By the time Maikel Garcia was placed on the 10-day injured list back on June 23, he had already been battling the left hand muscle sprain for quite some time. It was affecting his play and his mind, and it was time to get him some extended rest on the IL.
A little over a month later, the Royals’ third baseman is ready to get back on the field. Garcia began a rehab assignment Tuesday night with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and will spend the next several days increasing his workload at the plate and in the field to get ready for a return to Kansas City.
Here’s what you need to know:
How did he perform?
Garcia went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and played five innings at third base in the Naturals’ 11-8 loss to the Tulsa Drillers (Dodgers) on Tuesday. In terms of workload, that’s what the Royals had planned, saying earlier Tuesday that Garcia would play five to seven innings in the field based on how he felt.
What’s next?
Garcia is scheduled to be the designated hitter Wednesday in Double-A. He’ll likely get three to four at-bats again as he eases his way back into games. How he feels over the next several games with the Naturals will give the Royals a better timeline on his big league return.
What are they saying?
“We’ve got to take it one day at a time, but he’s felt really good in his progression, especially with the hitting. … It’s been very gradual. It started on the tee, then flips, then BP, and then we have the Trajekt machine that he’s been amping up the intensity with regular machine work as well. So he’s felt stronger. They’ve been testing the strength of his hand. It’s gotten better and better. He doesn’t feel any of the symptoms that he had before. The real test will be in the game.” –manager Matt Quatraro
What else?
This injury was an odd one, because Garcia only felt pain on certain swings and specifically on balls that he wasn’t squaring up well. That made it hard to assess and hard to rehab because he would feel healthy in the batting cage taking good swings. In games, though, it’s harder to predict what and where pitches are coming and what swing you’re going to take off each one. As Garcia began swinging again in his rehab process, he experimented with different bats and different machine work in the cages using the Trajekt machine.
This article originates at MLB.com/Royals.
