photo: Adolis Garcia (Scott Rovak/USA TODAY Sports)
St. Louis Cardinals press release
The St. Louis Cardinals announced prior to tonight’s series opener in Miami that they have purchased the contract of rookie outfielder Adolis (ah-DOLE-lees) Garcia from Memphis (AAA), and placed rookie outfielder Tyler O’Neill on the 10-day disabled list (inflammation of the groin area), retroactive to August 4.
García, 25, a minor league free agent signing out of Ciego de Avila, Cuba, in February of 2017, is batting .269 (94-for-350) with 21 HR and 67 RBI in 98 games this season for the first-place Redbirds, ranking 6th in the Pacific Coast League in home runs, T4th in extra-base hits (47), 7th in slugging percentage (.531) and total bases (186), and T9th in RBI.
The red-hot García is the most recent recipient of the PCL Player of the Week and Cardinals Minor League Player of the Month awards.
With his first game appearance, García, who has been assigned uniform no. 28, will become the seventh player to make his Major League debut for the Cardinals this season, joining Jordan Hicks, Yario Muñoz, Tyler O’Neill, Austin Gomber, Daniel Poncedeleon, and Dakota Hudson.
O’Neill has appeared in 23 games for St. Louis during his Major League debut season, batting .309 (17-for-55) with three home runs and nine RBI. Since his most recent recall on July 31, the Canadian outfielder has hit safely in all four games (.636, 7-11).
Brian Walton’s take
Unfortunately for him, O’Neill just cannot seem to stay healthy long enough to make his expected MLB impact.
https://twitter.com/JoeTrezz/status/1026566532615335937
From this, whatever it is, comes opportunity for Garcia, who as noted above, had an even better July than O’Neill, and was also named The Cardinal Nation Player of the Month ahead of 14 honorable mentions. And on Monday afternoon, he picked up Pacific Coast League Player of the Month honors for July, as well.
Garcia had a good spring in MLB camp, but struggled in April and especially May (.145 BA) before improving in June and hitting another gear entirely in July.
It will be interesting to see how many starts Garcia receives in his first time up with St. Louis. Even better than his power is his right arm, making him an ideal right field option to flank Harrison Bader in center.
With the addition of Garcia to the 40-man roster, it is now at full capacity. Memphis was not initially issued a replacement.
One downside of adding Garcia now, before it is required, is that one less 40-man roster spot is available for the pitchers coming off the 60-day DL, including Adam Wainwright and Dominic Leone. An alternative would have been to promote newly-acquired outfielder Justin Williams instead of Garcia, as the former is already on the 40-man.
With the expected activation of new reliever Tyson Ross on Tuesday, expect a current Cardinal pitcher to (re)join the Triple-A Redbirds.
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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.
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