Astros: Luis Garcia is making a case for Rookie of the Year

The Rookie of the Year award can hint to a blossoming star in the making or sometimes a player that was a one-year wonder. For the Houston Astros, Carlos Correa and Yordan Alvarez have racked in the award in 2015 and 2019, while Luis Garcia could be the next one to do it in 2021.

After Cristian Javier finished top three in voting for the award in 2020, there didn’t seem to be any clean cut Astros as frontrunners for the award in 2021. Garcia, who jumped from High-A to the show, is building a case for AL Rookie of the Year.

AL Rookie of the Year is always a tossup, but Luis Garcia should be considered a frontrunner.

Entering competition in 2021, Garcia was granted the opportunity at the beginning of the season to be in the rotation and hasn’t showed any reason to leave it. While making his debut late in 2020 to opening an ALCS game, the right-hander has built the endurance to be considered a starter for a long time.

The right-hander posted another impressive outing on Tuesday with a quality start of three hits and eight punch outs over six innings. While maturing quickly, Garcia isn’t just carving up weaker competition, as he stood the test against the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier in the season.

Through 91.1 innings this season, Garcia has posted a 2.86 ERA with a 10.3 strikeout per nine. These numbers should’ve had the right-hander in contention for an All-Star spot, even before all the Astros backed out.

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With Yermin Mercedes falling off the face of the Earth, Adolis Garcia and Casey Mize are no doubt the other two frontrunners for the award.

A. Garcia has been an Astro-killer this season with a surplus of early-season home runs. While a Texas Ranger, the right-hander was selected to the All-Star Game with a current slash line of .262/.303/.506 and 22 home runs. His production has slowly dropped over the last month, which would affect the ballot come late in the season.

For Mize, the Detroit Tiger is highly underrated and among the disposal of young pitchers of A.J. Hinch. The right-hander has posted a 3.44 ERA over 99.1 innings and a 7.2 strikeout per nine. Mize is a rising star but doesn’t stand the test compared to L. Garcia at the moment.

There is a lot of baseball left, and with Luis Garcia posting better numbers than Mize, Adolis Garcia could be the close competition down the stretch. In the end, a Garcia will most likely be crowned AL Rookie of the Year.