Leury García looks like his old self, and all that entails

Over my 63 years writing about the White Sox on a daily basis, I’ve learned to stop trafficking in imperatives and ultimatums. If I say the White Sox should not, can not, or must not do something, I’d assume the White Sox would regard it as a challenge.

For example, when the White Sox were on the verge of hiring Tony La Russa, I took the tone of, “Sure would be great if they didn’t!” If I said “ABSOLUTELY NOT” and they barged ahead, I may as well censure Jerry Reinsdorf for all that good that would do. However, when I present my viewpoint in the form of a “How about no?”, I can treat their subsequent action as an honest answer. The White Sox didn’t ignore me when they hired Tony La Russa. No, we’re just having a dialogue in the marketplace of ideas.

When I wrote that Leury García can’t keep playing the way he had in the first month, well of course he could, as many people informed me on Twitter. Nothing’s going to stop him if that’s what his heart really wants. I meant it more in the larger sense of his tenability as an asset to the White Sox, or any other team for that matter.

I’m pleased to report that García stopped playing the way he was. That post more or less caught him at his early-season nadir. He entered a game against Cleveland as a defensive replacement and went 0-for-2 with a popped-up bunt, which dropped his line to .163/.182/.209. That’s the equivalent of a respectable pitcher batting for himself, and he often looked like a pitcher, in the sense that he bunted at every possible opportunity.

Since April 20, he’s been more or less the Leury García that’s essentially a South Side institution.

And while you can’t adjust his Statcast board by specific time frames, his current array of numbers shows progress digging out of the early hole.

García’s never going to own these charts, partially because his bunt attempts drag his averages down, and partially because his ceiling is fairly low for all of these offensive categories. What’s important is whether García shows the ability to make MLB-grade contact a few times a series.

Early in the season, García looked for every excuse to not swing, as if there were lasting issues from the thumb surgery he had last year. Those bunts dragged down his exit velocity, sure, but there were precious few batted balls on the other side of the spectrum that stood a chance of propping up his approach.

He’s now up to 12 balls hit with an exit velocity of 100 mph or higher, and 10 of them have come in this later span we’re discussing, including one in each game of the Twins series. Here’s Friday’s:

Here’s Saturday’s:

Here’s Sunday’s:

And he also had another double on Friday that rounded up to 100 mph (99.6).

This is the generally acceptable García as a Plan B for up-the-middle positions, and it’s generally one you can trust with your eyes — or distrust, depending on his mode. The pre-2017 García, and the García over the first few weeks of the 2021 season, had a tendency to swing through pitches in the zone as though he were wearing somebody else’s contacts. When he’s in that kind of rut, whatever pitches he can touch go straight into the ground. When he puts the bat on the ball with regularity, the usefulness of his standard contact also increases.

What’s notable is that after his game on April 20, he had the next four full days off. Perhaps there was an injury issue underneath his struggles, or maybe he just needed an extended break to clean up his approach, but either way, he’s returned to the top of the bench after spending the first three weeks looking like somebody to hide.

His adequacy will be sorely needed as the White Sox embark on a stretch of 18 games over 17 days, because with Adam Eaton ineffective against lefties, Andrew Vaughn struggling against righties and Billy Hamiton the only competition in center until Adam Engel can finally go on a rehab assignment, García is likely to appear on the field nearly everyday. He makes it easier to fill out a lineup card no matter how he’s hitting, but it’s a whole lot easier on fans when he puts up a fight in the batter’s box.

(Portrait by Carl Skanberg)

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