The New York Yankees might not have another prospect that draws as much debate as Deivi Garcia. The 20 year old pitcher has awed some people into believing he is going to be the next Pedro Martinez while he’s left others believing he’s a little overrated. Personally, I think he is a little overrated. However, let me be clear about something, Deivi Garcia is an extremely talented pitcher. He’s got a fastball that sits in the mid 90’s and he has one of the best curveballs in the minors. His curve has so much spin that it actually causes him to have some control issues from time to time. Garcia strikeouts a ton of batters never having a K/9 lower than 11.4 in his minor league career.
Causes for concern
One of the biggest drawbacks to Garcia is his lack of a third option. His changeup is coming along, but many scouts wonder if it’ll ever be even an average big league pitch. Another big drawback to Garcia is his size. Garcia is generously billed at 5’9 and weighs about 165 lbs soaking wet. His very small stature is causing a lot of scouts to pause on his potential fearing he doesn’t have the physical makeup to be a starter long-term. I tend to agree with that assertion. Does that mean that I want Deivi Garcia to be used as a trade chip? No, it doesn’t mean that at all. I just think the expectations for Garcia’s MLB impact need to be changed. Let’s start considering him as a top bullpen option and not a starter.
Pen potential
Deivi Garcia has electric stuff that will play great out of the bullpen. If the Yankees decided to transition Garcia to the bullpen, they wouldn’t even have to worry about the development of his third pitch. When you’re pitching out of the pen, you can focus on just letting your best two pitches fly. Of all the best relievers in baseball, very few throw more than two pitches. Hell, the greatest of all time only threw one pitch. Garcia’s fastball-curveball combination would be dynamite out of the pen. A lot of people (including myself) wanted the Yankees to look at trading Garcia for Josh Hader this offseason. However, my devil’s advocate argument for keeping Garcia is that he could develop into one of the best relievers in the sport if that’s the path that the Yankees go down. To me, they should start focusing their attention on making him a bullpen arm. There has already been rumblings that he will be called up to the show at some point in 2020. Barring a ton of injuries, I can’t see him being called up as a starter.
Crowded Rotation
The Yankees rotation is in very good shape right now. Cole and Severino are locked in the top two spots for at least the next three seasons. The Yankees will likely bring back one of if not both Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton after the 2020 season. The Yankees have an 18 game winner in Domingo German who expects to be a rotation piece moving forward, and the Yankees also have the big lefty, Jordan Montgomery, who is competing for a rotation spot. Along with those guys, the Yankees new top pitching prospect, Clarke Schmidt, projects to compete for a spot in the rotation over the next couple of seasons. Simply put, the Yankees rotation is crowded moving forward. With all these options, the Yankees should switch Garcia to the pen now instead of him getting lost in the weeds and diminishing his value. If he comes up and is lights out from the bullpen, the Yankees would then have a key pen piece for years to come which would allow them to say goodbye to some expensive bullpen pieces without skipping a beat. I’m warm on Garcia’s potential as a starter. I’m piping hot on his potential as a reliever for the Yankees moving forward. If the Yankees decide to transition him to the bullpen, I don’t think they will regret it.