Erik Boland: Yankees acquire Luis Garcia Jr. in trade with Nationals, but how will they use him?
The Washington Nationals' Luis García Jr. heads up the first-base line after connecting for a two-run home run off Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Jimmy Herget in the seventh inning of a game on July 22 in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
CHICAGO — Call it the any-port-in-a-storm approach to the trade deadline.
With a desperate need to upgrade an offense that has sputtered during the last two months while Aaron Judge has been sidelined, the Yankees acquired first baseman Luis Garcia Jr. on Sunday, sending pitchers Jake Bird, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Ben Grable to the Nationals. Bird was among the Yankees' deadline acquisitions a season ago.
The lefthanded-hitting Garcia, 26, leads the National League with a .560 slugging percentage and is under team control through 2027.
“He rakes. He can really hit,” manager Aaron Boone said after Sunday’s 2-1 victory over the Cubs allowed the Yankees (63-49) to finish this 10-game trip against the contending Phillies, White Sox and Cubs with a 6-4 record and nine wins in their last 14 games.
Garcia has a .283/.313/.560 slash line (.873 OPS), 23 homers and 76 RBIs in 104 games (357 at-bats). He has a .295/.325/.593 slash line (.918 OPS) with 20 homers and 64 RBIs in 302 at-bats against righthanders and a .218/.246/.382 slash line (.627 OPS) with three homers and 12 RBIs in 55 at-bats against lefthanders.
“I know that he’s a great hitter,” said Jose Caballero, who hit a two-run homer in the third inning Sunday. “I know that. I just saw the news. Exciting to see him here and what he can contribute to the team.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has been trying to add offense to his roster before Monday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline, preferably a righthanded hitter. Those efforts will continue throughout Monday as other Cashman pursuits, such as bolstering the bullpen and securing a righthanded-hitting catcher, remain on the table.
On the surface, Garcia is not the best of fits for the Yankees’ current roster (though the emphasis there is on “current”; there may well be more changes to it before the Yankees next take the field on Monday night against the Cardinals at the Stadium).
Garcia has played primarily first base this season (93 games along with nine starts at DH), and the Yankees seem set at that position with the lefthanded-hitting Ben Rice and the righthanded-hitting Paul Goldschmidt against certain lefty starters.
In the 2023 and ’24 seasons, Garcia played mostly at second base, starting 121 games and 129 games, respectively. The Nationals didn’t think he was very good at second — and he wasn’t — which is why they moved him to first. Garcia didn’t suddenly transform into Keith Hernandez defensively, but he’s certainly been better there than at second.
Garcia has started 480 games at second base, 77 at first base, 66 at shortstop and 14 at DH.
There’s no obvious position fit at any of those spots with the Yankees, other than at DH. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Yankees have no idea when full-time DH Giancarlo Stanton, who hasn’t played since April 24 because of two different right calf injuries, will return.
Cashman isn’t close to being done with his attempts to upgrade the roster. For instance, the Yankees have been very open since last winter about their willingness to trade second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., something they’ve become even more open to doing as this season has unfolded. Depending on what other teams are seeking, Anthony Volpe, Spencer Jones and Jasson Dominguez — among others from the big-league roster — could be part of a trade package.
Although Garcia at the moment does not have an obvious position on the field, that is almost secondary from the Yankees’ perspective.
Sunday was yet another rinse-repeat from the offense. The Yankees have scored eight runs in the last 49 innings, five of them on four home runs. They have gone 29-for-171 (.170) in that span.
If not for another good outing from Gerrit Cole and more stellar work from the bullpen, Sunday’s postgame questions would have revolved around the Yankees managing all of five hits on a windy afternoon at Wrigley Field instead of the mostly positive vibes stemming from an overall successful trip.
What has made the Yankees successful of late is their starting pitching. In the last six games, their starters have allowed three runs, 19 hits and 10 walks with 38 strikeouts in 37 innings for a 0.73 ERA and 0.78 WHIP. But they still need more offensive support than they're getting.
There is a square-peg-round-hole aspect to Garcia's acquisition, mostly because of his defensive shortcomings. But as one rival executive said of the Yankees without Judge and Stanton: “Other than Rice, there’s just no one in that lineup that scares you . . . [Garcia is] not in their class, but he can hit. Good player to have regardless.”
Any port in a storm.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
