Earlier this week, Keith Law unveiled his Top 100 Prospect List for the 2018 season at ESPN.com. The Cincinnati Reds had four players land on the list. Nick Senzel, Taylor Trammell, Hunter Greene, and Tyler Mahle all found themselves represented in the Top 70. But earlier today it was the release of the “Who just missed the Top 100” article that talks about shortstop Jose Garcia.
The Reds signed Jose Garcia out of Cuba in June. They paid $10M in total to sign him. Half of that went to Garcia as a signing bonus. The other half of it went to Major League Baseball as a penalty for going over their allowed spending amount. It was the last big splash the team could make on the international market for years. They are currently unable to spend more than $300,000 on a single player in the market until July 2nd of 2019.
Jose Garcia is an interesting prospect. He ranked 12th overall on my Cincinnati Reds Top 25 Prospect List after the 2017 season. There is no statistical track record to look at. While he was in Cuba, Garcia only played in their top professional league for 17 games. He’s still just 19-years-old, so that isn’t a knock against him. But, it also leaves us wondering about some things. One of those, which Law notes, is exactly what kind of approach he has. We can’t look back at his time against other competition in Cuba and say “oh, he had X number of walks and Y number of strikeouts – and this is how that compares to the rest of the league” to get a better idea on that front.
Where Jose Garcia does stand out, though, is on the scouting side of things. Right now, he’s definitely a shortstop on the defensive side of things. He doesn’t stick out there, but can handle the spot just fine. There is some concern he will outgrow the position and could slide over to second, or maybe even third base if he fills out his 6′ 3″, 170-pound frame. With an up-the-middle defensive profile, his bat has plenty of potential. There’s good bat speed to work with, and a fluid swing. The potential for both a good hit, and good power tool are there. But, a lot of stuff is still unknown with Garcia. His performance during the 2018 season is going to be one of the more interesting storylines to follow on the Minor League side of things for the Reds.