Player of the Week: Maikel Garcia

An ascendant player

Maikel Garcia has always looked the part of a potential future star. He broke into the big leagues as a 22-year-old and showed off an impressive array of athletic tools, but putting them together has been a journey. This year, the proverbial LEGO set has clicked into place, and Garcia again wins Player of the Week honors.

Like, if I had told you that through 38 games Garcia had been having a better offensive season than Bobby Witt Jr., you would be alarmed at what that meant about Witt. But no; it’s just been a testament to Garcia’s excellence so far this year. Over the last seven games, Garcia has gone nuclear, hitting .458/.552/.833 and hitting a pair of home runs. During that time, he has five walks against only two strikeouts.

Garcia has also shown exemplary flexibility. He’s played third base, second base, and center field so far this year. After some time further down in the lineup, Garcia has hit in the leadoff spot, in the third spot, and in the cleanup spot in the lineup. Garcia’s improvements have been seen everywhere in his game.

If there is any downside to Garcia’s game so far, it has been a confounding lack of success on the bases. Last year, Garcia stole 37 bases on 39 attempts. This year, he’s only stolen nine bases on 14 attempts—not great. He’s also been picked off more than once from some extreme aggression. But he’s still on track to match last year’s steal totals, and he has been better as of late.

If Garcia keeps playing like this, he could play his way into an All-Star Game. I’m hoping he does—that would be great for him and great for Kansas City.