SUNDAY: Both Garcia’s promotion and Posey’s DL placement are now official, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic was among those to tweet.
SATURDAY: The Giants are expected to promote Aramis Garcia to the major-league club, as Robert Murray of The Athletic was first to report. The move will likely come tomorrow, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
News of Garcia’s first call-up to the big leagues coincides with the news that franchise icon Buster Posey is scheduled to undergo season-ending hip surgery on Monday. Though Posey is presumably available to pinch-hit in today’s game, the Giants are all but out of the playoff hunt and have accepted the fact that they need to turn an eye towards the ensuing seasons. That means making sure Posey has a shot at returning in time for Opening Day 2019, and as such there’s a void to fill behind the plate beside current backup Nick Hundley.
It wouldn’t be fair to expect Garcia to perform to Posey’s level, or even the watered-down version we’ve seen this year. After all, he’s not exactly lighting the world on fire at Triple-A so far this season. The former second-rounder has hit .237/.286/.263 in 41 plate appearances at that level so far, and even at Double-A this year he only managed a wRC+ of 88 to go along with a .682 OPS. On the other hand, he showed a bit more potential last season when he posted a 116 wRC+ with 17 homers across two levels of the minor leagues.
MLB Pipeline ranked Garcia as the Giants’ 15th-best prospect in their most recent update, citing his strength and the loft in his stroke as reasons to be optimistic about his power potential. There’s plenty of reason to be concerned about his floor, though; the publication believes he’s becoming too aggressive at the plate and will need to tighten up his strike zone in order to have a shot at success against major-league pitching. His defensive skills are merely average as well.
Despite the concerns about him, the Giants aren’t exactly white-knuckling it in regards to hopes that Garcia can become an everyday catcher. Rather, he’ll only need to develop into a serviceable backup in order to fill a future organizational need. Posey will likely return in time to play most if not all of 2019, and San Francisco has their catcher for the future in the form of this past draft’s number two overall pick, Joey Bart. Still, Garcia can win himself a major-league job as a part-time player if he makes good use of his 2018 audition.
I’ve seen this guy play in the minors. Absolute Flop. Waste of a roster spot.
Habeebo. You think? Habeebo play instead. Habeebo like basedballs game.
About time! This guys a stud! You guys know I’m not one to make bold predictions but this guy will at least be a .210 hitter with 3-5 bombs a year type of power. Stud
Lmao he wasn’t even hurting that well before the all star break
Solid production for a catcher…
Should’ve called up Chris Shaw….
To play catcher?
Put him at 1st and Option Chase Deez nuts’
Please grown ups only reply!
The near future is not bright.
Giants have had since 2010 when Buster became a MLB player to develop another catcher or two. Where are they? Instead they have to sign and retain Nick Hundley..
Just like when they had Bonds – couldn’t develop an outfielder to save their souls.
They had several quality backups over the years. Eli Whiteside, who I believe is the bullpen catcher, Susac showed promise but flamed out. I’m drawing a blank on the young guy that was also good, both he and Susac left the team in search of more play time.
there were 2, hector Sanchez and trevor brown. Brown is still in the system and Sanchez left during the season, don’t know if he is anywhere right now. There was also Chris Stewart.
Chris Stewart was signed as a free agent – traded to the Yankees for George Kontos. I believe that 8 or so concussions recently ended Hector Sanchez’s career. That leaves Brown, who so overwhelmed the Giants that they signed Nick Hundley.
Eli Whiteside was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles and dates to 10 years before Buster. Andrew Susac was traded to Milwaukee along with RHP Phil Bickford for Will Smith. Susac subsequently traded to Baltimore by Milwaukee for PTBNL..
Giants haven’t developed an outfielder in decades. Bonds was a free agent. During the most recent championships the outfield was a black hole. Random guys having 1 good year here and there. I can5 remember the last giants drafted quality outfielder.
Chili Davis…..that was awhile ago.
Duggar or Slater.
The failure of Center Fielder Gary Brown, to develop certainly had a ripple effect. that lasted multiple seasons and involved multiple players.
Certainly wasted alot of time and money on getting 135 games from 2010 #74 pick, Jarrett Parker. I think I saw him stocking shelves in Sporting Goods at the Fort Belvoir,, VA Walmart.
Are you really complaining about a #74 pick?
They have Joey Bart up next — I think developing a backup catcher behind Posey was low on the priority list the last 10 years, and deservedly so.
Yeah, Why in the world would the Twins have needed to develop a catcher with Joe Mauer behind the plate? One play, one injury, can change everything.
I don’t understand your gripe at all. The team is out of it; they have a guy in Hundley to catch while they play out the season. Posey will be back at some point next season and Joey Bart will likely be the starting catcher in 2020.. Seems like a pretty workable plan to me as far as catcher is concerned.
And its not like baseball is saturated with catching talent….
The Giants haven’t developed an outfielder since Chili Davis.
Giants still haven’t developed a home grown outfielder since who? Duggars and Slater look like they may have potential, but, hey, we aren’t talking Mike Trout with either one.
Whatever happened to Trevor Brown?
He sucks
A .530 OPS in AAA this season ? Call me titillated.