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White Sox: Is This a Make-or-Break Season for Leury Garcia?
White Sox Leury Garcia could join team out of Spring Training. Is this his last chance to stay with the team?
Since arriving via trade in 2013, Leury Garcia has been shuttled between the minor and major leagues for the Chicago White Sox. Given his time has been short, Garcia’s performance at the big league level has been far from impressive. Heading into 2017, Garcia’s career is at a crossroads. Could he be out of baseball after this season if he doesn’t impress those around the game?
While Garcia has been a versatile player, that is one of his few positive qualities. Given he is extremely fast, indicated by the 21 stolen bases in 155 career games played. However, every other part of Garcia’s game has been downright dreadful. Nothing stands out more than his BB/K rate, which checks in at 14/104 (career stats). To give you an idea of how horrible of a ratio that is, it is around seven strikeouts per every one free pass.
To say Garcia lacks power is an understatement, considering the fact he has gone deep a total of two times in 308 career at bats. His run production is no better, as he has knocked in a total of 14 runs in the same total of games and at bats. He does seem to have a tiny bit of gap power, as seen by his five doubles and two triples.
Another horrific part of Garcia’s game is his batting average. If he could get it above the Mendoza Line this season it would be an accomplishment, however that would take some work. It currently sits at .188 over the course of his career, meaning he would have to outperform his best season in order to crack that mark career wise (best season was .229 in 2016).
Moving to the defensive part of his game, he has been versatile, but not much else. Garcia has played all over the field, playing every position but first base and catcher. Yes, he even made it to the mound in both 2014 and 2015, however he did pick up the loss on one of the occasions (2014).
Regardless of his ability to play all over the field, he has failed to perform well at each position he has been placed at. At any position where he has 90.1 innings played or more, Garcia’s fielding percentage does not top .984, while plummeting as low as .933 at one spot.
All in all, to say Garcia’s career is on the rocks is an understatement. For a team such as the White Sox that is looking to bring in new faces, it makes sense to take a look at every new player possible. Since Garcia does not fall into that category, it is fairly safe to say this is a make-or-break season for him as far as his MLB career is concerned.
So White Sox fans, is this Garcia’s swan song? Time will tell, but he should have an opportunity at some point during 2017 to prove he is worthwhile of a roster spot.
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