The Athletics are calling up first baseman Dermis Garcia, according to a team announcement. Garcia is not currently on the club’s 40-man roster, but a vacancy was created with yesterday’s trade that sent Christian Bethancourt to the Rays. Whenever Garcia gets into a game, it will be his major league debut.
Garcia, 24, was once a high-profile international signing, joining the Yankees in 2014 with a $3.2MM bonus. In 2015, Baseball America ranked him one of the top 30 Yankee farmhands, comparing him to Miguel Sano, with both players having spent time with the same trainer. Although he was a shortstop at the time of his signing, evaluators expected him to move off the position and become a bat-first prospect, something that has largely come true, with Garcia first shifting to third base and then first base.
Garcia hit for tremendous power during his time in the Yankees’ system, though that also came with piles of strikeouts. He’s never had a strikeout rate lower than 27.7% at any minor league stop in his career. For reference, the MLB average this season is 22.2%. Despite those Ks, Garcia still managed to be productive with his power and walks. He stayed on BA’s list of top Yankee farmhands from 2015 to 2018.
Last year, Garcia reached Double-A, hitting 31 homers and walking 11.7% of the time, but also striking out in 37.9% of his plate appearances. His final line on the year was .210/.307/.486 for a wRC+ of 111. He reached minor league free agency and signed with the A’s in March on a minor league deal. He’s spent the year with the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators, getting into 54 games so far. He seems to have improved his plate discipline but sacrificed some power in the process. He has an 11.4% walk rate on the year with a 29.2% strikeout rate, but just eight homers in the famously hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League. His slash line is .251/.338/.444 for a 92 wRC+.
Despite spending all those years in the Yankee system, he’s still just 24 years old. The A’s have Seth Brown as their regular first baseman, though he’s also capable of playing some outfield. The Bethancourt trade also removed one first base/DH option from the team, creating an opening for the club to give Garcia a shot.
Martín Gallegos of MLB.com announced his promotion before the official team announcement.
From a family of dermatologists , good pal of Klobosits
He’ll put skin in the game
A great athlete, he can also fence. He specializes in a long thin sword and is known as “Epee” Dermis.
He definitely gets under the skin of the opposing team.
More Yankee riches being spread throughout MLB
Dodgers, Astros and A’s all clear the Yankees on this, massively.
Dodgers definitely. Astros not so much. If the Yankees were to be as lousy as the ‘Stros were for 6 straight seasons I would suspect they’d hit a few winners too. The A’s? Please. When you pick in the top half of the draft half of the time and then trade every viable MLBer on your roster every 4-5 years then you should have ex talent all over the place.
Dumbest reply of alll-time, you literally are just lying and dont know a lick of ball.
The A’s don’t clear the Yankees on anything lmao, Brokeland sucks.
I still wonder how Skye Bolt is still on the team. He can’t hit and a terrible Outfielder. Almost every game he takes a bad route to a fly ball and cost them runs. Gave Altuve a free hit in the 9th yesterday on another bad route to the ball. Please let him be the one released.
Someone has to drive the tank.
Yup, Lowrie+Vogt are both awful/washed up, Piscotty lacks passion and is a low IQ player who can’t put the logic together that if you have MLB power, you should be tailoring your swing to launch angle, but he arrogantly states he wants to hit line drives, which result in outs and singles only.
This Dermis guy only makes “purposely tanking” narrative more solid. Shea Langeliers has a massive .870 OPS at AAA from an everyday catcher, why was he not brought up, but a 1B with a .782 OPS was?? Tanking on purpose. The A’s have used 26 (!) guys over the age of 30 this season, that’s not what “rebuilding” means. If they did the rebuild properly, the prospects would be up, not the MILB signing AAAA types. But those prospects might be very good players who win games – cant have that!
I don’t mind Dermis being called up because he replaces Bethancourt with about the same stats but more power. Langeliers will not be brought up until late in the season so his super 2 status will kick in a year later. You know how cheap Fisher is on paying players.
Tanking so they can move to las Vegas
Maybe, part of the analytics theory is you hold some prospects back and speed others up because you want a “batch” of talent to all hit the majors at the same time and make you a playoff team.
On the other hand, there’s no reason for people like Lowrie and Vogt to be taking spots from minor league journeymen like Dermis that never really had a shot in the bigs.
Excited to get the Dermis era started!
Remember when this dude was a big deal in the Yankees system in, like, 2015?
Remember when all 100% of Yankees prospects are colossally overrated always? Due to NYC having too many media outlets? Dermis just another one.
No, I don’t remember that. And your imagination isn’t the same thing as an authentic memory.
As a 17 year old?
Hit 31 Homer’s at AA for the Yankees last year. 8 HR’s in 54 games at AAA this season and is still just 24. Could be a find for the A’s, we’ll see
Dermis is Gallo without the walks on offense and Voit with a half step less on defense.
In a game where league average is around .240 most of the league is “Gallo without the walks”
I get your point but Gallo has only hit above .209 once, in 2019, when everyone had a career year.
Good to see him get to the majors after all those years in the Yankees system. Not sure how good he’ll be in MLB, but I’m glad he gets his shot.
We can only hope he chooses 4 for his uniform number
Another reason why Bud Selig in the Hall of Fame is an outrage:
‘The team is wrestling to build a new ballpark in Oakland and is flirting with Las Vegas in case that plan fizzles.
‘How might their fate be different if they had an owner such as Joe Lacob, who has enjoyed four championships in the past eight seasons as primary owner of the Warriors?
‘It’s a fair question to ponder, as a San Francisco Chronicle report brings to light the fact that he apparently was rebuffed from buying the A’s many years ago. Lacob apparently had a deal in place to buy the team from Stephen Schott for $180 million. Instead, the MLB commissioner at the time, Bud Selig, approved a sale to one of his college fraternity brothers, Lew Wolff, and John Fisher in 2005.’
https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/07/10/joe-lacob-standing-offer-purchase-oakland-athletics