Coming into the 2025 season, I considered myself rather bullish on Maikel Garcia. Royals fans and analysts were mixed on Garcia and understandably so. After an imperfect but promising 2023 campaign, Garcia had a disappointing 2024 at the plate, hitting 31% below league-average. Consequently, he was not given a guaranteed lineup spot heading into this year. Jonathan India, Michael Massey and Garcia were all trying to secure their spot as an everyday hitter. Someone was going to end up at second base, someone else was going to end up at third base and someone else was going to split time between the outfield and the infield in a super utility sort of role.
Plenty of people were advocating for Garcia to be given the super utility role, and it was an understandable position. Garcia looked like he had the tools to be a right-handed compliment to Kyle Isbel in center field, and you would not have been considered crazy if you thought he would be the worst hitter of the three. I was in the camp that Garcia should play third, and one of India and Massey should play left and the other should play second. Even in the midst of a down 2024 season, Garcia made a lot of contact, just hit way too many groundballs. In general, I like betting on guys who show some plate discipline skills and make a lot of contact, which Garcia did. In an article before the season, I wrote:
If Garcia can raise his average launch angle closer to the 10 degree mark, which MLB defines as the lowest line-drive launch angle, instead of the 6.41 mark that he had last year, he could really take a step forward as a hitter.
This season ended up being multiple steps forward for Garcia at the plate. He hit .286/.351/.449, good for an aesthetically pleasing .800 OPS. Garcia hit the ball in the air more, finishing with a 9.7 average launch angle. I think that is a perfect average launch angle for him. He needed to adjust his naturally level and line drive swing to get more consistent air, but didn’t need to go hunting for flyballs and home runs all the time (Vinnie Pasquantino had a 16.3 average launch angle this year, for comparison). I may have been bullish on Garcia but I was hoping for a 100 wRC+ hitter, not the 121 that we were fortunate to watch play in 2025.
I appreciated watching Garcia at the plate this year. He consistently made good swing decisions at the plate. His chase rate according to Statcast was only 20.8%, good for 91st percentile in MLB and second on the team behind India. He was also consistent throughout the year – he had an above-average OPS for every month of the season except for September. Garcia brought stability and consistent performance to a lineup that was desperate for those all season. He also was a solid right-handed bat in a lineup that was long on left-handed hitters, particularly toward the end of the year.
Garcia talked to Anne Rogers before the season about the adjustments that he was trying to make to be a better hitter, stating:
“It’s more about controlling my body,” Garcia said. “Don’t go too far forward to get to the ball. Wait for the ball. That’s the adjustment I tried to make.”
His adjustments made a huge difference this season. I was watching random videos of Garcia on Baseball Savant (extremely addicting) to prep for this article and came across this at-bat in September that I think is illustrative of the main adjustment that Garcia made at the plate. He’s facing Mitch Faris, and has already fouled off three pitches in the at-bat. He’s down 1-2, when Faris delivers a good but not great breaking ball. Garcia waits, keeps his body under control and elevates the ball just enough to get it into the outfield:
Last year, Garcia is rolling over on this ball and it ends up as another groundout. In 2025 though, Garcia gets on base and keeps the pressure on the Angels pitching.
Garcia also took a step forward in the field, locking down third base and quickly securing his everyday spot in the lineup at a consistent defensive position. Garcia finished as the second best fielding third baseman in all of baseball, behind only perennial defensive standout Ke’Brayan Hayes. He was by far the best fielding third baseman in the American League and should win the first Gold Glove of his career when those awards are announced. He also made his first All-Star team this year as an injury replacement for Brandon Lowe.
The only area of his game where he took a step back was base running. After being 8.1 runs above average according to Fangraphs on the bases in 2024, he took a step back this year and was only 1.1 runs above average. He still did an above-average job of taking the extra base when base running, but really struggled with getting caught stealing. After swiping 37 bags with only 2 caught stealings in 2024, he stole 23 bags and was caught 9 times in 2025. I think teams were paying him a lot more attention this season on the base paths. He had 10 stolen bases to 7 caught stealings in the first two months of the year, but made adjustments with his stealing frequency and was only caught twice the remaining four months of the season.
Taken as a whole, however, Garcia had a wildly successful year, posting a 5.6 fWAR, the second best mark on the team. His success looked sustainable and repeatable throughout the season, and I expect that to continue into next year. My hope is that the Royals can get Garcia extended at a fair number, and we can watch an exciting left side of the infield for years to come. Regardless, watching Maikel Garcia this season was one of the best parts of following the Royals in 2025.
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