This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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"I go through all this because dragging the Cardinals into this story is a distraction. Adolis Garcia wasn’t some hidden gem the team gave up on, he was a 26-year-old prospect with terrible plate discipline. The Rangers didn’t know something the Cardinals didn’t; they were set to part ways with him about a year later. They traded for Khris Davis, gave Garcia’s 40-man roster spot to Mike Foltynewicz, and made Ronald Flipping Guzman an outfielder instead of playing Garcia. Those are not the actions of a team that knows something.
"It’s OK to say a team got lucky. It’s OK to recognize that the Rangers didn’t have a plan for Garcia, and that they just fell into a four-win player because he was the last ambulatory outfielder in three states. The Rangers got lucky because Garcia made himself into a star. Oh, it wasn’t immediate. That 24/3 K/BB? It was 36/4 in September of that year. Garcia, though, had power and speed and an arm, what we might have called a “tools goof” in my Prospectus days."
"It’s OK to say a team got lucky. It’s OK to recognize that the Rangers didn’t have a plan for Garcia, and that they just fell into a four-win player because he was the last ambulatory outfielder in three states. The Rangers got lucky because Garcia made himself into a star. Oh, it wasn’t immediate. That 24/3 K/BB? It was 36/4 in September of that year. Garcia, though, had power and speed and an arm, what we might have called a “tools goof” in my Prospectus days."