Yeudy Garcia flew to Pittsburgh yesterday to get his shoulder checked out, Pirates Prospects has learned. Garcia was experiencing some pain after the season, which led to the checkup. We reached out to Garcia, and he mentioned that the shoulder was bothering him all year.
As I’ve reported throughout the year, Garcia didn’t have the same stuff that he had last year. His fastball velocity was down early in the year, and his command was off. The velocity increased later in the year, and the command improved, with the explanation being that he went the entire off-season without pitching, and that got him off to a late start this year. Still, he wasn’t seeing the velocity he saw with West Virginia, where he would sit 93-96 MPH and touch 97. He was hitting 95 and 96 MPH at times in the second half, but in his final start of the year, he was averaging 92, and that was mostly the case all year, with a 90-94 MPH fastball that ticked a bit higher at times.
I asked Pirates staff throughout the year if there were injury concerns with Garcia, but the response was always that this wasn’t an issue. So if it was going on all year, it’s possible the Pirates didn’t know about it until now.
We will have an update when there is more to know about the status of Garcia’s shoulder.
John Dreker contributed to this report.
