Adolis Garcia hitting the market could interest the Cubs

Ken Blaze - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 1 hour ago

Baseball can be a cruel game. One moment you are on top of the world, living life to the fullest, and the next, you are crashing down to the point where you may not have a job. Adolis Garcia is living proof of that, as he has followed a similar trajectory over the past few seasons.

The once Home Run Derby champion and playoff hero during the Texas Rangers' World Series run has suddenly fallen on hard times to the point where Father Time may be catching up to him. Then you have a situation where the Texas Rangers are trying to cut payroll, and Garcia became one of those casualties when they elected not to tender his contract, thus ending his time with the Rangers.

Now a free agent for the first time in a while, Garcia is looking to latch on to one last organization with the hopes of a bounce-back season. Could the Cubs be one of those teams that try to get him at a cost-effective deal that would serve as a prove-it deal? In the process, you would get a power-hitting righty that has historically crushed lefties, while also giving the Cubs a DH/RF option to platoon with Seiya Suzuki, Moises Ballesteros, and several others.

This all makes sense on paper, but when you look at last season as a whole, there are some concerns. For the longest time, 2021 for that matter, Garcia has been a steady run producer and the most prolific threat in the Rangers lineup. Seen as a late bloomer, considering he was 29 when he had his first monster season, and Garcia is a guy who has connected for 141 homers and 459 RBIs since the 2021 season, which goes to show how dangerous he can be.

That includes a pair of 30-homer seasons in 2021 and 2023, when he blasted 31 homers and 90 RBIs in 2021 before setting career highs in 2023 with 39 bombs and 107 RBIs. While the years in between didn't provide the same level of power, Garcia continued to produce in the middle of the Rangers lineup, adding 27 homers and 101 RBIs in 2022 and then 25 homers and 85 RBIs in 2024.

Given the way his career was trending, many thought the 2025 season would be one of his better seasons, as that was what the pattern initially indicated. Instead, Garcia had his worst season as a pro, and considering he is now 32 going on 33, some wonder if his best days are behind him.

Not much of an average hitter to begin with, Garcia's high-water mark of .250 came in 2022, and he has fallen off immensely over the past two seasons, hitting just .224 in 2024, a career low, before slightly improving to .227 this season. While his decline in average is a concern, it was his struggles against lefties this past season that raised eyebrows, as Garcia hit just .199 against left-handed hitters in 2025.

Considering he was a .279 hitter against lefties before this past season, and that is a massive concern for any team looking to sign him, and that alone could have been the main reason for his lack of power in 2025. Always a guy expected to hit 30 homers and drive in 90-plus runs, Garcia failed to reach 30 homers for the first time in his career, finishing with 19 homers and 75 RBIs in 135 games.

He walked a career-low 28 times while also striking out a career-low 135 times, which is a positive in some sense. Struggles aside, Garcia was still a 2.7 WAR player and has posted three seasons of 3.7 or higher when it comes to WAR numbers. Had this been two seasons ago, adding Garcia to the Cubs lineup would be a no-brainer, and even with his numbers declining, he still makes a ton of sense.

Adding him to the heart of the Cubs lineup not only gives them a bona fide run producer who would have no trouble launching balls into the teeth of the Wrigley Field wind, but also gives the Cubs a bat who has handled lefties most of his career. For as right-handed dominant as the Cubs lineup has been, they struggled to hit lefties in 2025, which was one of the biggest mysteries with this team.