Adonis Garcia

Garcia is a tough one to figure out. He hit 14 homers despite a 2.0 groundball-to-flyball ratio and did not have an abnormally high HR/FB rate. He hit 12 of his 14 homers against righties but hit 40 points higher against lefties. He turns 32 just after the start of the season, so it would be easy to write him off, but the .293/.333/.456 triple-slash line in the second half suggests there is some upside if everything breaks right for Garcia. If not, he becomes yet another free-swinging corner guy without enough power who is relegated to the bench for someone younger such as Rio Ruiz. Garcia was a nice find on the cheap for Atlanta and he served his purpose for the season, but it is hard to imagine another step up for him statistically given the lack of any indicators at earlier levels.

The 2015 season saw a few players come out of nowhere to have production in a small sample size. Joey Butler did it for Tampa Bay and Garcia did it for Atlanta late in the season. Garcia had a track record in the minors as a free swinger without much power, having hit a career-best nine homers in 368 plate appearances for the Yankees Triple-A affiliate in 2014. He hit three long balls in 350 plate appearances for Triple-A Gwinnett before coming up to hit 10 in under 200 plate appearances at the big league level along with a .277/.293/.497 slash line. He was able to do that thanks to an improbable 21.7% HR/FB rate that is completely unsustainable for most players, let alone a nondescript one such as Garcia. He turns 31 at the start of the season, but even if he was younger, this isn’t a skill set to get excited about. Playing time should be easy to come by in Atlanta, but he should still be waiver wire fodder in most formats.