ABQ
Luis Garcia (HOU), P
Edit player ✎
FanGraphs →
MLB →
Scouting report
Of the many hard-throwing young 20-somethings who occupied the thick middle of this list a few years ago, Garcia is the one whose touch-and-feel command really emerged. He's now a lock to remain a starter and will likely play an integral role in Houston's rotation going forward. During the course of a start, he'll typically sit in the 90-94 range and touch as high as 96 while working an awful lot to his glove side with the heater and his two very distinct breaking balls. Both Garcia's slider/cutter and curveball are average, though his slider has a little more lateral movement than it did in 2020, so maybe that pitch is above now. It's his tailing mid-80s changeup that has the nastiest action, and the best chance to finish big league hitters. Garcia was a 32% strikeout, 11% walk rate guy in the minors, including his most recent full season in 2019, the only time in his pro career he's exceeded 100 innings. He no longer looks like the sort of pitcher who'll produce peripherals like that over a full season and I'd expect both of those rate stats to fall. The lack of a short- and long-term workload track record and the leap Garcia might be asked to make in a rotation coming off a short 2020 create some extra volatility here, but Garcia's arm action is so loose and his lower half is so robust and strong that it might be less of an issue for him than it would be for others. He projects as a big-league ready No. 4/5 starter who'll produce in the 1.5 to 2 WAR range. (Alternate site, MLB)