Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Report: Yeudy Garcia

On the list of Pittsburgh Pirates’ top prospects, number 19 brings us to pitcher Yeudy Garcia, from the Dominican Republic. He made a surprising burst onto the scene when he skipped straight from the Dominican Summer League to the Single-A West Virginia Power.

Tim Williams, a writer who spends a lot of time writing about Pirates’ prospects, had this to say when asked what pitcher in the system excites him the most:

Garcia was good for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ affiliation in the Dominican Summer League but since making the jump to the United States, he’s been even better.

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He added some velocity to his fastball – often running it in the mid 90’s  – and became simply dominant. Garcia went 12-5 and lead the league in ERA with a 2.10 in his first season in the States. He gave up just 4 home runs in 124.1 innings, allowed an opponent batting average of .202 and had nearly three times the strikeouts (8.11) as walks (2.97) per nine innings.

July was the peak of Garcia’s breakout season. For the month, he went 6-0 with a 0.90 ERA and a 72% strike rate and to close out the month, he threw five hitless innings against Lakewood and that began to open eyes.

Garcia is still just 23 years old and I don’t expect the Pirates to rush him to the majors, but if he continues to dominate in the minors, he will definitely earn a look. He probably deserves a chance at Spring Training but at his age, he may not make the cut this season. In my opinion, Garcia will pitch at Double-A Altoona for most of this season and perhaps earn a promotion later in the summer.