GLENDALE, Ariz. — Leury Garcia might not be in huge demand from White Sox autograph seekers or have the hottest selling jersey, but before his career is over, he might have more service time than many of his more popular teammates. Versatility doesn’t sell shirts but it keeps players in major leagues for a long time. And Garcia gives the Sox a lot of it.
The Sox have played 13 Cactus League games this spring and Garcia has already appeared at all three outfield positions, shortstop and third base. He has played more games in his career at second base than any infield position, so he can cover that, too.
Since they acquired Garcia from the Rangers as the player to be named later in a trade for Alex Rios in 2013, no wonder the Sox are keeping Garcia on board for a seventh season, which makes him the second-longest tenured Sox in the clubhouse next to Nate Jones. Garcia is not only versatile in the field, he switch hits and is one of the fastest players on the team. And oh, he pitched an inning against the Red Sox in 2014 (he took the loss in the 14th inning) and Athletics in 2015 (a scoreless inning in a 17-6 loss).
Remember the three Garcia outfield of Avisail, Willy and Leury? Leury (pronounced lay-OH-ree) is the sole Sox survivor. He even has multiple nicknames — bench coach Joe McEwing calls Garcia “Leury Legend” and manager Rick Renteria calls him “Leroy.”
“Leroy is really, really flexible playing every outfield position and every position in the infield other than first base and I’m sure if I asked him to play first he’d give it a shot,’’ Renteria said.
The ultimate test of versatility would be playing all nine positions in one game, as the Tigers’Andrew Romine did at the end of the 2017 season. If the Sox had a candidate for that feat, it would probably be Garcia.
That’s where Garcia draws his utility line, though.
“No way,” he said. “I don’t want to catch. I have much respect for the catchers.’’
In an emergency, if Welington Castillo and James McCann were unavailable, that job could fall on Jose Rondon, Renteria said. Rondon has played third base, shortstop, second base and first base in his career, and he played the outfield in winter ball this year to expand his versatility even further. Yolmer Sanchez has played second, third, shortstop and right field and would probably volunteer to catch, Renteria said.
As versatile as those guys are, they are not in Romine territory. McCann, a Tiger at the time, ad a front row seat to that exhibition in 2017 and said it was something to behold when Romine joined Bert Campaneris (1965), Cesar Tovar (1968), Scott Sheldon (2000) and Shane Halter (2000) as the only players in history to play all nine positions in the same game.
“It was pretty cool,” McCann said. “It speaks to the versatility of the player. You play at this level you’re obviously one of the greatest in the world, but for a guy playing every position, that is at a different level.’’
McCann’s position was the biggest challenge, although Romine had caught some bullpens, earning him emergency catcher status.
“It’s not something like, ‘oh I’m going to catch today’ and you’re comfortable with 95 (mph) coming at you,’’ McCann said. “It’s something you have to see.’’
It’s something Garcia doesn’t want to see. Anything else, he’s good with.
He should be. It will keep him in the game a while.
“Yes, I know that,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get in the lineup.’’
NOTES: The Sox were off Wednesday, but right-handers Ivan Nova, Ervin Santana and Kelvin Herrera were scheduled for sim games.
*Next: Sox at Brewers, Maryvale, 2:05 p.m. Thursday, 720-AM, whitesox.com, Carlos Rodon vs. Zach Davies.
