The Kansas City Royals have seen their fair share of award love this offseason, largely thanks to Bobby Witt Jr. collecting precious metals like he works in the mining industry after winning both Gold and Platinum Gloves as well as a Silver Slugger Award.
However, Witt wasn’t the only Royals All-Star that seemed poised to receive his time in the award limelight.
While no one was expecting him to be among those with a top shot at winning MVP, Maikel Garcia seemed like a shoo-in to take home honors like a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger or even All-MLB Team recognition.
But after Thursday night, awards season came and went, and all Garcia could say he came out with was a Gold Glove – hardly the type of recognition many thought he could receive after a 5.6 fWAR season.
And at the 2025 MLB Awards Show, much like after the Silver Slugger announcements last week, Royals fans were left with the same feeling of wondering why Garcia was not among those to receive All-MLB honors.
Royals’ Maikel Garcia gets snubbed once again after All-MLB Team omission
Now, there was no denying that Guardians superstar José Ramírez was the rightful name to occupy First Team honors at third base, but it seemed like there was no better name to grab that Second Team spot than Garcia.
His well rounded game placed him second to only Ramírez in fWAR among primary third baseman this year. He also sat second in AVG, OBP and stolen bases while sitting top five in OPS, RBI, K%, BB% and wRC+.
Then, on the defensive side of things, he was the AL Gold Glove winner at third for a reason. His 18 OAA and 13 DRS trailed only Cincinnati’s Ke’Bryan Hayes at the position.
So, given all this, why was Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero the All-MLB Second Team third baseman and not Garcia?
At first glance, it’s easy to see that Caminero had the run production and power advantage over Garcia, as his 45 HR far surpassed Garcia’s 16, his 110 RBI were much higher than his counterpart’s 74 and .535 SLG was far superior to Garcia’s .449 clip.
However Garcia’s superior contact ability and plate discipline really made up for his power and run production “shortcomings”, as his 121 wRC+ was only a mere eight points off Caminero’s 129 mark.
And when you consider just how much better Garcia was on defense – Caminero posted a -3 OAA and -5 DRS – it becomes clear why he was a whole 1.0 fWAR better.
Caminero might be the flashier name that rose up to the majors with extreme prospect pedigree, but when you weigh out everything statistically, it seems clear as day that Garcia was the second best third baseman in baseball in 2025.
Unfortunately though, it seems history won’t remember him that way. Instead the Royals faithful will have to forever wonder what more could have Garcia done to get the league-wide respect he so clearly deserved in 2025.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
