The 2024 Topps Heritage was released in April. This time, the product takes us back to 1975. The design is very colorful. Well, I don’t know if you like the design. But, for me, I prefer designs in other years. In mid-May, I went to a sports card shop and bought some hobby packs of the 2024 Topps Heritage.
After opening the third pack, I found an interesting card. It’s an Adolis Garcia short print card. On the front, it clearly shows that Adolis Garcia is an AL All-Star.
While seeing this card, I began to think about Adolis Garcia’s career, in particular, as a Ranger.
Adolis Garcia made it into the big leagues in 2018. He hit .118/.118/.176 with 1 RBI in the Cardinals uniform in 2018. However, he didn’t play in the majors in 2019 and in December 2019, the Rangers acquired Garcia from the Cardinals.
By far, Adolis Garcia has blasted 100+ home runs and collected 300+ RBI as a Ranger. Moreover, he was named the 2023 ALCS MVP and he was certainly a key role to help the Rangers win the first World Series title in franchise history.
Well, Garcia didn’t collect a hit in 2020. However, from 2021 to 2023, he slashed .246/.305/.472 with 97 home runs and 298 RBI in 453 games. Additionally, he had 50 stolen bases.
So, what do those numbers mean?
Over the last 3 seasons, no Cardinals outfielders played at least 400 games. Dylan Carlson played 100+ games in 2021 and 2022. Nonetheless, he only played 76 games for the Cardinals last season. Tyler O’Neill was traded to the Red Sox last December. From 2021 to 2023, there was only 1 time that O’Neill played 100+ games for the Cardinals in a single season. Lars Nootbaar made it into the big leagues in 2021 and he played 100+ games in each of the last 2 seasons. Brendan Donovan made his MLB debut in 2022 and played 126 games. However, Donovan only played 95 games in 2023. Hence, we can clearly see that Adolis Garcia contributed a lot to the Rangers. Nevertheless, the Cardinals outfielders didn’t contribute too much as Garcia did for the Rangers.
Back in 2018, Adolis Garcia didn’t hit well in his rookie season. In 2019, he slashed .253/.301/.517 with 32 home runs and 96 RBI for the Memphis Redbirds (AAA). His numbers looked good in the minors. But the Cardinals made the decision. And the Rangers got him in December 2019. Nonetheless, actually, back in February 2021, the Rangers designated Garcia for assignment, but no team claimed him. The Rangers were able to invite him to spring training. So, did the Cardinals actually make a bad decision? Perhaps not really. Nevertheless, since 2021, Adolis Garcia has been one of the most dangerous hitters in the majors and he did hit very well last postseason. In comparison, the Cardinals outfielders haven’t consistently contributed much to the team. And that always makes the Cardinals fans think about something. Well, we can’t go back. For the Rangers, they can enjoy watching Adolis Garcia hitting. For the Cardinals, it’s extremely important to have outfielders that can consistently play for a long season. In the 2024 season, let’s see which outfielders of the Cardinals will play at least 100 games.
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