The Yankees started their deadline dealing on Saturday sending off Camilo Doval to the Pirates, but that was an ancillary move to what their plans were. This team was always going to be buying, and it was only a question of who they would target and how many pieces they would get. Now the first domino has fallen, as they’ve swung a deal with the Washington Nationals to get infielder Luis García Jr.
García is having his best offensive season to date in his age-26 season, and he’s been one of the best hitters
across the National League. He leads the NL in slugging percentage with a .560 mark, and owns a 134 wRC+ in 104 games with 23 home runs clubbed. García doesn’t walk much, only sporting a 4.3 percent walk rate, but he hits at a high enough clip to get on base decently still. In breaking the news, ESPN’s Jeff Passan is also reporting that the Yankees have sent a package of four prospects over to the Nationals for García, and MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand is reporting that said package consists of pitchers Ben Grable, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert, and Jake Bird.
That’s not a lot of prospect capital spent to improve an offense that has felt incredibly lackluster without their Captain Aaron Judge present. The fit on the field will be interesting to see as the Yankees have acquired a bat that plays predominantly on the right side of the infield. García has played 93 games at first base this year, where the team already has Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt working in a platoon, and played 129 games at second base last season where Jazz Chisholm Jr. currently sits. We’ll have plenty more over the next few hours as the trade details emerge and we get a picture of where he’ll fit in with New York, but the Yankees have undoubtedly added some life back into their lineup when they’ve desperately needed it.
