San Francisco Giants 40-Man Profiles: Aramis Garcia

The San Francisco Giants have one of the best catchers in all of baseball, if not THE best. But what happens when Posey stops catching? Do the Giants have anyone in the system? Will they have to sign someone, trade for someone? They might just have an in-house option at their disposal.

Catching prospect Aramis Garcia, who plays for AA Richmond is the San Francisco Giants #6 overall prospect, according to baseballamerica.com. Garcia is a 24-year old drafted out of Florida International in the second round of the 2014 MLB First Year Player Draft. Aramis has been in the Giants organization for four years and is on the brink of getting the call up to the majors.

With Nick Hundley re-signing with the Giants for another year of backing up Buster Posey, there is not an immediate need for Garcia in the big leagues. With an injury to Posey or Hundley, or the roster expansion in September, you can bet on Garcia making his way up to the big-leagues.

In 2017, Garcia put up a line of .274/.323/.485 with 17 total home runs and 73 RBI’s combined between his time in San Jose (A) and Richmond (AA). The scouting reports on Garcia list him at 6’2″ 220lbs. The Giants catcher is a right-handed hitter who bats and throws right, has a solid build and “a nice balance of offensive and defensive skills.” Garcia’s best tool is his arm strength and his ability to throw runners out.

Throughout his time in the minor leagues, Garcia has thrown out 30% of the runners who try and steal on him. Just for a reference, Buster Posey threw out about 37% of runners who tried to steal on him in 2017.

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In addition to a good arm, Garcia is athletic and has good, quick feet and solid reaction times. Scouts believe Garcia to be a “natural hitter” who has potential to be an above-average hitting catcher, but is still learning how to hit at the professional level.

In terms of weaknesses, Garcia needs to improve his pitch calling. This year in AA and probably AAA, he will get lots of work in with calling pitches.

Garcia has quick feet, but his actual movements are in need of some work. In terms of running, Garcia is not fast. He has slow foot speed and is slow out of the box.

While Garcia might not be ready just yet, he’s very close. His chances of playing at the major league level in 2018 are pretty slim, but could we see him on the Giants at all in 2018?

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Being the Giants top-rated catching prospect, he will if one of the two scenarios listed earlier happens. We’ll see plenty of Garcia this spring, but lets hope nothing happens to Posey or Hundley, and we get our first look at Garcia in the majors in September when rosters expand.

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