The Phillies have agreed to a one-year take care of free agent outfielder Adolis Garcia, reviews Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. It’s nonetheless pending a bodily. He’ll earn a assured $10MM on the contract, per the report. Garcia is represented by Octagon.
Garcia was non-tendered by the Rangers final month. He’d been projected for a $12.1MM wage in 2026, his closing 12 months of arbitration, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Texas, seeking to minimize payroll and reshape an offense that had grow to be to free-swinging and liable to low on-base percentages, moved on from Garcia moderately than deliver him again at that value.
Again in 2023, Garcia was a focus within the offense that fueled the Rangers’ first-ever World Sequence title. He bashed 39 homers whereas hitting .245/.328/.508 with plus protection in proper subject. That alone made him one of many shrewdest DFA pickups in latest reminiscence, but it surely didn’t set the stage for him to emerge as a core piece like many anticipated on the time. His 2024 numbers took a significant step again (.224/.284/.400), and in 2025 he slashed simply .227/.271/.394. More and more, Garcia grew to become emblematic of the boom-or-bust method the Rangers had been attempting to flee.
Garcia, 33 in March, nonetheless makes thunderous contact when he connects with the ball, averaging 92.1 mph off the bat and logging a stout 46.7% hard-hit price. Nevertheless, his chase price on pitches off the plate has spiked from 29.5% in 2023 to 35.1% in 2025. His general contact price in ’25 sat about 5 proportion factors shy of league-average, and his 79.5% contact price on pitches throughout the zone is six proportion factors shy of common. Swinging via a bit multiple of each 5 choices throughout the strike zone is nothing new for Garcia, however that flaw has been compounded by the way by which he has more and more expanded the proportion of pitches at which he’s prepared to swing.
The Phillies will hope for a return to that 2023 kind — or at the least one thing nearer to that manufacturing than Garcia’s 2024-25 numbers. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reviews that he’ll slot in because the Phillies’ new major proper fielder. That’s a task beforehand held by Nick Castellanos, whom the Phils have been hoping to commerce all through the offseason. Castellanos is owed $20MM subsequent season within the closing 12 months of a five-year, $100MM contract that hasn’t in any respect gone because the Phillies hoped. That was by no means more true than in 2025, when Castellanos slashed a career-worst .250/.294/.400 and was valued under substitute stage per each FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference attributable to these mild price stats and his poor protection within the outfield.
If nothing else, Garcia represents an enormous defensive improve over Castellanos, who has lengthy been considered as a participant greatest suited to DH-only work. Garcia has posted sturdy defensive grades in each season besides 2024. His poor defensive grades that season might be tied to a knee harm suffered late in 2023, when Garcia hit the injured listing with a strained patellar tendon. He returned from that harm and was a power on the plate within the postseason, however Garcia’s dash velocity (per Statcast) was a career-low in 2024. It bounced again a bit in 2025, albeit not all the way in which to its earlier ranges.
Nonetheless, Statcast painted the explanation for Garcia’s 2024 downturn in protection as a significant lack of vary — his arm was nonetheless plus — which bounced again in ’25. It’s cheap to count on the previous Gold Glove winner to offer above-average, if not plus protection. In comparison with Castellanos, who was dinged for -11 Defensive Runs Saved final 12 months, Garcia’s mark of +16 in that very same class is a mammoth enchancment.
Extra to return.
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