The Royals announced Tuesday that third baseman Maikel Garcia has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a muscle strain in his left hand. Veteran infielder Josh Rojas was recalled from Triple-A in his place.
Garcia has been trying to play through discomfort in his hand for some time now but apparently reached a point where that was no longer tenable. Garcia was lifted from Kansas City’s game on June 16 due to soreness in that same hand. He’s made 11 plate appearances since that point and has just one hit during that time. It’s not clear how long the hand issue had bothered him prior to that exit — if at all — but Garcia was enjoying a strong start to his season through mid-May (.285/.353/.437) before tanking with a .234/.271/.291 batting line over his next 124 turns at the plate.
Perhaps that’s pure happenstance, but Garcia’s 2025 breakout form has been nowhere to be seen for the past six weeks or so. The 26-year-old erupted with a .286/.351/.449 slash, 16 homers, 23 steals and Gold Glove-winning defense at the hot corner last year. That earned him a $57.5MM contract extension from the Royals, who now have Garcia signed through 2030 with a 2031 club option.
The Royals are surely hoping that the ailing hand has been the primary factor behind Garcia’s downturn. Getting him healthy and back on track will be paramount, given the dearth of offensive contributors elsewhere on the roster. Bobby Witt Jr. is having another strong season, and Jac Caglianone has begun to deliver on his prospect hype, but the rest of the roster is lacking in impact bats. Rookie catcher Carter Jensen has produced league-average offense. Infielder Nick Loftin and veteran outfielder Lane Thomas have been slightly better than average but in limited roles.
Lineup cornerstones like Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino are stumbling through career-worst seasons, however, and offseason trade pickup Isaac Collins hasn’t come close to replicating last year’s rookie results with the Brewers. On the whole, the Royals are tied for 17th in the majors with 333 runs scored. They’re tied with the Twins for 13th in teamwide batting average (.246), sit 14th with a .320 on-base percentage and are tied with the Blue Jays for 18th with a .393 slugging percentage.
With Garcia out for at least the next 10 days, the just-recalled Rojas and the aforementioned Loftin should handle the bulk of the playing time at third base. Loftin already played 147 innings there this season and done so with slightly positive grades from Defensive Runs Saved (1) and Outs Above Average (1). Loftin isn’t making much hard contact, but he’s drawing plenty of walks (11.8%) and putting the ball in play a ton (13.9% strikeout rate), leading to a .242/.343/.408 slash that’s about seven percent better than league-average output, by measure of wRC+. Rojas has nearly 2500 major league innings at the hot corner, though he hasn’t been productive at the plate in the majors since 2022.
