Greg Garcia Walks Into Sleeperdom
By Aaron Somers
The Cardinals system, arguably the worst in baseball as recently as 2009, has improved to the point where it’s now one of the minors’ better collections of young talent. It’s obviously headlined by pitchers Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez and outfielder Oscar Taveras, but other prospects like Matt Adams, Zack Cox, Trevor Rosenthal, and Tyrell Jenkins are also garnering significant buzz. And I will never resist the opportunity to mention how awesome Maikel Cleto is.
One guy who gets lost in the shuffle of these impressive prospects is middle infielder Greg Garcia. Let’s take a minute, though, to see what the Hawaii alum brings to the table.
A seventh-round draft pick in 2010, Garcia has hit .284/.376/.402 in 163 pro games. As that line suggests, he does a nice job of putting the ball in play, with strikeout rates that tend to hover around 15%. He also draws a good number of walks, usually around 10%, and gets hit by a lot of pitches (21 in 163 games), which allows him to post excellent OBPs.
Despite being drafted out of college, Garcia has been age-appropriate for his levels–he just turned 22 in August while in High-A. He’s had no trouble adjusting as he’s moved up, as his .290/.400/.419 line in 59 High-A games improved on both his short-season and Low-A performances. It’s not easy to put up a .375 wOBA in the Florida State League, and his wRC+ was an excellent 130 in that stint.
Garcia has played both second and short, but he’s a better long-term fit at the former position. He’s a prototypical short, somewhat stocky middle infielder who is fundamentally sound but lacks the sort of premium athleticism needed to play a good shortstop or be much of a threat on the bases.
After hitting just two home runs in 2011, Garcia could stand to add a bit more power to his bat. He does take a fairly big cut at the ball and could stand to get the bat in the zone more quickly, but that obviously hasn’t caused him much trouble to this point, as his hand-eye coordination and pitch recognition skills have allowed him to make good contact. He’s somewhat like the more highly-touted Taveras in that sense (Please don’t run with that comparison, though; Garcia is really very little like Taveras in other regards).
Garcia might just be the next Eric Sogard, but even that has some value, as lefty-hitting infielders with defensive versatility and on-base skill can be very valuable to an NL club in a utility role. But if he can add some pop to his bat (and it’s not like a .129 ISO in the FSL is awful for a 2B) and maintain his great approach, he could end up as a surprisingly effective top-of-the-order hitter. He’s definitely an interesting guy to keep the corner of your eye on in this exciting system.
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