The Milwaukee Brewers have signed outfielder Avisail Garcia of Anaco, Venezuela from the Tampa Bay Rays. The terms of the deal are for two years and $20 million.
Garcia batted .282 with 20 home runs and 72 runs batted in with the Rays in 2019. In 489 at bats, he had 61 runs, 138 hits, 25 doubles, two triples, 10 stolen bases, 31 walks, 227 total bases and three sacrifice flies. Garcia also had a .332 on base percentage and a .464 slugging percentage. In 2019, Garcia reached career highs in home runs and stolen bases.
The Brewers become Garcia’s fourth Major League Baseball team. In addition to the Rays, he has played for the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox.
Garcia’s finest Major League Baseball season was in 2017 when he represented the White Sox and the American League at the All-Star Game in Miami. That year he had a career high batting average of .330, 18 home runs and a career high of 80 runs batted in. Garcia also had career highs in 2017 in runs (75), hits (171), doubles (27), triples (five), on base percentage (.380), slugging percentage (.506), and total bases (262).
At 28 years old, Garcia plays primarily right field, bats right and throws right. However, in Milwaukee, Christian Yelich is the primary right fielder and Lorenzo Cain is the primary center fielder. Cain played 134 games in center field and Yelich, the 2018 National League most valuable player, played 122 games in right field.
What appears to be the most likely possibility in Milwaukee is that six-time all-star, 2007 rookie of the year winner and 2011 National League most valuable player winner Ryan Braun of Mission Hills, CA will make the transition from left field to first base, so Garcia remains in the outfield and the Brewers can utilize his bat. However it appears that the Brewers are not comfortable of giving Braun the first base job everyday in 2020 with Milwaukee, which will probably cut into Garcia’s playing time.
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