Nats' new reliever has familiar name, not role

ST. LOUIS – First things first: Luis García is not Luis García Jr.

The former is the Nationals’ new 38-year-old reliever, signed on Tuesday. The latter is the Nats’ 25-year-old second baseman, the organization’s longest tenured player having signed as a teenager in 2016. Whose father, Luis García, is the 50-year-old former infielder who played eight big league games for the Tigers in 1999.

Got all that? Good. Just remember this particular article is about Luis García, the 38-year-old reliever, and everything will be fine.

Name confusion aside, the Nationals are happy to have this García as part of their bullpen now, hoping the veteran right-hander can help take some burden off the young arms who have been thrown to the wolves this season, a few of them surviving but several of them having been eaten alive.

“It really helps,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “He’s got some experience. We’ve got a lot of young kids, a lot of young pitchers in the bullpen. It’s a good mix to have another veteran out there who can help with the young players.”

Two weeks ago, García was pitching for the Dodgers, getting roughed up for three runs while recording only one out in a game that got out of hand. Signed at the start of spring training for $1.5 million, he struggled to a 5.27 ERA and 1.829 WHIP in 28 games with Los Angeles before he was designated for assignment June 29.

The Nationals jumped in and at the start of the week signed the now-free agent for the prorated major league minimum, believing they can get more out of him than he showed in L.A.

García believes it, too. Why? Because he believes his struggles had little to do with the quality of his pitches, but with the fact opposing hitters seemed to know what was coming.

“The thing is tipping. I’ve been having a hard time with tipping,” he said. “So I’m trying to work on not doing that. That’s the biggest thing right now.”

Baseball people are always reluctant to get into the details of pitch-tipping, not wanting to give away any information that might be used against them. But it’s a common problem, one that requires a keen eye and constant attention to detail.

García thinks he knows what he needs to do to correct the flaw. Now he just needs to make sure he consistently puts that into practice.

“When they know what’s coming, it’s hard, even if your pitches are good,” he said. “So that’s why I’m trying to fix that. Hopefully here I can do that and pitch free, maybe get the results that I want.”

He did get the results he wanted Wednesday night in his Nationals debut. Cairo wanted to try to find a soft landing spot for him, given the extended break he was on after getting dropped by the Dodgers. That spot happened to come in the bottom of the ninth at Busch Stadium, with the Nats comfortably ahead 8-2.

García faced three batters, retiring them all, striking out two. He did so with a fastball that averaged 97.7 mph and topped out at 98.9 mph, the kind of velocity only a couple of other relievers on this staff possess. And he threw seven of his 10 pitches for strikes, four of them called.

“I wanted to see García pitch today,” Cairo said. “He’s got really good, electric stuff. To see him today, now you can see what you can count (on) with him in the bullpen. It’s nice.”

It remains to be seen how consistently effective García can be, and if so, where he ultimately slots into a bullpen that needs all the help it can get.

He’s happy to do whatever he can, leaning on the experience he’s accrued over 13 major league seasons with eight different clubs, 573 total appearances on his career resume. Aside from fellow veteran lefty Andrew Chafin, the six other current members of the Nationals bullpen (Kyle Finnegan, Jose A. Ferrer, Cole Henry, Brad Lord, Jackson Rutledge, Mason Thompson) have a combined 647 games of big league experience.

“Lately I’ve been the oldest guy on the teams I’ve played for,” García said with a laugh. “So it’s the same. Nothing different. But it’s exciting, because I know I can help most of these guys with anything they need. I’ve been playing for a long time, so whatever they need I’m here for.”

Just as long as everyone remembers which Luis García he is.