{"id":743,"date":"2026-06-29T13:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=743"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:11:14","slug":"luis-garcia-jr-wont-stop-homering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=743","title":{"rendered":"Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. Won’t Stop Homering"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. is 26 years old now. If you\u2019re a Nationals fan of a certain age, that probably makes you feel some kind of way, especially if you\u2019re also the type of fan who buys emotional stock in teenaged prospects.<\/p>\n

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Garc\u00eda was 15 when the Nats signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2016. He made his first big league camp in \u201919, which was the same year the team won the World Series (which, in other words, was forever ago). In 2020, he became the first player born in the 2000s to homer in the majors. Earlier that year, I wrote that, in Dave Martinez\u2019s wildest daydreams, he imagined an infield of Garc\u00eda at second, Trea Turner at shortstop and Carter Kieboom at third.<\/p>\n

And then \u2026 well \u2026<\/p>\n

The Nationals traded Turner in the summer of 2021, in their first deadline yard sale, and he\u2019s since played for the Dodgers and Phillies. Kieboom, once the club\u2019s top prospect, never clicked before he was quietly released in 2024. Martinez lasted a bit longer, though he was fired as manager a year ago next week, when an entire era of Nats baseball split into before<\/i> and after<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So only Garc\u00eda is still here, which was especially important this past weekend, when the Nationals needed someone \u2014 literally anyone \u2014 to perform CPR on their season. By Saturday, they were having a no good, extremely bad time, almost solely because of a bullpen that was breaking everything it touches. Then Garc\u00eda, playing first and batting second, finished with four hits, including a homer, in a 4-3 win over the Orioles in Baltimore. Then on Sunday, he had three hits, including two more homers, in a 6-4 victory. The Nats took the series. Garc\u00eda drove in five of those six runs. The afternoon ended with him soaked by a Gatorade cooler\u2019s worth of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working a lot in the cage right now, being consistent,\u201d Garc\u00eda told Nationals reporter Alexa Datt in an interview after Sunday\u2019s game<\/u><\/span>. \u201cI think seeing the ball up. When I see the ball up and I don\u2019t chase it too much, I hit the ball well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to think (or write) about the Nationals right now without broad strokes and hyperbole. The bullpen is a dumpster fire, which makes it hard not to feel like something\u2019s being wasted, like maybe all of this would feel different had ownership invested even a tad more in the team over the winter. Because if every season is a chapter book, most of last week felt like an end tucked in the middle, when the relievers blew a huge lead, then a small one, then a mid-sized one, good for three brutal losses in three straight nights. And then it sort of felt like Garc\u00eda saved this whole charmed year on his own (at least until the next bullpen meltdown).<\/p>\n

But the reality is much smaller than any of that. It\u2019s still late June, a point of the calendar at which no team has ever lost or won anything of real significance. The Nats, at 43-42, are both exceeding expectations and falling short of what they could be with a better pitching staff, which is common for teams that are not built to win and then win at a decent clip anyway. So the present has been exciting, even with \u2014 or, rather, in spite of \u2014 a bullpen on pace to set the record for most blown saves in a season (25 and counting). And yet the future is where the front office is mostly focused<\/u><\/span>, seeing that their ultimate goal is to build something sustainable, not chase lighting in a bottle so soon.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to agree with that approach from your couch or seat in the ballpark. You\u2019re also free to pray that the team goes on a little run in the next few weeks, which would further complicate its trade deadline decisions. It can be dizzying to hold two truths at once as a fan, let alone three or four or five. So for a quick dose of sanity, here are a few facts at ground level, typed to be enjoyed without reaching for the bigger picture:<\/p>\n

Luis Garc\u00eda Jr., a player who had seemed close to maxed out in recent years, has 11 homers this month.<\/p>\n

Read more How an Industry That Runs on Pesticides Won Over RFK Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

– His 16 homers for the season, 14 of which have been off righties, are only two short of his career high.<\/p>\n

– Since mid-May, advanced numbers, like the popular weighted runs created plus, have him as one of the top hitters in the sport<\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n

– In June, if you like wRC+, two of his statistical peers<\/u><\/span> are dudes named Shohei Ohtani and Pete Crow-Armstrong.<\/p>\n

Okay, maybe I lied about the bigger picture thing. The Nationals have control of Garc\u00eda for the rest of this year and then 2027. Should they wind up selling at this trade deadline, he could be attractive for a contender in need of a left-handed platoon bat, which could net the Nats a decent return. Yes, he\u2019s hitting for a ton of power at the moment, which has spiked his on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) to an impressive .850. But with some obvious flaws \u2014 his tendency to chase pitches out of the zone, the fact that he rarely walks, his numbers against changeups \u2014 it\u2019s hard to imagine ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan posting BREAKING<\/u><\/span> in front of any trade involving him. Plain old Breaking is likely Garc\u00eda\u2019s ceiling if the Nationals go that route, which would still be a victory if they don\u2019t view him as a long-term piece.<\/p>\n

The best case there is he brings in a prospect who contributes down the line. But no matter what, even if a coin-flip prospect didn\u2019t pan out, a move could create chances for Yohandy Morales and\/or Abimelec Ortiz, two Nats minor leaguers with offensive upside. It makes sense on two levels, then, in that the Nats could extract more value from found money or learn whether there\u2019s additional production in-house. They also, in theory, could do both at the same time. And then there\u2019s the element that is totally detached from what the roster looks like in August or next spring.<\/p>\n

When I caught up with Garc\u00eda in early June, he told me that the new coaching staff, which includes three hitting coaches, has completely changed how he prepares for opposing pitchers. He then said that\u2019s given him a much clearer plan at the plate, which in its simplest form is to mash high fastballs whenever possible (and limit limp swings at everything else).<\/p>\n

That staff, led by first-year manager Blake Butera, is getting a lot out of fringe players already, including Garc\u00eda, infielder Curtis Mead and starter Foster Griffin. It\u2019s a fun narrative that, when the team needed a savior this weekend, it wasn\u2019t James Wood or CJ Abrams who came to the rescue, but a player who\u2019s now shared a clubhouse with Max Scherzer and Zack Littell in D.C. But it\u2019s more a strong endorsement of the behind-the-scenes changes in motion. That\u2019s the part that could echo beyond Garc\u00eda, well beyond this year.<\/p>\n

Read more Most Metro Fare Evasion Cases in D.C. Are Thrown Out<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nats\u2019 first baseman, who is the last link to the team\u2019s golden era, kept his teammates afloat over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nLuis Garc\u00eda Jr. Won't Stop Homering - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=743\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. Won't Stop Homering - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nats\u2019 first baseman, who is the last link to the team\u2019s golden era, kept his teammates afloat over the weekend.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=743\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-29T13:11:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. Won’t Stop Homering\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-29T13:11:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743\"},\"wordCount\":1264,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/7ebccc6d20f7c17fb3450ebee9ca0ffe-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743\",\"name\":\"Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. Won't Stop Homering - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/7ebccc6d20f7c17fb3450ebee9ca0ffe-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-29T13:11:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=743#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/7ebccc6d20f7c17fb3450ebee9ca0ffe-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/7ebccc6d20f7c17fb3450ebee9ca0ffe-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Washington Nationals' Luis Garcia Jr., right, celebrates with third base coach Victor Estevez (7) after hitting a home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Baltimore. 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