Dérmis Garcia Clears Waivers, Outrighted to Las Vegas

On Monday the A's designated Dérmis Garcia for assignment to clear room for new reliever Sam Long on the 40-man roster. Per the A's transactions page, Garcia has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Las Vegas. 

Garcia made his MLB debut last season with the Oakland Athletics, getting into 39 games and batting .207 with a .264 OBP. He also clubbed five monstrous homers. The big drawback for Garcia in the majors was that he struck out 44% of the time, which is simply unsustainable. 

This season in a handful of Triple-A games, that strikeout rate went up from where it was last season at 29.9%, to 34.3%. Obviously the strikeouts are trending in the wrong direction, but at the same time we're working with a sample size of 70 plate appearances. Three fewer strikeouts would have put him at 30%, or essentially the same rate as last year. 

The goal over the course of the season is to improve on last season. 

In watching some of his Instagram videos over the off-season, it looked as though he was using a less pronounced leg kick in his at-bats, which could help achieve some of those results throughout the year. Getting comfortable with his new loading technique could have also led to the slight increase in strikeouts initially. It's a work in progress. 

With Garcia sticking around, there is also a question of what his role will be long-term. The A's currently have veteran Jesús Aguilar and Rule 5 draftee Ryan Noda in Oakland, and top prospect Tyler Soderstrom is a part-time first baseman as well. At-bats at first base are not going to be easy to come by. 

If he improves his strikeout rate enough, there's a chance the A's would carry him as a DH on their 26-man roster with the power he has in his bat. He's going to have to show a little more consistency before finding a spot for him in Oakland becomes an issue.