Red Sox Video
There has rarely been a player with a nickname more apt than Jhostynxon Garcia.
The Red Sox's third-best prospect is finally on his way to the big leagues, though ask anyone to spell or pronounce (Yos-TIN-son) his first name, and you'll likely be met with a lot of shrugs or botched attempts that sound like random syllables woven together (the worst I've ever heard was "Ja-HOST-ee-nix-on", which, in fairness, is in the ballpark of how it looks phonetically). Thus, "The Password" was born, and it's stuck with Garcia as he's climbed the minor league ranks.
Now a major league ballplayer, Garcia will be hard-pressed to carve out a permanent role in Boston. Though he's replacing the injured Wilyer Abreu in the present, the team's outfield picture is still absurdly crowded moving forward. Roman Anthony and Ceddanne Rafaela are on long-term extensions and are pencilled in as the starters in left and center field, respectively, for the foreseeable future. Abreu, when healthy, is the starter in right, and Jarren Duran is a darn good fourth outfielder who hits like a designated hitter when he's on. Add to them Masataka Yoshida and Rob Refsnyder -- two capable outfielders who are better suited for DH duties at this point in their respective careers -- and you've got six players for three spots when everyone is healthy. With Garcia added to the mix, make it seven.
The outfield crowding was so severe that the front office dumped James Tibbs III -- the best prospect returned in the Rafael Devers trade -- at the trade deadline in the deal for Dustin May. Garcia, however, was (surprisingly) kept in the organization, and now Red Sox fans will have a chance to see why the franchise thinks so highly of the 22-year-old Venezuelan.
He's more or less had a gradual rise since signing as an amateur free agent in 2019, first making his debut in the organization in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down all minor league activity during the 2020 calendar year. He walked more than he struck out during his 45-game debut in the DSL as an 18-year-old, and he took off from there, ascending at least one level each year before his Double-A to MLB rise this season.
Across his 99 games and 433 plate appearances with the WooSox and Sea Dogs this season, Garcia is slashing .289/.363/.512 with 20 home runs and 71 RBIs, as well as a 9.9% walk rate and 25.4% strikeout rate, all totaling up to a 133 wRC+. He was actually better in Triple-A than Double-A, hitting nearly six times as many homers in just twice as many games. His wRC+ (+23), wOBA (+0.056), and ISO (+0.124) all saw significant spikes after he got his promotion to Worcester.
He's worked hard on his plate approach, going from a 54.3% swing percentage in the DSL to a 48.5% swing rate during his stint in Triple-A. While that's helped him maintain strong walk rates, his contact skills are still a big question mark. He whiffs a whopping 33.4% of the time, which has led to a really bad 75.2% in-zone contact rate (i.e., the tenth-percentile among all Triple-A hitters, per TJStats). He also swings a bunch at pitches outside the zone, which, in conjunction with his low overall swing rate, means he watches a bunch of strikes.
There's a balance to be had with his patience, which seems more born out of a desire to work counts than an actually discerning eye at the plate. Nevertheless, this approach makes Garcia a bit of an old-school slugger, the likes of which the Red Sox don't really have in the outfield currently (Roman Anthony somewhat fits that profile, but he's so good at everything that he hardly qualifies for the same distinction). He pulls the ball in the air quite often (18.3% of batted ball events), which will obviously play at Fenway Park for a right-handed hitter. He's also elite in terms of barreling the ball (12.0%), which means he's hitting fly balls at ideal launch angles more often than most.
What this all translates to is a guy who should feast at Fenway... if he can limit his bad swings. His gap between his 90th-percentile exit velocity (106.1 mph) and average exit velocity (86.8 mph) is huge, a result of his inability to lay off of pitches outside the zone. That's something that can hopefully be fixed with many reps against the best pitchers in the world, but there have been a lot of exceptionally talented players who haven't been able to clear that hurdle.
With Devers long gone, Garcia instantly becomes the biggest 30-homer threat on the roster, besides maybe Alex Bregman and Anthony. That kind of power is important to have, especially when the only player on the team with more than 20 home runs this season (Abreu) is the player Garcia is effectively replacing. Though this will likely just be a cup of coffee until Abreu is healthy again, Garcia has a chance to prove his worth to the Red Sox, even in the league's most crowded outfield picture.
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now