Marlins Jarlin Garcia: Worth a look in deep leagues?

The Marlins are in a rebuild but they still have players worth picking up. Young pitcher Jarlin Garcia had some good outings and could be worth an add.

The Miami Marlins are in the middle of a rebuild, selling most of their top stars in the offseason. Yet, they still need to field a team. As a result, they are giving opportunities to a lot of young players. One player stepping up to the challenge in young pitcher Jarlin Garcia. He may be worth a speculative add in deeper leagues.

The 25-year-old pitcher is owned in just 10.8 percent of ESPN leagues and 25 percent in CBS Sports leagues. He’s pitched well enough to warrant an add him most league formats. With his next start coming against Los Angeles Dodgers, you may want to add him before it’s too late.

Garcia made a good first impression to start the season. He pitched six shutout innings with one hit, two walks and six strikeouts against the Chicago Cubs. In his most recent start against the New York Yankees, Garcia pitched five shutout innings while giving up one hit (a Miguel Andujar double), five walks and two strikeouts.

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For the season, he has a 0.86 ERA, 0.810 WHIP, 13 strikeouts, 11 walks and a 1-0 record. The eye-opener is the number of walks he’s allowed so far. A 4.7 BB/9 rate is not going to win a lot of games. His ability to limit hits is what’s keeping his WHIP under a 1.00.

I’m not worried about the lack of strikeouts. There are plenty of other pitchers that don’t reach a 9.0 K/9 and still have a successful career, as long as they can keep the ball on the ground, which Garcia is doing. He has a 54.7 percent groundball rate, 35.8 fly ball rate and 9.4 line drive rate. While the fly ball rate may a little high, the balls aren’t leaving the park. He has a 5.3 HR/FB rate this season.

Garcia is working with a low-90s fastball and a mid-80s slider and changeup. Those offspeed pitches, when used effectively, tie up batters and help keep the ball on the ground.

With his current performance, Garcia won’t be pitching complete-game shutouts anytime soon. He will pitch just long enough to get the win and maybe a quality start against the right opponent.

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Garcia is a spot starter in standard leagues. In NL-only or deeper mixed leagues, he is worth a roster spot. The Dodgers matchup is an interesting one but there have been a few surprises so far this season.

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