Dragons on Deck: Jose Garcia
Position: ShortstopGarcia is currently ranked as the Cincinnati Reds #9 prospect by MLBPipeline.com. He was signed by the Reds as an international free agent in 2017. Garcia is a native of Cuba.
Position: Shortstop
Garcia is currently ranked as the Cincinnati Reds #9 prospect by MLBPipeline.com. He was signed by the Reds as an international free agent in 2017. Garcia is a native of Cuba.
2019 Season: After spending the 2018 season in Dayton, Garcia moved up one level in the Reds organization in 2019 with Daytona in the Florida State League. He missed the first three weeks of the Tortugas season, but once he got on the field, he turned in an outstanding year. At the age of 21, Garcia batted .280 with eight home runs, 37 doubles, 15 stolen bases, and a .436 slugging percentage. He was rated by Baseball America as the Reds top prospect on the Daytona team and one of the top 20 prospects in the league. He had a tremendous final third of the season, just as he had with the Dragons the previous year. Over his last 35 games from July 19 through the end of the season, he batted .341 with a .504 slugging percentage and an OPS of .895.
With the Dragons: Garcia and
Outlook: Garcia's arrow is clearly pointing up as a prospect. In fact, of all players who finished the 2019 season in the Reds minor league system, Garcia might have improved his prospect status the most over the course of the year. He will likely appear in the Reds top-5 on some prospect lists heading into 2020, when he is expected to move up to Double-A Chattanooga.
Fun Facts: Garcia tied a Dragons club record for most hits in a game with five on July 20, 2018, becoming the ninth player in Dragons history to do so. Among the other former Dragons to collect five hits in a game are Austin Kearns (2000),
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