On a Nationals club that has surged to the top of MLB’s scoring charts, Luis García Jr. has become the face of the whole thing.
The 26-year-old first baseman was in the middle of it again on Wednesday, when he drew “MVP” chants, flipped his bat toward the dugout, launched his career-high 20th home run and tapped his wrist to make his point: “It’s my time.”
That kind of moment would have sounded far-fetched not long ago. But García’s season has been built on a simple idea Washington has embraced across the roster: find the thing a player already does best, then push it hard.
For García, that means a rare blend of contact and impact. He has long been able to put the bat on the ball. This year, the Nationals have helped him turn that skill into damage, not just contact for contact’s sake.
“Usually it’s one or the other,” hitting coach Matt Borgschulte said. “He has both.
So I think he’s done a really good job of starting to leverage that. … He can take his good ‘A swing’ and not just try to put the ball in play.”
The results have been loud. Since May 24, García owns a 1.157 OPS, second best in MLB. Through Tuesday’s games, he was one of only six qualified hitters in the majors to whiff less than 20 percent of the time while hitting the ball hard at least 45 percent of the time.
The catch is that García still chases a lot. The other five hitters in that group swing at fewer than 30 percent of pitches outside the strike zone; García chases more than 40 percent of the time. Washington has mostly accepted that part of his game and focused on shaping it, keeping most of those swings aimed at the top of the zone, where he can still do real damage.
“It’s kind of funny,” Borgschulte said, noting that the team throws García a mix of pitch types in batting practice to preserve his elite bat-to-ball ability. “Every once in a while, somebody tries to get a fastball at the top by him. And I love to watch them try to do that, because it’s really, really challenging to do.”
That same philosophy shows up all over the lineup. Keibert Ruiz and CJ Abrams are elite pull-side hitters, and they are pulling the ball more.
James Wood has elite power and elite plate discipline, so he is waiting a little longer before he swings to unlock both. Curtis Mead has a disciplined approach when he’s getting steady playing time, and he is on track for a career best in games played, as well as walk and strikeout rates.
Washington has carried that mindset to the mound, too, even if the results haven’t matched the offense.
“(Someone) will come in here after getting beaten up a couple times and probably feel like he’s the worst pitcher in the league,” manager Blake Butera said. “And he’ll leave the room feeling like he’s the best reliever in baseball because of the way that (pitching coach Simon Mathews) will find something good in there to bring out.”
García’s breakout also traces back to the first day of spring training, when he looked around the Nationals’ complex, wondered if he had missed a transaction, and then realized a few 30-somethings walking up to him were the coaches.
First, he said with a grin and through an interpreter: “I realized they were the coaches.” Then came the second realization.
“The coaches would try and get to know you, try to talk to you, and immediately get that confidence in (you).”
That confidence has been obvious in the way García plays and carries himself. He dances in the clubhouse.
He flashes a big smile at Ruiz after drawing a walk, as the two keep a running competition to see who can draw more by season’s end. García leads that race, 14 to seven.
Teammates have also been teaching him and other Spanish-speaking players English slang, and they laugh when García, Ruiz or José Tena tries out a new phrase.
“He’s very unserious,” Wood said. “He keeps it light.”
Even with the production, the Nationals have not completely changed how they use him. They still often pinch hit for García when a left-handed pitcher enters, because they do not want to move away from what makes him special and want to keep giving Andrés Chaparro at-bats against lefties.
And as García keeps producing, another question hangs over all of it: whether he becomes a trade target, and whether Washington would listen. The offers might not be strong enough to matter, since most contenders already have their first base and designated hitter situations covered. The Nationals also like what Abimelec Ortiz has done at Triple-A Rochester, but there is no guarantee he could match the production of the longest-tenured National.
For now, García is doing something even bigger than filling a lineup spot. He has become a player the Nationals can count on.
In Other News...
Nationals Prospect Is Making This Decision Impossible To Ignore
Yohandy Morales has done enough at Triple-A to keep forcing the issue, and the numbers are starting to look like those of a hitter who is no longer just knocking on the door. The Nationals prospect is batting .303 with 21 home runs and a .930 OPS, production that stands out even with the usual caveats about contact rate and a ground-ball profile that still need watching.
What has made the conversation harder to ignore is that Morales has also shown signs of tightening up the parts of his game that had been holding him back. His recent strikeout rate has improved, his ball flight has trended in a better direction, and with his Rule 5 eligibility coming this offseason, Washington may soon have to decide how much longer it can keep waiting before making room for him. [Read more 🡒]
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Cosgrove is a recent pickup from the Astros and has barely had time to settle in with the organization, making just one appearance for Triple-A Rochester since arriving. With the roster picture changing quickly, Washington is giving itself another look at a pitcher it brought in to provide depth and flexibility as the bullpen keeps evolving. [Read more 🡒]
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The Nationals pitching pipeline took another turn this week, with the organization making a move that could ripple through the depth chart as the big league club keeps sorting out its relief picture. It comes against the backdrop of a busy minor league slate, where Rochester dropped a tight 8-7 game at Worcester, Harrisburg kept rolling with an 8-3 win over Erie, and Fredericksburg and the FCL Nationals also turned in wins that offered a snapshot of how much arms and bats are being tested across the system.
For Washington, the larger question is less about one box score than about how the club balances immediate needs with long-term depth. The minor league results show a system with some momentum in spots and some frustration in others, but the pitching shuffle is the part that matters most at the top level. However the next round of decisions plays out, it figures to say plenty about which arms the Nationals trust to help now and which ones they want to keep close for later. [Read more 🡒]