The Maikel Garcia Show
The best hitter for the Royals this season needed a little help, but he was mainly responsible for winning them another game.
Development isn’t linear. If you’re around baseball long enough, you hear or read that phrase so often that it sort of loses meaning. But it shouldn’t. Some players get a little bit better every year. Others make a huge jump and then level out. Others start strong, take a step back and then steps forward. For Maikel Garcia, he’s much more that last point. He had a solid enough rookie season in 2023 when he hit .272/.323/.358. The power wasn’t there, but he had a solid enough approach at the plate and looked like he could grow into a guy who could 8-10 homers with 25-30 doubles and hit at the top of a lineup. Then last year, he really struggled. And now in 2025, he’s been the best hitter on a team with Bobby Witt Jr. And last night, he was the biggest reason they won a game.
It didn’t look good for a team that has struggled so much to score in general, but has struggled so badly with lefties. They were down 2-0 heading into the third. Now, I will say that they had battled with Patrick Corbin and it did feel like they were about to break out against him. Corbin had thrown 14 pitches in the first and 25 in the second. He’d gone to 3-2 with Witt, Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and Nick Loftin in the first two innings alone. Then he went to 3-2 on Freddy Fermin to start the third and walked him. Kyle Isbel bounced into a forceout, which turned the lineup over and started the fun.
Isbel stole second without a throw, the second such steal of the series for the Royals. Then on a 3-2 pitch and Corbin’s 53rd of the game with one out in the third, Jonathan India hit a 3-2 pitch hard to center field to score the run. Witt hit a hard single to left and India got aggressive, trying for third. He was called safe, but it sure looked like he slid off the bag. I think replay couldn’t find a conclusive angle to see it, which was probably a break for the Royals. On the throw, Witt advanced to second, setting up Garcia for his first act of heroism of the night.