When it comes to Adolis Garcia many Rangers fans have mixed feelings about his abilities and how he can help this Rangers team moving forward.
Last season Garcia burst onto the scene hitting 31 home runs and driving in 90 runs. Although we have to realize that the season he had last year was an outlier as Garcia has never done anything close to that before.
The main question that fans have is how long can Adolis stick with the Rangers?
Case for him to stay
Although the season that Garcia had last season was an outlier it doesn’t take away from the fact that it still happened. Now we know what Garcia is capable of, it’s just a question of can he replicate it.
Garcia is going to start to see more pitches to hit with the addition of Marcus Semien and Corey Seager. This could possibly start to lead to success at the plate for him. We saw a prime example of this on Monday night vs Houston where Garcia was hitting in the two-hole in between Semien and Seager. Garcia went 2-5 with a HUGE bases-clearing double that broke the game open in the 8th inning.
Since Adolis Garcia broke onto the scene with Texas last season he has been a true five-tool player. Garcia has the ability to impact the game on defense as well on the bases. Those tools, along with his hitting potential could be enough to keep him on the team and in the lineup every day.
Case for him to go
Although Adolis did have an amazing first half of last season his second half and his start to this season have not been great. As I already established Garcia’s first half of last season was an outlier. If he can’t replicate anything close to that in the beginning of this season he’s gonna have playing time taken away.
Another factor is the fact that the Rangers have several minor league outfielders who could get a shot if Adolis is not producing. The first in line would be Leody Tavares who is hitting .386 in AAA Round Rock this season. Not to mention the other names who the Rangers like in the outfield such as Bubba Thompson, Josh Smith, and Steele Walker.
Possible trades??
If Garcia trends upward he could be of some value to a contending team. He likely would not fetch a huge return to the Rangers he could be of some value. With other high potential outfielders already in the system, a Garcia trade could be a low-risk move for the Rangers.
Throughout the early part of the season, the Rangers are going to be evaluating Adolis Garcia super hard. If he can prove that he can be an effective weapon the Rangers will likely have him in their long-term plans. If he continues to struggle Texas may look to move on and resort to other options.
