Rangers’ Adolis García Sidelined By Upper Body Injury
Texas Rangers outfielder Adolis García will be sidelined indefinitely after sustaining a left oblique injury prior to Tuesday’s Cactus League game versus the Athletics.
The 32-year-old slugger was scratched from the club’s lineup after reporting soreness in his left side to team trainers upon arriving at the facility. Jake Burger drew in as his replacement in the DH spot, going 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts and a walk as part of a 6-3 loss.
García was sent for an MRI on Tuesday for additional information regarding his ailment, which the Rangers hope won’t lead to an extended absence.
“He’s gonna miss a little bit of time,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters Tuesday, including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry. “We’re hoping not much. I can’t tell you until we get the results from that MRI.”
At this point of the spring, with only three weeks until Opening Day, missing any length of time could put García’s status for the club’s regular-season opener at Globe Life Field against the Boston Red Sox in serious jeopardy.
The right-handed-hitting outfielder missed the final two games of the 2023 World Series due to a similar injury on his left side. But the ‘23 ALCS MVP winner was fully recovered by the time last season rolled around, appearing in 154 games – the second-most of his career.
It was a struggle for García on the field, though, as he slumped to a disappointing .224/.284/.400 slash line and mustered career-lows in home runs (25), RBIs (85) and wRC+ (92). He was also worth minus-0.2 fWAR, a major decline from his ‘23 rating of 4.6.
Among the culprits behind those woes was a left patella tendon strain that he battled down the stretch of the ‘24 campaign. It also didn’t help that his whiff (31.6-34.3%) and chase rates (29.3-33.6%) climbed from the previous season while his walk rate (7.1%) fell by three percent.
“It was a very long year,” García said last month. “I’ve gotta try to let go of what happened, try to move on and have a good season. You got to learn from what happened and kind of keep going forward. Just keep moving forward.”
García spent all off-season working on his swing, focusing on eliminating a few bad habits that had crept in throughout last season. Those adjustments had him feeling great heading into camp and paved the way for his strong start this spring, as he went 6-for-19 (.316) with a double and one run driven in across his first eight Cactus League games.
When healthy, the two-time All-Star – who crushed 39 home runs and drove in 107 two years ago, both career-highs – is among the sport’s most explosive middle-of-the-order threats. And the Rangers will need him at his best to have any hope of returning to the playoffs in 2025.
If García opens this season on the injured list, fellow outfielder Leody Taveras will likely receive first crack at the opportunities available in right field, followed by utility players Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Ken Lund. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.