Should the Royals Have Handled Maikel Garcia's Hamstring Injury Differently?

On May 30th, the Kansas City Royals experienced an injury scare, as Maikel Garcia pulled his hamstring rounding second base against the Texas Rangers.

Tests revealed a grade 1 hamstring strain for Garcia, which was relatively good news. Anything more than that would've resulted in a lengthy IL stint and some recovery time in Omaha. However, a grade 1 strain meant the Royals could choose between keeping him on the roster and easing him back in or placing him on the IL for a quicker 10-Day IL stint.

The Royals opted for the former option, and it seemed like Garcia was progressing positively day by day, according to reports from MLB.com Royals beat writer Anne Rogers. Rogers reported that he was not just taking infield and batting practice but was available off the bench to pinch-hit as soon as Thursday's game against Minnesota.

Garcia ended up pinch-hitting in the Royals' 8-5 win over the Twins on Thursday evening, drawing a walk in his lone plate appearance. However, while he initially started on the bases, he was pulled after moving to second base on Josh Rojas' two-RBI single. Royals manager Matt Quatraro said they were being cautious, especially with questionable field conditions after a rain delay. Conversely, Garcia didn't exactly look "100 percent" on the basepaths.

Unsurprisingly, Garcia didn't start again on Friday in game two of the Royals' four-game series against the Twins in Minneapolis. It was his sixth-straight game out of the starting lineup.

After six straight games out of the lineup, one has to wonder if the Royals made the right decision by not adding Garcia to the IL right away.

Why the Royals Didn't Add Garcia to the IL

It does seem like Kansas City can be hesitant when adding players to the IL, especially key ones. 

Earlier in the season, the Royals opted not to add Salvador Perez to the IL after he suffered a hip injury. Rather, Kansas City opted to keep Salvy on the active roster, limit him to DH and first-base duties, and call up Elias Diaz to be the third catcher who could split duties with Carter Jensen as Perez recovered.

The strategy seemed to work somewhat. Salvy recovered and eventually reached full strength. Diaz only had 23 plate appearances and hit just .227. However, the 35-year-old veteran did hit two home runs and posted an .852 OPS. Thus, Diaz was able to hold things down behind the plate and in the lineup until Perez returned to more regular innings at catcher. 

It seemed like the Royals were hoping to do something similar with Garcia.

Since going on the IL, Nick Loftin has gotten regular starts at third base. Though he's struggled overall defensively this season (-9 OAA), he profiles much better at third base than second base and the outfield. It hasn't been a great year for Loftin offensively so far. He's hitting .214 with a .657 OPS  in 103 plate appearances. However, he did hit his first home run of the year on Wednesday in the series finale against the Reds.

While Loftin can hold down the hot corner in Garcia's absence, much like Diaz held down the catcher position when Salvy was out, Garcia isn't even getting starts at designated hitter. The hamstring injury is affecting not just his baserunning but his hitting as well, which explains why Garcia has only gotten two pinch-hit at-bats since May 30th (he's 0-for-1 with a walk and an RBI). 

That makes Garcia's situation not just dissimilar to Salvy's but ultimately, much more frustrating as well.

Garcia Would've Been Better Served on the IL

Watching Garcia's two pinch-hit appearances in this Twins series has been brutal. Not only did he not make much hard contact, but he just looked like he was still nursing his hamstring injury, whether in the batter's box or running up the first base line. 

It's been a down season for the WBC MVP, who made his first All-Star team a year ago. 

In 248 plate appearances this year, Garcia is slashing .267/.327/.382 with a .709 OPS. He has three home runs, 28 runs scored, 22 RBI, and just four stolen bases on seven attempts. After posting a .769 OPS in March and a .785 OPS in April, he only had a .632 OPS in May.

Furthermore, while his chase and whiff rate metrics have been solid, the rest of his Statcast profile, especially when it comes to barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and LA Sweet-Spot%, has been middling to mediocre, via TJ Stats.

The Royals want to stay competitive, and they are obviously more competitive when they have Garcia than when they have Josh Rojas, Abraham Toro, or Kevin Newman from Omaha. That said, it's obvious that Garcia's not fully healed from his hamstring injury, and they would be better off with a 100 percent Rojas or another Storm Chasers veteran infielder than a 70-75% Garcia (and that's putting it nicely).

The Reds were in a similar situation before their series with the Royals, with Elly De La Cruz, who also suffered a hamstring injury in their series against the Atlanta Braves. However, Cincinnati put him on the IL right away, and he should be ready to go in 2-4 weeks.

If the Royals had put Garcia on the IL right away, he would already be six games in and be eligible to return by the start of Kansas City's homestand against the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. He would have had more time to fully rest and recover, and probably in Kansas City, where he would have had more access to medical resources through the team.

Instead, manager Matt Quatraro has to go day to day, hoping that Garcia's hamstring will improve sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, Garcia is not looking great, and that doesn't bode well for the Venezuelan infielder's outlook in the Saturday and Sunday games against Minnesota. 

Right now, the Royals are 25-39, 14 games under .500. Their odds to make the postseason are 5.7%, the lowest of any team in the AL Central division, according to Fangraphs. When it comes to decision-making with this team, GM JJ Picollo and Quatraro need to make decisions in the team's best long-term interest, not short-term ones.

That said, it seems the Royals have focused too much on the short term with Garcia, and that's compromising his rest-of-the-season outlook, as trying to gut it out day by day isn't helping his confidence or performance at the plate. 

It may be too late to rectify this situation with Garcia, as putting him on the IL now would only set him back even further. 

Conversely, they need to learn from this mistake and place players on the IL right away rather than waiting. In a season like this, it's okay for the Royals to give chances to players in Triple-A and maybe even Double-A. Royals fans saw tonight what Beck Way could do long-term, as he struck out two batters in an inning of work and posted some gaudy chase and whiff rate metrics.

The Royals have to give guys chances. And to do so, they need to be cautious and on the safe side with players when they suffer injury, no matter how minor.

Hopefully, Picollo and Quatraro learned their lesson with Garcia and will move much more quickly on IL moves in the near future. In a season like this, Garcia won't be the last key Royals player to suffer an injury.