By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
The day Luis García sent his first major league home run into Nationals Park’s right-center field seats, launching a Jake Arrieta sinker that didn’t sink, was viewed as the dawning of Washington’s new baseball era.
The Nationals traded the best pitcher in franchise history along with their star shortstop earlier that day, sending Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a package of highly-touted prospects. Turner’s departure ostensibly cleared the way for the 21-year-old García, who had made most of his MLB starts at second base, to assume the mantle.
Nats fans did not anticipate last Monday’s news, then, that García is starting the 2022 season in Rochester. Rather than meeting the New York Mets on Thursday, he will likely be leading off for the Red Wings in Toledo on Tuesday.
The Nationals explained that García’s development hinges on him playing daily, rather than platooning in the big leagues. A .275 on base percentage in 247 major league plate appearances last year, coupled with just three total bases in 13 trips to the batter’s box in spring training games, reinforced the belief that he requires more Triple-A seasoning. Alcides Escobar is Washington’s starting shortstop.
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“Just more experience,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy remarked of García’s demotion. “Defensively he needs to do some things, make some more improvements. But offensively, I thought last year he had his best year. He hit lefties a lot better last year; he made some adjustments.”
Red Wings fans have become accustomed to highly-touted prospects starring in Triple-A before struggling through an adjustment period in “the bigs.” Byron Buxton is the most recent example of a .300 hitter in Rochester initially stumbling against MLB pitching.
Buxton caught on, to the tune of a seven-year, $100 million contract extension this past December. When García breaks out, his 2021 Triple-A campaign is evidence that his rise could be just as extraordinary. He batted .303, hitting 13 home runs–including six leadoff homers and a walk-off–and compiling a .970 OPS in the 37-game stretch.
The Nationals ranked among the top 11 in shortstop OBP over each of the last five years and would love García, a former top 100 prospect in all of baseball, to maintain that standard.
“Just polish in on the little things of the game. … When you’re hitting, for him it’s all about the situations of the game,” Washington manager Dave Martinez told MASN’s Mark Zuckerman last week. “Not just going up there and swinging the bat just to swing it. Understand what the at-bat means. If you’ve got to get a guy over, you should probably get the guy over any way possible. Guy on third base, you have to drive him in. We talked a lot about him being a better two-strike hitter.”
To Martinez’s point, García batted just .102 and struck out 43 times in 111 major league plate appearances with two strikes last season. While he collected nearly 70 percent of his hits off the fastball, he labored with breaking and offspeed pitches, batting .188 and .067, respectively, against those pitch types per Baseball Savant.
García did, however, bat .383 and thump seven home runs in 60 at bats as a Red Wing last June. Washington’s temporary loss is an impermanent boon for not only Rochester’s chances in the International League but for local baseball fans who did not catch García in action last year.
“Luis’s a special player that’s got a chance to be a big leaguer for a long time,” LeCroy assessed. “Hopefully we’ll get him going right away, and hopefully see him in Washington.”
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