CLEVELAND — It comes with the territory of being a Yankees prospect, and as far as Deivi Garcia is concerned, he’ll pitch in whatever territory will have him.
The 20-year-old Dominican right-hander Garcia has enjoyed a breakout 2019, and it took another step on Sunday when he learned he would start the Futures Game for the American League at Progressive Field.
And if he learns another piece of compelling information by the July 31 trade deadline? He’ll roll with it.
“I really don’t think about that that much,” Garcia said, through an interpreter, when asked about the possibility of being dealt by the Yankees for a current major leaguer. “I just do my work, and if the moment comes that I get traded, it’s my job to do my work there as well.”
His work has been top-notch so far. After beginning the season with Single-A Tampa, making four starts there, the diminutive Garcia (he’s listed at 5-foot-9, which seems accurate) jumped to Double-A Trenton and has tallied a 3.00 ERA in 10 starts totaling 51 innings. He has struck out 81 and walked 25 while allowing only two home runs, and on June 24, he threw five hitless innings and fanned 12 against Reading in what wound up being a combined no-hitter.
Garcia pitched well last year in 15 starts for three different clubs (Single-A Charleston, Tampa and Trenton), so he didn’t quite come from nowhere. His performance has improved even as the competition has, however, and he credits much of that to the slider he conceived and nurtured only recently, giving him another pitch on top of his fastball (which he throws in the mid-90s), changeup and curveball.
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“In the offseason, I really got it in my mind that I wanted to add that pitch to my repertoire,” Garcia said. “In spring training, we started working on it. And I asked them, ‘When can I throw the slider in the game?’ They said, ‘You can throw it whenever you’re ready.’ So I started using it now in Double-A.” Yankees pitching coordinator Scott Aldred and Trenton pitching coach Tim Norton have helped him with this the most, Garcia said.
With the Yankees hoping to add either a starting pitcher or a reliever, if not one of each, Garcia stands as an obvious trade target by other clubs. If it happens, it happens. Yet he’d rather it not happen.
“I always think about it,” Garcia said of reaching the big leagues with the club that signed him as an amateur. “I always have it in mind that maybe, one day, I’ll get there and pitch for the Yankees. It’s a goal of mine.”
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