When the Philadelphia Phillies signed outfielder Adolis Garcia to a one-year, $10 million deal in the offseason, the hope was that he would be an upgrade in the field and at the plate over Nick Castellanos.
As the calendar flips to June, we can undoubtedly say that Garcia has been an upgrade over Castellanos as a defender. However, Garcia’s offense has left much to be desired through the first 58 games this season, which is not what the Phillies’ brass nor the fans had in mind.
Garcia was supposed to provide power from the right side in the middle of the Phillies’ lineup, but that hasn’t happened yet. This season, the 33-year-old right fielder is hitting .191 with four home runs, 15 RBI, and has an OPS of .571.
Coincidentally, Castellanos, who is playing with the San Diego Padres, is slugging .191 with four home runs, 20 RBI, and has an OPS of .560 in 39 games.
Going back to Garcia, the veteran right fielder is coming off a horrible May that saw him hit .125 at the plate, which is a noticeable dip from March and April, where he hit .243. In fact, esteemed baseball writer Jayson Stark posted a mind-blowing stat about Garcia on Bluesky on Sunday, which sums up his struggles at the plate right now.
Adolis Garcia has 11 hits this month.That’s in 100 trips to the plate.The Yankees just got 11 hits in one inning. That’s in 18 trips to the plate.Baseball is something, isn’t it?
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst.bsky.social) 2026-05-31T22:21:32.696Z
Quite frankly, this is the last thing you want to see if you’re a Phillies fan. The fact that the Yankees had 11 hits in one inning, while Garcia finished with 11 hits in May alone, is jarring.
To make matters worse, six other teams on Sunday had 11 or more hits in their respective games, including the Dodgers, who racked up 13 in a 9-1 win over the Phillies.
That being said, the Phillies need to hope Garcia can find his groove quickly before things really go south. This season, the veteran slugger’s ISO is sitting at .106 (third-lowest in his career), home run percentage at 1.8, and his strikeout percentage is at 31.0.
The last time Garica had a strikeout percentage at 30 or higher was in 2021, when he hit .243 with 31 home runs and 90 RBI.
Another alarming aspect of Garcia’s play this season is that he’s not putting the ball in the air. His fly ball percentage is 22.7 (second-lowest mark of his career), and he plays at a hitter-friendly park. This is a far cry from Garcia’s final year in Texas, where he had a 33.8 fly ball percentage.
With the trade deadline looming in the background, the Phillies must see something from Garcia over the next few weeks to inspire some hope. If he can look like the guy we saw in March and April, that would help out this lineup a ton.
However, if Garcia’s play continues to trend downward, the Phillies might have to look for a replacement bat like Randal Grichuk at the trade deadline.
