What a disaster this year
has been for the White Sox and, more importantly, their fans. Nobody expected the team to be this bad, winning
just a third of their first 90 games. At
least we can take solace in the development of Avi Garcia, assuming Sox GM Rick
Hahn doesn’t rush off and trade him..
Garcia came to the White
Sox as part of a three-way trade in 2013; one day, we had Jake Peavy, the next
Peavy was shipped off to Boston and Garcia came over from Detroit. The buzz on the newest member of the White
Sox was that he had the tools to be another Miguel Cabrera. Mostly, Sox fans were just happy he wasn’t
Jake Peavy.
Garcia hit .304 in that
first half-season on the South Side before missing most of 2014 with a shoulder
injury. The next two seasons were an
exercise in frustration, both for Garcia and Sox fans. At 6’4”, Garcia looked the part of a power
hitter, not unlike Aaron Judge, but he struck out too much, that is, when he
wasn’t grounding out. Then came last
season.
Talk about turning it
around. The 26-year old Garcia batted
.330 with 18 homeruns and 80 RBIs to go with a .380 on-base percentage. Naturally, people wondered if he could post
similar numbers this year. Through the
end of April, the answer was pretty much, No.
Then he went on the DL with a hamstring injury. For reasons best known to himself, Garcia
reverted to 2017 when the Sox reactivated him June 22nd.
Garcia hiked his average
from .233 to .282, with eight homers in his last thirteen games. I don’t know what’s more irritating now,
listening to people debate whether they should trade him (for what, another
outfielder?) or seeing how he was pulled in the middle of yesterday’s game
against the Astros when his hamstring flared up.
When it rains it pours,
I guess.
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