Avisail Garcia: I know White Sox trust me
At this time a year ago, Avisail Garcia appeared at SoxFest with a strut in his step and no shortage of confidence.
"I want to be a five-tool player," he said at the Hilton Chicago.
Fast-forward to 2016, and Garcia has gone from a core piece to a player that looks expendable.
That's how fast a promising young player can fall, but Garcia vowed to pick himself back up on Thursday after calling Chicago White Sox season-ticket holders at U.S. Cellular Field in advance of SoxFest.
"Everybody wants to get better, right?" Garcia said. "So you have to work for it. Nobody wants to be the same as last year, so you have to work if you want to do something better."
Garcia says he went to work in November to prepare for the upcoming season. The 24-year-old outfielder has plenty to prove.
Not only was his .257/.309/.365 hitting line, 13 home runs and 59 RBI last season subpar, Garcia ranked 20th among the qualified 22 major-league right fielders with a -0.3 wins above replacement.
No wonder the Sox were rumored to be interested in free-agent outfielders Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton and Alex Gordon this winter, although they were never close to signing any of the trio, who are all off the market.
Garcia understands the business side of the game, but he didn't pay much attention to any of the rumors.
"Nothing," Garcia said. "I just focus and prepare myself to play baseball. I don't care what people say. I know what I can do, and I know the White Sox trust me. That's why I'm working really hard because I know what I can mean to my team. I don't pay attention too much to what people say because people know me and I know I will do better."
One more free-agent outfielder is still available, and the White Sox have been linked to Dexter Fowler, who posted a .250/.346/.4511 slash line with the Cubs last season while hitting 17 homers, driving in 46 runs and stealing 20 bases.
Gut feeling here - the Sox are not going to sign Fowler and surrender a sandwich draft pick in the June draft.
They are going to give Garcia another chance, and the 6-foot-4, 240-pounder is determined to make the most of it.
While the White Sox were far from satisfied with Garcia's performance last year, and the 141 strikeouts (and only 36 walks) are a major concern, they realize it was his first full season in the major leagues.
Earlier this month, Garcia and Sox hitting coach Todd Steverson worked for three days in Miami.
"We're working to get better," Garcia said. "Last year I was down (in my stance), then up. This year I am focused to be tall and being patient and swinging at strikes. You have more chance when you swing at strikes because you can see, when I swing at strikes I can hit like I did at the start of the season."
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