Oliver Garcia

WTM’s PLAYER PROFILE

2016
DSL:  4-3-0, 2.61 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 41.1 IP, 3.7 BB/9, 5.2 K/9

Garcia pitched well out of the bullpen in his debut season, with a low K rate.

2017
DSL:  2-2-0, 2.15 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 54.1 IP, 2.7 BB/9, 7.6 K/9

The Pirates moved Garcia to the rotation and he was the team’s best pitcher.  That included a much-improved K rate.

2018
R+:  2-4-0, 7.28 ERA, 1.77 WHIP, 38.1 IP, 5.4 BB/9, 6.6 K/9

Garcia was in the fall instructional league in 2017 and the Pirates sent him to Bristol to pitch in the rotation.  He made ten starts and had a very rough time, with opponents putting up a robust 298/404/483 line against him.  He was shut down in mid-August.

2019
R+:  0-1-2, 2.57 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 14.0 IP, 2.6 BB/9, 12.9 K/9
A-:  0-0-2, 0.00 ERA, 0.33 WHIP, 6.0 IP, 3.0 BB/9, 10.5 K/9
A:  1-0-1, 3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 8.0 IP, 4.5 BB/9, 6.8 K/9

The Pirates sent Garcia back to Bristol and moved him to the bullpen, where he showed increased velocity and a greatly increased ability to miss bats, mainly in short relief.  The Pirates moved him up quickly; he made nine appearances for Bristol, five for West Virginia and six for Greensboro.  He spent so little time at each level that it’s hard to draw many conclusions.  He was very tough on right-handed hitters throughout, holding them to an OPS of .460, compared to .673 by left-handed hitters.

2020
DNP

2021
A+:  4-2-8, 4.42 ERA, 1.47 ERA, 53.0 IP, 5.4 BB.9, 8.8 K/9

Garcia pitched in relief, sometimes as the closer, for Greensboro.  The home run park at Greensboro seriously skewed his numbers, as he allowed eight of his ten home runs there.  His ERA was 6.58 at home and 2.33 on the road.  On the other hand, he walked too many and his K rate was well below the league average of 10.5 per nine innings.  Those numbers didn’t differ a great deal between home and road.  Garcia had a reverse platoon split.

2022
AA:  0-0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 4.0 IP, 4.5 BB/9, 13.5 K/9

Garcia made three appearances for Altoona, then went out with an elbow injury.  He didn’t return.  It’s not known whether he had Tommy John surgery.

Garcia’s 2022 season never really got underway.  He became a free agent after the season, but re-signed on a minor league deal.  The Pirates are seriously short of mid-level pitching depth because they inexplicably left a large number of AAA roster spots open for the minor league Rule 5 draft.  That led to the unnecessary loss of a remarkable number of pitchers.