The Pirates have designated outfielder Willy Garcia for assignment, Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (Twitter link). The move creates roster space for the newly re-signed Ivan Nova.
Garcia, who turned 24 in September, has been rated by Baseball America in each of the last two years as the 12th-best prospect in the Pirates’ system. His star may have dimmed, however, following a rough 2016 season that saw Garcia hit only .245/.293/.366 with six homers over 499 plate appearances at Triple-A Indianapolis. Garcia struck out 131 times (against 31 walks), continuing his career-long issues with plate discipline. This problem has offset his other talents, as the 2016 Baseball America Prospect Handbook credits Garcia with strong raw power, above-average baserunning ability and an outstanding throwing arm.
Garcia joins another Pirate (Jason Rogers) as one of six players around the league currently awaiting their next assignment, according to the MLB Trade Rumors DFA Tracker.
I was hopeful for Garcia.
Someone in the NL Central will probably get him and he will probably wind up being an all- star. That’s just how it goes for the bucs.
Just out of curiosity, who have the Bucs DFA’d in the past that ended up as a all star somewhere else??
Seems like an odd DFA choice. Someone will scoop him up.
Agree … strange. Must be more to the story
I think they just DFA’d him. Just like Reece, Ramirez, Holt, Keon, Supak, Tito Polo, etc; they just don’t see value in the players in the system.
Yes … is it just me paying more attention or are teams bailing on more of their top prospects ‘sooner’ than before (not just Garcia, but also Shaffer (Rays #1 just last year) and Jenkins (cardinals top 10 3 years ago)…
None of these 3 had major injury issues
Interesting they give up on a player who showed some power potential
6hrs in 499 plate appearances is Pwr Potential? Raw Pwr and Pwr frequency are two different things.
Hence the word potential in his post.
Why not white sox
Will and avi Garcia manning the corners seems to good to be true lol
Gotta clear some room to reacquire Brady Dragmire, no doubt.
This was the corresponding move for the Ivan Nova signing. Not sure how or why the league allowed it but the Pirates actually had 41 players on their 40 man roster for almost a week.
Prob cause they hadn’t “Officially” signed Nova. Had to get a physical, I’m sure
Bucs officially announced the nova signing on tuesday, still carried an extra player for 4 days.
I don’t know in a year could this be last year’s Keon Broxton
So Willy would be an outfielder that plays less than half of the 2017 season and is mediocre at the plate unless he plays against the Pirates.?
Absolutely right
Garcia has a great outfield arm and power potential but he strikes out a lot and doesnt really draw any walks. Hope he gets a decent shot at making the majors with whatever team claims him. Wish him the best.
So basically if alvarez played outfeild.
Actually looks like Willy can play defense. Only 7 errors last year. Strikes out like Pedro but does not have the power numbes like Pedro
Errors are not a good way to evaluate defense at all but 7 outfield errors is actually kind of a lot.
Does anyone know which OF position he plays? If its CF, I’d love to see Detroit deal for him.
Hes a corner outfielder mostly played in right because of his arm. Moves pretty well for his size/build but would be a disaster in center.
I agree with that
Thanx for the insight.
To those who found it odd that the Pirates found it odd that they DFA’d Garcia, please tell me who they should have picked to drop from the 40 man to be able to add Nova?
It’s ok. We’re still keeping Wade LeBlanc on a major league roster
At least until the make a move to add another vet to the starting rotation. To be honest he did do pretty good finishing the year it’s the Bucs. Several moves to be made I think and Willy would have been DF A’d at some point. Just hoping no one wants to put him on the 40 man and he elects to take the AAA assignment to Indy.
Heads up, Billy…