In the seventh round of the 2010 MLB Amateur Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals drafted a played by the name of Greg Garcia. It took four years, but on April 28th, 2014, the 24-year old Garcia had finally made his debut in the big leagues.
Fast forward to 2016, and the now 26-year old is in the midst of his third season with the organization.
This season, he is batting .615, and was just recently called back up to the roster after the Cardinals placed third baseman Matt Carpenter on paternity leave to be with his wife and newborn child.
On Friday night, Garcia hit a solo home run, his second of the season, to make it a 6-2 game in the Cardinals favor.
The question that now arises is: what happens next?
Will Garcia remain on the main roster even after Carpenter returns?
“We’ll see what happens,” Garcia said hopefully.
His primary competition on the bench is the Cardinals’ free agent acquisition, Ruben Tejada. Tejada, however, has struggled at the plate this season, with only six hits in 34 at-bats, two of them for extra bases, and a mere .176 batting average. He has also appeared in more games (23), than Garcia has (10), despite his poor performance.
However, Garcia understands that it’s a business, and the stakes are high, especially on him.
“You want to establish yourself, right? There’s a lot of pressure on that,” Garcia said. “You put a lot of pressure on yourself as a young player. You want to prove to the guy next to you that you belong up here and to yourself, too. I was able to have success playing in that kind of pressure, but it’s nice to just kind of play this game just like it was a backyard game.”
After the Cardinals 6-2 win, Nationals manager Dusty Baker also had praise for Garcia.
“What felled us was not only that one inning, but the third baseman Garcia made some tremendous plays,” Baker told reporters. “That saved a couple of runs.”
The Cardinals have (statistically) one of the worst infields in baseball thus far, and neither Tejada or Garcia has really done much to remedy that situation. It is highly unlikely Cardinals GM John Mozeliak would send down rookies Jeremy Hazelbaker and/or Aledmys Diaz, especially considering their outstanding starts to the season, so the debate really stands between Tejada or Garcia.
So the main question is: has Garcia earned a spot on the main roster? Or should Tejada remain in his place?
