek, “Manuel hope Wells boosts confidence at Charlotte,” Arlington Heights (Illinois) Daily Herald, July 2, 2000: 3

6 Scott Gregor, “Garland Roughed Up in Major-League Debut,” Arlington Heights (Illinois) Daily Herald, July 5, 2000: 87.

7 Dave Van Dyck, “No Hang-Up with Garland,” Chicago Tribune, December 29, 2005: 4.

8 Phil Rogers, “Dealing Garland Difficult but Inevitable,” Chicago Tribune, November 20, 2007: 4-1.

9 Mark Gonzales, “Sox Ship Garland to Angels for Slick-Fielding Cabrera,” Chicago Tribune, November 20, 2007: 4.

10 Bernie Wilson, “Padres Lock Up Garland with One-Year Deal.” Palm Springs California) Desert Sun, January 27, 2010: C7.

11 Paul Hoynes, “Acta’s Old Pal Guzman Gets a Shot on the Infield,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 22, 2012: 3.

12 Ryan Divish, “Mariners Cannot Commit to Garland,” Olympian (Olympia, Washington), March 23, 2013: B1.

13 Ryan Divish, “Montero Going About His Business as Usual,” Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, Washington), February 13, 2013: 12.