Deivi has attracted a lot of attention from the media in the few days he’s been in Tampa. Garcia is known as a strikeout machine as he struck out 165 batters in just 111 innings this past season. With his swift progress last year, he can smell the majors getting closer.
“Of course, I would love to contribute, right, in some way. It’s always — you understand that you’re getting closer.†Garcia said. “Being here, I have an opportunity to learn a lot from all the veterans in this room, that’s something that I want to do,†All of Garcia’s comments are translated by the Yankee’s Dominican born translator Abreu.
Manager Aaron Boone and the coaches will be observing Deivi as the spring training season progresses, mainly because of how fast he has advanced in the minors, last year he advanced from the AA Trenton Thunder to the AAA Scranton Wilkes/Barre Rail Riders. It was previously thought that he might make his major league debut sometime this year, but now with the loss of Luis Servino, that might happen earlier according to how he performs in spring training.
Another possibility to fill that fifth spot is Clarke Schmidt, who has already impressed in spring training. Schmidt is another Tommy John veteran, having the surgery in 2017. The Yankees drafted him in the first round in 2017 after the South Carolina 21-year-old had a great year with the Gamecocks. Schmidt threw 111.1 innings showing off better than average strikeout stuff. The Yankees, due to his rehab from TJS, have taken it cautiously with Schmidt. Even so, he has progressed nicely. The 24-year-old still has to prove that he can continue to expand his innings limit, with an injury-free season. The Yankees have been looking at pushing him to 140 innings this year at Scranton. But again now, with the major league starting rotation in flux, due to injuries, they may push him even harder. It is not out of the question that Stadium will see both of these budding stars at some point during the season.
With one spot in the rotation seemingly up for grabs, don’t be surprised if either of these two bright prospects shows up to fill the void. Especially if there are injuries to Jonathan Loaisiga or Micheal King or even Masahiro Tanaka, who has been dealing with a partially torn UCL for the past few years. Tanaka chose rehab rather than surgery. The Yankees certainly hope this is the last bad news they will receive on the injury front.