Baseball Reference<\/a> (page) really shows the journey,\u201d said Rob Coughlin, the Reds\u2019 senior director of professional scouting. \u201cThe last time he was in affiliated ball was 2022. It could have been the end of the road for a lot of guys, but not only did he stick with it, he found ways to get better.\u201d<\/p>\nAfter taking all of the 2023 season off, Garcia didn\u2019t have any offers from affiliated teams and joined the Monarchs for 2024 \u2014 a season that saw the squad move its home games after the club\u2019s home field was deemed unplayable. Garcia went 5-1 with a 2.54 ERA, the second-best mark in club history, but again didn\u2019t get any bites from a big-league organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys understand that this is the level of baseball, which they are in a sink or swim situation,\u201d Monarchs manager Joe Calfapietra said. \u201cThis is the position that they\u2019re in. It\u2019s all or nothing for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baseball, even if it meant another season with the Monarchs, was all that mattered to Garcia.<\/p>\n
Calfapietra is in his 26th season in independent baseball, and when Garcia pitches for Cincinnati, he\u2019ll become the 13th player Calfapietra has helped reach the big leagues, joining former Reds Fernando Cruz and Tim Adleman. Calfapietra credits Shawn Pender, the Reds\u2019 vice president of player development, with helping him along his baseball journey. That connection helped lead to the signings of Adleman and Cruz \u2014 and Coughlin and Calfapietra see several similarities between Garcia and Cruz, who is now with the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest one that I would draw is who they are as people, as competitors, as having the desire to continue to do this and prove they belong,\u201d Coughlin said.<\/p>\n
Garcia was on the Reds\u2019 radar during the 2025 season. Coughlin said the team tracks independent league players to bring into the club\u2019s minor-league system. Garcia, whose 163 strikeouts with the Monarchs in 2025 were just four short of the league\u2019s single-season record, was at the top of the list when the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts needed a starter late last August. After signing in Chattanooga, he allowed two earned runs in 16 innings over three starts to finish the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this game, and I know I can still play at a high level,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI just needed someone to give me a shot \u2014 and last year the Reds did so.\u201d<\/p>\n
After re-signing with Cincinnati in October, he appeared in four games for the Reds this spring, allowing one run in 2 2\/3 innings with six strikeouts and no walks. He continued that with Louisville out of the bullpen this season, going 3-0 with a save and a 3.03 ERA in 21 games (two starts). In 35 2\/3 innings, he struck out 54 and walked 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis story is a good one, but frankly, this isn\u2019t just a fun story,\u201d Coughlin said. \u201cHe\u2019s performed and shown the ability to get batters out at the highest level that\u2019s not the big leagues. He\u2019s earned the opportunity to show what he can do against big-league hitters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The difference between the pitcher who was in the Phillies organization and the one who showed up at Great American Ball Park on Monday is maybe a few miles per hour of velocity, getting up to 95, and more importantly, how he\u2019s able to use his breaking ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I saw it \u2014 the way he spins his breaking ball is exceptional, something you don\u2019t see every day,\u201d Calfapietra said. \u201cThat\u2019s what just awe-ified me \u2014 and I know that\u2019s not a word, but that\u2019s just what got me. Position players would come off the field thinking he was doctoring the baseball and he wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia calls his breaking ball a slider, while neither Coughlin nor Calfapietra referred to it as anything but a \u201cbreaking ball.\u201d When a coach or scout calls a pitch a \u201cbreaking ball,\u201d it usually means it\u2019s so different that it\u2019s hard to compare to any other pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what Julian calls it, so I just call it a \u2018breaking ball,’\u201d Calfapietra said. \u201cBecause whatever he calls it, when it comes out of his hand, God bless. I don\u2019t want to ever call it anything, because it\u2019s his baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the record, Garcia calls it a slider.<\/p>\n
\u201cI throw a variation of a sweeper, but I can\u2019t completely get on the side of it because (my motion) is so over the top,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sweeper, but it does have a little bit of downward motion like a curveball. I also throw a cutter, but it\u2019s more of a gyro slider. So, I have two different types of breaking balls. I used to throw a big curveball but don\u2019t throw that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reds infielder Edwin Arroyo has seen the pitch plenty of times last season in Chattanooga and this season in Louisville. \u201cSlider, sweeper \u2014 it\u2019s something they don\u2019t hit,\u201d Arroyo said.<\/p>\n
From his perspective, Coughlin said Garcia\u2019s breaking balls are special because one has a shorter break like a true slider, and the other has a longer break like a sweeper. Garcia\u2019s true gift is being able to manipulate that pitch and play with the amount of break while reading batters\u2019 swings to adapt each pitch to fit the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just super smart, so it was just a crazy combination of what he was doing,\u201d Calfapietra said. \u201cIt all came together at the right time, along with his belief in himself. He just took it to a different level because the confidence kept growing, and then the talent and the belief overtook everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia spent Monday night in the Reds\u2019 bullpen, watching the team lose 2-1 in 10 innings to the Milwaukee Brewers. Waiting another day to make his debut was nothing after everything he\u2019s been through.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just telling (fellow reliever Chase) Petty it was cool just to be able to (see it) tonight,\u201d Garcia said after the game. \u201cNow I\u2019m here. So I can get some sleep tonight and visualize what I want to tomorrow when I take the mound.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 Julian Garcia sat in the media interview room outside the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 clubhouse at Great American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5257,591,85],"class_list":["post-755013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}