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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n