Inconsistent in the Minors, Deivi García Gets a Big-League Audition

New York Yankees prospect Deivi Garcia will start against the Detroit Tigers, a test to see if Garcia can fill in for Corey Kluber in the starting rotation

Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Deivi García will make his second big-league start of the season on Saturday, his readiness be damned.

The Yankees’ No. 2 pitching prospect has been inconsistent at Triple-A, sandwiching a pair of dazzling performances between two outings in which he couldn’t find the plate. 

García was electric on May 11 and 16, totaling 16 strikeouts and just two walks over 10 scoreless frames. But the righty allowed a combined nine earned runs and issued 10 walks over 5.2 innings in his starts on May 5 and 22.

He heads to Detroit with a 5.74 ERA and 17.4% walk rate at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“The reports are he’s had two really dynamic starts where it’s been heavy strikeouts and pretty dominating performances, and two where he struggled a little bit,” Aaron Boone said this week when he revealed García would get a rotation audition.

García’s other MLB start came on April 26. He surrendered two earned runs and three walks over four innings in a loss to the Orioles.

Date	Level	Team	Opponent	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	Pitches	Strikes
4/26/21	MLB	Yankees	at Baltimore Orioles	4	3	2	3	4	1	0	65	40
5/6/21	AAA	RailRiders	at Syracuse Mets	3.1	3	5	7	3	1	1	70	32
5/11/21	AAA	RailRiders	Lehigh Valley IronPigs	5	3	0	1	7	0	0	82	49
5/16/21	AAA	RailRiders	Lehigh Valley IronPigs	5	2	0	1	9	0	0	86	52
5/22/21	AAA	RailRiders	at Rochester Red Wings	2.1	5	4	3	2	1	0	75	41

The five-game sample above isn’t exactly large, but García has had a tendency to lose the zone at times throughout his professional career. To the Yankees’ delight, that wasn’t the case last year when he made six major league starts at the end of the 2020 season and walked 4.1 percent of the batters he faced. That stretch aside, García’s minor league walk rate has typically hovered around 11 percent since 2018. It’s shot up this season, though 10 of his 12 minor league walks came over two starts.

Ideally, García would spend some more time in the minors, but the Yankees’ schedule and Corey Kluber’s strained subscapularis muscle have dictated otherwise.

Despite García’s mixed bag of minor league starts, Boone was planning on the 22-year-old pitching in Detroit before Kluber’s injury. With 13 games in as many days, the Yankees were set on going with a six-man rotation for a turn. With Kluber now out for roughly eight weeks, however, García has a chance to stick around.

He has competition for the open rotation job, though.

Right-hander Michael King is expected to pitch in a lengthy role on Sunday. Boone said he’s not quite stretched out as a starter yet this year, but he’s been one most of his minor league career and has pitched exclusively as a multi-inning reliever in the majors this season. King has thrown as many as six frames in relief, but that was in his first appearance on April 4. His three most recent outings have ranged from 2-3 innings and 33-54 pitches, hence the part about not being built up.

King has a 2.29 ERA over 19.2 innings—the same number of innings García has thrown—this season. If the 26-year-old has a better weekend than García, King could force the Yankees to pick him for Kluber’s spot in the rotation. At the very least, they’d have to consider stretching him out so that he could handle the job in the near future.

But if García can put his minor league inconsistencies, particularly his control issues, behind him, it sounds like he’ll get more shots in the majors.

“Obviously this creates an opening and an opportunity, and he’s going to get some chances and some looks here and hopefully he can capitalize on those,” Boone said. “Those opportunities are coming.”

MORE:

• MLB Insider Says Yankees Should Target These Three Outfielders Before Trade Deadline
• Aaron Boone Still Has Confidence in Justin Wilson Despite Rough Start to Season
• Yankees Send Prospect Back to Triple-A After Making Another Good Impression

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