New Yankees slugger Luis García Jr., a vastly improved player who leads the National League in slugging (.560), will help the sagging Bronx Bombers lineup. The New York-born García was finally showing his big potential in the Nats’ new, fun environment, and heaven knows the Yankees need bats.
Still, García’s acquisition seems fairly redundant since statistically he’s nearly a ballplaying duplicate of Yankees phenom Ben Rice (.561 slug). Plus, he also gives the Yankees maybe the greatest first-base depth ever, with a thriving future Hall of Famer Paul Goldschmidt now technically the third-string first sacker.
Here are some other ideas that fill more obvious needs: Make a play for Angels star shortstop Zach Neto and work to bring in one of three catchers — Hunter Goodman, Adley Rutschman or Ryan Jeffers.
Neto is a terrific talent who’s been a 20-20 guy playing in the wasteland of a fake version of L.A. (it’s actually Anaheim) and should be even better in serious surroundings. Some teams are concerned about his defense and makeup, but the metrics don’t do him justice and folks who know him say he’s a nice kid who happens to have a bit of Miami flair (like famed Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent, he hails from that area).
