Should I Stay or Should I Go: Leury Garcia

fWAR: -1.1
bWAR: -1.0
WARP: -0.4

The case for staying García can play virtually any position on the diamond, and he’s a plus baserunner. Aside from the remaining two years/$11 million on his contract making him basically untradeable, yeah, not much else to say. At least with Tony La Russa no longer at the helm, García might not get pressed into service more than his talent or performance actually dictates, and some of his troubles (as with so many White Sox players) could probably be attributed to his being forced to play while obviously hurt.

The case for going García was one of the 10 worst players in the league by almost any definition, and being on the wrong side of 30 as a defense/speed guy means the arrow probably isn’t pointing up. If this is all García has left, he needs to be Keppingered.

The verdict The longest-tenured player on the team, Leury was an underappreciated player on the roster from 2017-21, when he soldiered on through his arbitration years while playing virtually every position on the diamond, whenever needed. So long as he wasn’t pressed into service too much, he generally delivered as well as one could hope for a guy who was generally supposed to be the 25th or 26th man on the roster.

The instant Rick Hahn (probably with prodding from Father Tony) gave García a ridiculous, three-year contract, the pressure was on for him to be something more than that, and needless to say, García did not deliver. The White Sox are on the hook for his money, barring a Nate Jones-ing of some of it via trade. So the question is, if García doesn’t recover some semblance of his past form, how much damage will the White Sox let him do before eating the rest of his deal and cutting him loose?

I guess they’re stuck with him for now, but given Romy González is an immediate and obvious replacement. I wouldn’t give García more than a month of rope.