The idea was that after Adonis Garcia struggled at third base for the Braves he would go to Triple-A Gwinnett and play left field before possibly rejoining the big-league team to play that position.
Garcia is back with the Braves but, in a twist, he’s the everyday third baseman again.
Since he was recalled from Gwinnett, Garcia has started all five games at third for interim manager Brian Snitker, including Wednesday’s game against the Giants. In 19 games with Gwinnett, Garcia hit .356 with a .413 on-base percentage and a .616 slugging percentage. He was 2-for-11 with three strikeouts in his first four games back with the Braves.
“He was hot when he got up here and swinging the bat good, so we wanted to give him some opportunities to see if that will translate up here,” Snitker said. “Keep running him out there. He had a really good end of the year last year when he came up so hoping to give him an opportunity to get it going, and this might be a guy we can count on.”
The circumstances have changed since Garcia was sent down. Snitker replaced Fredi Gonzalez as manager and also there’s no room in the outfield with Mallex Smith, Ender Inciarte and Nick Markakis playing regularly and Jeff Francoeur playing well in a platoon role.
In his first four games since returning Garcia handled 11 chances at third base without an error. Before he was sent down in April, Garcia had committed seven errors in 41 chances for a .829 fielding percentage, worst among everyday players in the majors at the time.
