San Francisco Giants: Aramis Garcia is on the Rise After Latest Promotion

The San Francisco Giants second round pick from the 2014 draft, Aramis Garcia, has had a great 2017 season and was recently promoted to Double-A.

Garcia was taken with the 52nd overall pick in the 2014 draft out of Florida International. He played in 28 games between the Rookie and Low-A levels in 2014 where he hit .225 with 2 home runs.

The following season he started in Single-A where he hit .273 in 319 at-bats with 15 home runs before being promoted to High-A. In 75 at-bats for San Jose that year he hit .227, but failed to hit a home run.

He was injured for most of the 2016 season, but hit .257 in 144 at-bats at San Jose again with just 2 home runs. The San Francisco Giants sent him to the Arizona Fall League to get extra at-bats. There he hit just .191 in 56 trips to the plate.

Garcia also has 11 spring training at-bats over the past three years, and he finally got his first spring training hit this season.

Back healthy in 2017 he started the year with San Jose again, but this time dominated. In 347 at-bats this year he hit .272 with 17 home runs, showing off his power potential.

The 24-year-old catcher was finally moved up to Double-A where he has just 2 hits in 13 at-bats.

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Obviously Garcia is going to have a hard time breaking through with Buster Posey locking up the catcher position for quite some time. But he’s played 17 games at first base this year, opening up that possibility as well.

I had the chance to watch Garcia in college and you could tell he had a very mature bat. He was by far the best player on the field in the game I watched.

Garcia has a really good chance to be a 25-plus home run hitter in the major leagues. If he can do that at catcher it would make him one of the best in the league, but I think he ultimately gets moved to first — especially if he stays with the San Francisco Giants.

I could also see the Giants using Garcia as trade bait. A prospect with 20-plus home run potential has a lot of value. If the San Francisco Giants look to improve the team through trades this winter, I expect Garcia to be in a lot of talks.

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Hopefully he finishes the year strong in Richmond, either earning him another invite to spring training, or to boost his value as a possible trade piece.