Garcia was highly effective out of bullpen ... except for few blowups

PLAYER REVIEW: ROBERT GARCIA

Age on Opening Day 2025: 28

How acquired: Claimed off waivers from Marlins, August 2023

MLB service time: 1 year, 86 days

2024 salary: $742,800

Contract status: Under club control, arbitration-eligible in 2027, free agent in 2030

2024 stats: 3-6, 4.22 ERA, 72 G, 0 SV, 59.2 IP, 55 H, 34 R, 28 ER, 4 HR, 16 BB, 75 SO, 1 HBP, 1.190 WHIP, 96 ERA+, 2.38 FIP, -0.2 bWAR, 1.5 fWAR

Quotable: “As a lefty, sometimes people will view you only as a left-on-left guy. And I feel like for me, that’s not how my stuff works. I have really good stuff. I’m confident in myself on both sides of the plate. My best pitch is my changeup. So when righties are in the box, I feel just as comfortable as if there’s a lefty up there. That’s where I want to be in my career.” – Robert Garcia

2024 analysis: The Nationals liked Robert Garcia from the outset, believing he had the combination of stuff and durability to become a mainstay in their bullpen. They wound up making him the only left-handed reliever on their Opening Day roster, and that remained the case throughout the season’s first half.

Those circumstances led to a ton of appearances for Garcia; he pitched in 41 games prior to the All-Star break. But that also meant he was called upon a lot, pretty much any time there was a situation of consequence and at least one or more left-handed hitters due up for the opposition. Perhaps the most telling stat: Garcia had a 9.00 ERA when pitching for the second day in a row, compared with 2.32 in all other situations.

By the time the second half arrived, the Nats activated Jose A. Ferrer off the 60-day injured list. They also called up Joe La Sorsa, giving the team three lefties for an extended stretch. That allowed Davey Martinez to back off Garcia somewhat while also picking the most advantageous situations in which to utilize him. He delivered a 3.06 ERA over his final 36 games, pitching on zero days rest only eight times after the All-Star break.

2025 outlook: Garcia appears to be here to stay, and given his low salary and three remaining options, there’s no reason for the Nationals to part ways with him any time soon. Ferrer probably has the higher ceiling as a potential high-leverage left-hander, but Garcia has shown durability and that will continue to make him a valuable member of the bullpen.

With multiple lefties on the staff, manager Davey Martinez should be able to minimize those back-to-back appearances like he did during the later stages of this season. Martinez doesn’t have to view Garcia strictly as a left-handed specialist. Though he was better against lefties this year (.226/.291/.301), his numbers against righties were solid as well (.245/.286/.338). That’s in large part because of his changeup, which he only threw to righties and only produced one extra-base hit while inducing an impressive 37.2 percent whiff rate. That pitch is a big-time equalizer for him.

Pretty much every peripheral stat makes Garcia look really good. He ranked in the top-10 percentile among all pitchers in strikeout rate, hard hit percentage and expected ERA. He generates a lot of ground balls (47.2 percent), not a lot of fly balls (17 percent) and strikes out more than 11 batters per nine innings while walking only 2.4.

So why weren’t his season totals better? It may boil down to a handful of really bad outing he suffered. Twenty-two of the 34 runs he surrendered this season came in only eight of his 72 appearances. Opponents had an .895 OPS against him with runners in scoring position, 1.077 with two outs and runners in scoring position. If he can find a way to stop the bleeding when things are starting to head south, he could avoid those few blowups and really put together some impressive numbers over a full season.