Washington Nationals news & notes: Luis García, Jr. and his breakout 2024 season

Notes and quotes on Luis García, Jr.’s breakout 2024 campaign…

Davey Martinez challenged Luis García, Jr. when the now-24-year-old infielder optioned out to Triple-A for a month in August/September 2023.

The club’s goal with García, Jr. was getting him to develop a better routine on a daily basis.

“He’s 23 years old,” Martinez told reporters when García, Jr. went to the minors.

“I wanted him to go down and work on some things, especially more consistency out of him in his total game, preparation, routine, things of that nature.

“So he gets a chance to go down there, reset his feet a little bit. As soon as he shows us he can do that, we’ll bring him up. But he’s got a tremendous amount of skill, he really does. He has great bat-to-ball skills, his hands really work defensively. A lot of it, what we want him to get better at is using his lower half both hitting and on the field, so he’s got to work on that stuff while he’s down there.”

“It was a preparation assignment,” GM Mike Rizzo told The Sports Junkies late in the 2023 campaign.

“We wanted him to go down there and learn a routine, and learn how to prepare for each and every game in the big leagues.

“He went down there and has really tightened up his time in the weight room, his time in the batting cage, his time in the video room. He’s really gotten himself in great shape, he’s lost several pounds, which was one of the things that we wanted him to work on when he got down there.”

García finished up the 2023 campaign with a 22-game run over which he put up a solid .304/.360/.507 line, five doubles, and three home runs in 75 PAs.

Having stepped up when challenged, García was challenged again, with Martinez telling his second baseman, over the winter of ‘23-’24, he’d have to earn the second base job in D.C. in Spring Training.

“My message to him was is no guarantees in Spring Training,” Martinez said.

“You got to come and fight for a job. I think I sent the message to him when we sent him down. And it hurt me because I love the kid. But he’s got to get better.

“He’s going on his fourth year now with us, and I know what the upside is with Luis, but we got to get it out of him. He’s got to be consistent.”

García, Jr. was just that in his fifth major league season, finishing with a .282/.318/.444 line, 25 doubles, and 18 home runs in 140 games and 582 plate appearances a (career-best) 3.1 fWAR run.

As the club noted in their Season in Review, García, Jr., “[s]et career-highs in nearly every offensive category in his breakout season.”

The highlights (via the Nationals’ Season in Review)?:

• [García, Jr.] was 1 of 6 players in MLB to hit over .280 with at least 40 XBH and 20 SB in 2024
• Ranked 4th in NL with a .312 average after July 3 (min. 200 AB)
• Ranked among NL second basemen: SLG (2nd, .444), AVG (2nd, .282), RBI (2nd, 70), OPS (2nd, .762), HR (3rd, 18)…Led WSH w/a .312 AVG with RISP

“He’s been great, he really has. I’m not talking just about the hitting. The defense has been a lot better, the baserunning has been a lot better, the overall game has been a lot better,” Martinez said in August. “He’s putting the work in. I know I talked to him, I was a little bit hard on him in the beginning, but this is all him. He’s done the work, and he’s [reaping] the benefits right now. I’m going to keep him going, I want him to finish strong for the rest of the season, but he’s been great.”

The skipper also acknowledged García, Jr.’s maturity at the time, and joked with a reporter about the fact that the infielder is still pretty young in spite of his experience in the majors.

“Pretty young?” challenged the reporter, humorously. “He’s young. He’s really young. He got here at an early age, but he’s starting to understand who he can be, and playing consistent, which is great. That’s all we can ask for is just consistency out of these guys, but he’s been doing all the things that we asked him to do over the years, and he’s really putting together a good year this year.”

García, Jr. barreled more balls up (8%; up from a 6.6 Barrel% for his career), and hit them harder than he had previously (89.1 MPH Exit Velo; up from 87.7 MPH in his career, and a 41.7% HardHit%; up from 36.7% overall in his career).

“He’s just really staying behind the baseball, he really is, and when you’re able to use your legs, a lot of good things can happen,” Martinez said in September.

“We like where his approach is at right now, so we’re not going to fuss with it too much. He’s really engaged, he’s really trying to have good at-bats every at-bat.”

There is still, of course, still room for improvement. Martinez sat García, Jr. at times against tough lefties, and talked about his approach against left-handers as a work in progress late this past season.

“I try to match him up because he’s doing so well,” Martinez explained. “I don’t want to get him beat up yet … [but] when he’s in the game, it’s tough to take him out for a pinch hitter, so I want him to face lefties. But we are still working on things with his approach to lefties, as far as staying in there, and hitting selected pitches.

“The biggest thing is that against lefties he chases a lot of balls down. We’re tying to get him to understand to get the ball up and in more towards him.

“He can’t cover both sides of the plate. It’s tough to do against a left-handed pitcher. But he’s learning and he’s been really good.”