Deivi Garcia struggled in his last spring training outing and was optioned to Triple-A earlier this week, but the coveted pitching prospect still feels he turned in a strong camp before losing the fifth starter spot to Domingo German.
“Not disappointed, more that I tried to take it as normally as I could,” Garcia said through his interpreter during a Zoom call with reporters on Saturday. “I understood coming into the camp, with more knowledge overall that I had a better camp this year than last year. Overall it was a good camp for me.”
Garcia pitched to a 3.86 ERA over 14 innings this spring, allowing twelve hits, four of them home runs, with two of those long balls coming in his last start against the Blue Jays. Meanwhile, German hasn’t allowed a run in nine innings of work, leaving the Yanks to go with German to round out the rotation.
Aaron Boone mentioned a potential tweak in Garcia’s delivery that could have affected his most recent outing, which Garcia plans to address in Scranton.
“I believe it’s an easy fix for me,” Garcia said. “I kind of went through something very similar before I got called up last year and was able to make the adjustment. I think that’s one of the reasons why I got called up. I joined the team last year and got good results, so I’m confident I can make that adjustment.”
While Garcia believes the fix should be a simple one, discovering that a change actually needs to be made is much trickier after falling into a harmful routine.
“That’s the tricky part about it,” Garcia said. “Sometimes when you’re doing something mechanically you feel right…but you can’t tell. So once they point it out to you that you’re doing certain things, that’s when you look into it and make the adjustment. Maybe that was the reason I was taking longer to put away guys with two strikes. It’s definitely something to keep in mind.”
Garcia was a contributor for the Yanks in 2020, even starting a postseason game, and the 21-year-old believes he will see the majors again at some point this season. Given the plethora of recent injury history within the current rotation, Garcia very well could get another chance.
“I’m the type of person that wants to stay positive and keep a positive mind,” Garcia said. “Keep doing my work and stay healthy. Another opportunity is going to come just like last year. It’s up to me to stay with my work and doing what I need to do, and hopefully that opportunity will come around again.”
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