Changes I Would Like To See From Luis García
A few tweaks I would like to see from Luis García to improve his effectiveness.
Opening
Did the Angels/Red Sox’s utilize Luis García to his best ability in 2024? He posted relatively average results of a 4.88 ERA, 3.59 xERA, and 3.62 xFIP, but I think he is a few arsenal changes away from being a productive arm out of the pen. The changes I would like to see are a decrease in the usage of his sinker, increased usage in his slider and sweeper, more ride on his cutter, and adding a death ball curve. García is currently a free agent heading into his 37-year-old season. I know age is a major factor, but I think he's still a solid arm that is being overlooked.
Delivery Characteristics
Luis García is a righty high slot supinator with a wide ISA and interior rotational bias that has the ability to produce a East-to-West arsenal. Due to his high arm angle of 48 degrees, García generates a vRel of 6.2’ despite having above average extension of 6.7’. With this high slot García has the opportunity to effectively get on top of the ball and generate depth, yet he has never thrown such a pitch. I believe that adding some sort of curve would be beneficial for García, but I'll get into that later.
Decrease Sinker Usage
The first change García needs to make is to lower the usage of his sinker immediately. In 2024, García threw this pitch over 52% of the time despite this pitch having relatively average results. This pitch produced a .267 AVG, .336 wOBA, and .333 xwOBA with an 11.1% Whiff%, 30.5 O-Sw%, and a 55.6% GB%. These results are decent and get the job done, but to throw this pitch over 50% of the time just isn't effective, especially with a deep arsenal like García possesses.
What these average results stem from is the average movement profile that García’s sinker has. As you can see below, this pitch is practically the exact movement profile of a sinker thrown from his arm angle. This is not a recipe for success, but rather mediocrity. The goal is to always deter from the average movement profile, whether this is run or cut, but to throw something that is expected won't fool hitters.
The decision of the Angels and Red Sox’s to throw this pitch as much as they did is a head scratcher. One reason could be that it was just an extreme example of the Red Sox's anti-4 seam fastball approach, but I can't say much for the Angels. I would like to see García’s sinker usage come all the way down to 20% and maybe less to allow for the deep arsenal that he possesses to shine.
Increase Slider/Sweeper Usage
To counteract the decrease in sinker usage, García should increase the usage of his most effective pitches: his slider and sweeper. In 2024, both of these pitches were effective vs. same handedness. We see this with his slider posting a .200 AVG, .258 wOBA, .215 xwOBA, and 56 Whiff%, while his sweeper posted a .182 AVG, .302 wOBA, .277 xwOBA, and 50.0 Whiff%. With these being said, García should only throw his sweeper to the same handedness.
In its small sample size against lefties, García’s sweeper didn't fare well, producing a .333 AVG, .683 wOBA, .611 xwOBA, and a 75 WHiff%. Despite the impressive swing and miss results, this pitch just isn't effective vs. opposite handedness. On the other hand, his slider was effective vs. lefties in the small sample, producing a .000 AVG, .230 wOBA, .231 xwOBA, and a 40.0 Whiff%.
Seeing these results, these pitches should be thrown more to adjust to the drastic decrease in sinker usage, but ideally only the slider to lefties. This increased usage should be brought to about 25-30% on his slider, while the sweeper should hover around 15-20%. With the sweeper being strictly thrown to righties, García should increase the usage of his cutter to lefties, which I'll get into next.
More Ride on Cutter
In 2024, García added a cutter but used it a minuscule amount of 2% of the time. It has a gyro slider type shape with a shape of 2.5 iVB and -2.6 iHB while being thrown at 88.2 MPH. I don't mind this shape due to the possible swing and miss it will be able to generate, but I would like to see him get behind this pitch more to differentiate it from his slider.
Incorporating a cutter with more ride could open up a number of possibilities for García, like being more effective at the top of the zone, a more effective 4-seam FB due to it having some resemblance to his cutter, and its ability to tie together his arsenal. I believe incorporating this pitch can take his effectiveness vs. lefties to another level. Knowing this, I would like to see the increased usage of this pitch to be around 10-15% compared to the minimal 2% that it's at right now.
Addition of Curveball
The final change I would like to see García make is to add a death ball curve. Like I said at the beginning of the article, García is a high-slot supinator but doesn't throw any pitch with effective depth. The addition of this pitch seems almost perfect with his high slot due to the effective angles he can create with this pitch.
An ideal shape for this pitch would be around -5 to -6 iVB with 1 to 0 iHB with harder velocity than the average curve. Harder velocity on curves, as we know, allows for more effective whiff results as well as a decrease in wOBA. With the addition of this pitch, it would allow for his effectiveness to prosper by having the ability to generate depth on a pitch compared to the rest of his arsenal.
Conclusion
All in all, I believe García still has some effectiveness left in him. He most likely won't be too expensive due to his struggles in 2024 and could be a solid arm to add depth to a bullpen. The changes I would like to see García make, though, are to decrease his uses of his sinker, increase the usage of his slider to both handedness, increase sweeper usage only to righties, add more ride on his cutter, and add a deathball curve to add some depth to his arsenal. Who knows if Father Time has dwindled down García’s final effectiveness, but if it hasn't, he is a sneaky free agent in the 2025 class.
Thank you for reading.
If you haven't already, please subscribe below.
Follow me on Twitter: https://x.com/OrangeSportFan