-1745819772711.png){kind=logo}
ATLANTA – Luis García Jr. had never played anywhere other than second base and shortstop in the major leagues. Sprinkle in a few games at third base in the minor leagues and there was only one remaining infield position he hadn’t played in his professional baseball career.
That changed Tuesday night when he took the field at Truist Park with Andrés Chaparro’s glove and manned first base against the Braves. And to his credit, after only practice reps at the new position since the All-Star break, he made a good first impression.
“Really good,” García said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz, of how he felt at first following the Nationals’ 3-2 loss to the Braves. “The first three innings, I was kind of nervous, but then after that, I felt really comfortable.”
García was on the receiving end of 11 putouts at first through the eight defensive innings, thanks in large part to Brad Lord inducing nine ground balls over his six innings. Most were routine plays, with a few short hops needing scooping, which he did so cleanly every time.
“I was trying to stop the ball, keep the ball right in front of me and make the play,” he said. “But I feel all the plays that were made today and were thrown at me, I felt good.”
“He looked comfortable. He moved good,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “The hardest ground balls are the ones that you got to react to the right side. And he did pretty good. A ground ball to second base, your first instinct is to go to the right side. But he went that way and came back to the base. So he did good. He got a few scoops and he looked good.”
With only practice reps before this, the team and García himself needed to feel comfortable with him at first before actually playing him there in a game. But with the season winding down, if the Nats were going to give him a shot over there, they were going to have to just throw him into it.
“When you practice a lot, it's definitely going to make you feel more comfortable,” García said. “And like I said, the first three innings, I was nervous. But then after that, with all the practice, I felt really comfortable.”
“It was awesome,” Lord said. “I looked over there and I'm like, 'He's my guy. I'm gonna get you some ground balls. And we're gonna have a lot of fun.'”
There are only three games remaining in the season, so time for García to play first base again is limited. But Cairo now knows he can trust the infielder at first base now if wants him to play over there again.
“I don't know. ... We're just going to go and see when is the next time,” the interim skipper said. “Maybe one more time. So let's see how it goes.”
After a breakout offensive performance last year that included improvements in his defense at second base, García took a few steps backward in 2025. He’s hitting .251 with a .682 OPS, both significantly down from his 2024 numbers.
García will now enter another offseason in which he’s eligible for a salary raise through arbitration. But the Nats’ new front office and coaching staff that will be hired in the coming weeks will have no ties to the 25-year-old who signed as international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in July 2016.
So the infielder will try to be more versatile to increase his value to the team, as he hopes to still be with the Nats when they are next competing for the postseason.
“I'm here to play wherever they tell me or they need me to, especially to make the playoffs,” he said. “And in the offseason, I'm gonna take practice at second and first. Wherever the team needs me, I'll be playing there.”
“He looked natural. I think he looked natural there,” Cairo said. “He moved. That's gonna come with time, getting used to the position. If you can play different positions, you're versatile and you're gonna get a chance to play.”
