📰 NEWS FLASH: Adolis García’s arrival in Philly has fans and media reacting in completely opposite directions and neither side is backing down ⚡.DD
It’s difficult to find free agent signings or trades that are unanimously applauded by baseball fans.
When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Kyle Schwarber last week, there were still detractors to a contract that was (mostly) universally accepted as a good move for the Phillies.
Now the Phillies have signed Adolis García to a one-year, $10 million deal. So of course this type of signing will create a divide among the fans and media.
Just a couple of seasons ago, the 32-year-old was a playoff and World Series hero for the Texas Rangers.
But his bat has fallen on hard times since then.
It got so rough that the Rangers non-tendered the 32-year-old at the November deadline in the hopes of saving some money and getting younger.
Is it a good signing or a bad signing? Is García cooked?
Even if he is, a mediocre season at the plate plus his strong defense might be enough to make the signing worthwhile (improving on Nick Castellanos’ defense in right shouldn’t be a tough feat for García).
Phillies’ Adolis García signing has fans and media offering some mixed reactions
Some Phillies fans and media members were quick to jump on the “what a horrible signing” bandwagon after the news of the deal broke on Monday morning. And there’s plenty of legitimate fodder for that crowd.
John Stolnis of Billy Penn and The Good Phight, as well as the Hittin’ Season podcast, isn’t a fan of the addition, invoking last offseason’s Max Kepler signing.
“Everybody kept talking about all of the underlying metrics for Max Kepler last year, all season, and it never translated into actual production.
Garcia has been truly terrible at the plate for two years.
I can’t share any excitement anyone feels about this.
I hope we get the 2023 version, but I don’t think it’s likely,” Stolnis posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Stolnis isn’t wrong.
García has indeed had a challenging time at the plate the last two seasons.
He does hit from the right side, which the Phillies have a need for, but he slashed a combined .225/.278/.397 between 2024 and 2025.
That’s an ugly .675 OPS.
The Phils Fan also pointed to that dreadful OPS as a valid argument for why adding García to the Phillies lineup isn’t a great move.
“Does Dombrowski understand OPS? Harper and Schwarber are the only guys on the team that ever take walks. They are also the only two guys that can hit.
Garcia just doubles down on what’s been plaguing this offense the last few years.”
There’s no denying the Phillies have had their problems with chasing and strikeouts in recent years.
García is prone to the strikeout, posting a career 28.1 percent strikeout rate.
Although he did reduce that to 24.7 percent this past season while the league average sat at 22.2 percent.
Conversely, if anyone’s looking for some hope, former MLB player Eric Kratz of Foul Territory gave an upbeat take on the signing.
He points to Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long as a reason for optimism.
He also doesn’t walk much, with a career 6.8 percent walk rate.
That was even lower in 2025, when García walked at a 5.1 percent clip, well below the league average of 8.4 percent.
“Anytime Kevin Long is your hitting coach, if Adolis García is willing to listen, I have never seen anybody go and hit with Kevin Long for an entire season and say ‘he got worse with K-Long,’ Kratz said.
“You see what K-Long has done with other guys that are willing to make changes and willing to work.
So it’s more of a blip in the radar for me, but don’t expect him to hit 40 home runs … but if he can get back to the 25 to 30 range, that is a massive, massive pickup for the Phillies because he’s just not going to be an on-base guy, he’s going to be high strikeouts compared to the amount of walks that he gets.”
Derek Brader tried to rationalize the move from a Philly fan’s perspective.
“The Phillies aren’t signing Garcia because he will put up elite numbers, they are signing him because even in a bad year he is good defensively and can still give you the same numbers offensively that Casty did for $10m cheaper.”
Yes, Castellanos’ $20 million per year contract felt like an outrageous amount to pay for what he provided, especially in 2025.
García is technically cheaper at $10 million, but unfortunately there’s a good chance that the Phillies will still end up eating some or all of Castellanos’ 2026 salary.
In a similar vein, Corey Seidman of Phillies Nation, formerly of NBC Sports Philadelphia, offered a simple argument for why even with García’s flaws he’s still an upgrade over Castellanos.
“Adolis Garcia also swings at everything and might have similar offensive numbers in 2026 to what Castellanos has done the last few seasons, but he offers significantly more speed and defense which alone makes it an upgrade,” Seidman noted.
As long as Phillies fans know what to expect from García and go into next season with manageable expectations, things could turn out okay.
We should expect strikeouts, but with the ability to hit home runs and do it from the right side, maybe we’ll see him cross the 20- or 25-dinger threshold again.
We won’t know how this signing will play out until sometime during the 2026 season, so there’s sure to be much more discussion of its merits over the next couple of months of the offseason.
Hopefully this bet on a rebound pays off better than the Phillies’ previous couple of gambles.
