White Sox: Is Avisail Garcia Trade Bait or Will He Be Non-Tendered?
White Sox veteran outfielder battled various injuries during the 2018 season and never was able to regain same success from the previous year.
Avisail Garcia was unable to replicate his success from 2017 into the 2018 season for the White Sox. A year after having the best season of his young career, Garcia battled various injuries en route to some of the lowest offensive numbers he’s had in MLB.
In 2017, Garia hit a career-high .330 with 18 home runs and 80 RBIs in 136 games for the Sox. He was limited to just 93 games this past season and hit a career-low .236 but also had 19 home runs. With the upcoming offseason, could Garcia be traded for spare parts or even non-tendered a contract in his last year of arbitration?
Garcia has been with the Sox since the second half of the 2013 season. It wasn’t until last season that Garcia became what many thought he would be in an All-Star caliber player. After many disappointing seasons on the South Side, Garcia put together his best year in the Majors in 2017. Unfortunately for him, he was bitten by the injury bug multiple times this year.
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With the Sox rebuild moving along, the team will soon begin promoting some of their outfield prospects in the coming years. There will be a glut of outfield prospects looking to make a name for themselves and Garcia likely won’t fit into future plans for the Sox. This will be the last year Garcia is eligible for arbitration and the Sox could very well non-tender him a contract.
However, the Sox don’t have much outfield depth at the major-league level currently. If the Sox were to either trade or non-tender Garcia this offseason, they would need to fill an immediate hole in their outfield. Although the Sox have some outfield prospects waiting for their major league promotions, many of them won’t be ready by Opening Day and still need more development in the minors.
The Sox might not get a lot in return for trading Garcia. The 27-year-old never finished a season hitting over .260 while appearing in more than 90 games other than his All-Star year in 2017. Also, Garcia has yet to hit 20 or more home runs in a single season in his major-league career. Garcia’s defense isn’t gold-glove caliber but he is an average outfielder.
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Garcia could be non-tendered a contract but the Sox won’t get anything in return. The Sox will have many decisions to make this offseason. Garcia’s future will be one of those decisions and his time with the Sox could be coming to an end.