Leury Garcia is the longest-tenured player on the Chicago White Sox right now. He has had some good moments with the team as a utility infielder. He has even been a starter in his carer. However, his time to be gone is long overdue.
The Chicago White Sox need to release him as soon as they can. He is a detriment to the team at this point. A winning franchise would not have a player on their team that contributes what Leury Garcia does. This is no disrespect to him but the facts are the facts.
If the White Sox let him hit the open market after the 2021 season came to an end, he would have probably gotten a PTO with someone in spring training. Instead, the White Sox gave him a three-year deal as if he was a part of the core for the long haul.
He had a huge home run in game three of the 2021 American League Division Series and that earned him this deal. He followed that up with one of the worst years of his career which is saying something because he was never that good anyway.
The Chicago White Sox can’t run it back with Leury Garcia next season.
Bringing him back in 2023 would be a big-time disaster for this franchise. It wouldn’t be so bad if he was clearly the 26th man but everyone has failed to use him as that. He can play all very the field but doesn’t play anything of the positions at a particularly high level.
It doesn’t help that he is mostly an atrocious hitter. Tony La Russa played him way too much and the only way to make it so that the next manager doesn’t do that is by taking him off the team. He can’t be taking at-bats away from other players who will have more of an impact.
When Miguel Cairo took over at the end of the season, he was playing much less and the offense started to do much better. That needs to be the case for this team for all of 2023. He needs to be sent away from the team and it is time to move on.