It seemed like just yesterday we were complaining about Tony La Russa and Leury García, and how the former keeps throwing the latter into key situations because the consequences of disappointing results have pretty much been limited to a Dallas Keuchel DFA.
That's a lie. It was Sunday.
In the three games since, La Russa and García teamed up for two more decisions that characterize the combination's tendency to break logic in high leverage.
Monday: La Russa uses Leury García as a defensive sub for Gavin Sheets in right field entering the bottom of the seventh inning and the White Sox holding a fresh one-run lead. The impulse is understandable, because Sheets flubbed a deep-but-playable ball García likely would've caught in the right-field corner. It also isn't without risk, because Sheets was due for one more plate appearance.
Sure enough, Sheets' spot comes to the plate with two outs in the ninth, but the White Sox are instead trailing by 1 because Reynaldo López blew the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Despite the game state reversing course from requiring defensive subs to offensive ones, García hits for himself and grounds out to second.
Wednesday: Shohei Ohtani is lifted after 5⅓ innings for lefty Jose Quijada, but he allows a two-out single to AJ Pollock, putting runners on the corners with two outs. Up comes García representing the go-ahead run. The White Sox have a pair of power-hitting righties on the bench in Andrew Vaughn and Jake Burger, along with a true outfielder in Adam Haseley should La Russa want a better defensive option.
García hits for himself and grounds out to the pitcher.
In between, the White Sox beat the Angels 11-4, and while it'd be too strong to say that Scott Merkin's game recap offered a defense of García, it attempted advocacy for likeable fellow.
Yes, there were more powerful or impressive performances than García in Tuesday’s victory, but it was García’s single to left opening up that five-run fifth. He has become somewhat of the talking point for the team’s offensive shortcomings to date, after agreeing to a three-year, $16.5 million deal as a free agent this past offseason.
But García believes results are the only difference between 2022 and the ‘21 season, when he drove in 54 over 474 plate appearances and hit a key three-run home run during the Game 3 home American League Division Series victory over the Astros.
“I don’t have the results that I want, but I’m not frustrated about it. You just have to keep working. Just keep playing and try to help the team,” García said. “I’ve been hitting some balls right to them, and bad games, good games -- it’s something you can’t control. Just play the game right and play hard and do what you can do.”
And I feel for García, because we shouldn't be talking about him as much as we are. He's hitting .197/.219/.264, but even if he's an inevitability on the roster due to his contract, he should be more hideable. The problems are twofold:
- The White Sox offense relies more on singles than homers, so instead of quick strikes, (potential) rallies get strung out until they reach a hitter who's not likely to get the job done.
- La Russa has no interest in hiding García.
This isn't the first time La Russa hasn't hit for defensive replacements while trailing. Aaron Bummer's collapse against the Twins in May 2021 is a vivid example, or the infamous "looking for a single" Billy Hamilton/Leury García game the month before.
And it doesn't sound like it'll be the last, judging on La Russa's indignant postgame response after Wednesday's loss.
“I’m watching Leury’s at-bats,” Tony La Russa said of the decision to stick with García. “You see Leury’s at-bats? You know? He also, he walked against Ohtani, which nobody was doing. Put the ball in play. In the ninth, the two hitters who had the best numbers against (Raisel) Iglesias were the two guys that led off: García and (Josh) Harrison. So, I like what I’m seeing.” [...]
“García deserved it and had the at-bat. He put the ball in play, fouled off some tough pitches. That’s the way I look at it. I don’t look at results. It’s too easy that way.”
The White Sox are 73 games into a season that opened with a 73 percent probability of making the postseason, according to FiveThirtyEight. It's now down to 43 percent. In this context, it's understandable why the guy in charge of the results wants you to ignore them.
The condescension would be infuriating if I still had the capacity to get angry at the White Sox, but my own process-over-results considerations merely make me mildly satisfied that the organization's suboptimal processes in hiring a manager and allocating payroll are working out as well as they should. If you actually want to feel better about the on-field product, both the results and the decisions driving them are designed to disappoint.
