{"id":453115,"date":"2025-12-17T11:36:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/453115\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:36:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:36:24","slug":"royals-sign-maikel-garcia-to-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/453115\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Sign Maikel Garcia To Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

December 16th<\/strong>: The Royals officially announced the extension today.<\/p>\n

December 12th<\/strong>: The Royals and infielder Maikel Garcia<\/a><\/strong> are finalizing a five-year contract extension that\u2019ll contain a club option for a sixth season, reports<\/a> Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Wasserman client will be guaranteed $57.5MM on the deal, reports<\/a> Anne Rogers of MLB.com, though he can eventually earn something close to $85MM on the pact via the option and some escalators.<\/p>\n

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Garcia, who\u2019ll turn 26 in March, had previously been under club control through 2029 but will now be on a guaranteed contract through 2030. Between that 2030 season and the 2031 club option, Kansas City is picking up control over two would-be free-agent seasons. Garcia was arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected<\/a> a $4.8MM salary on the heels of a breakout showing in 2025. As a Super Two player, Garcia would have been arb-eligible four times and thus due three more raises in subsequent seasons.<\/p>\n

Though Garcia has been a regular with the Royals for three seasons now, the 2025 campaign was the first in which he provided any real value with the bat. He was a valuable player in 2023-24, but that was primarily due to plus speed (combined 60 steals) and quality defense at multiple infield positions.<\/p>\n

The 2025 campaign brought a full-fledged breakout. After batting just .249\/.300\/.344 in 1141 plate appearances from \u201923-\u201924, Garcia erupted with a .286\/.351\/.449 showing in a career-high 666 plate appearances. He posted career-best tallies in home runs (16) and doubles (39), tied a career-high with five triples, swiped another 23 bags and notched career-best walk and strikeout rates of 9.3% and 12.6%, respectively.<\/p>\n

Garcia continued on as a plus, versatile defender this past season. He spent the bulk of his time at third base but also appeared at second base, shortstop and in center field. Third base has been his most frequent and best position, evidenced both by superlative defensive grades (15 Defensive Runs Saved, 18 Outs Above Average in 1144 innings) and the first of what could very well end up being multiple Gold Glove Awards.<\/p>\n

Garcia profiles as the Royals\u2019 long-term option at third base. With shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a><\/strong> also signed long-term, Kansas City should have an outstanding left side of the infield, on both sides of the ball, for the better part of the next half decade. It\u2019s always possible that Garcia slides to a different position somewhere down the road, but the Royals tendered Jonathan India<\/a><\/strong> a contract this offseason and plan to deploy him regularly at second base after using him at multiple positions in 2025.<\/p>\n

That left-side infield duo of Garcia and Witt will now be the Royals\u2019 only players signed beyond the 2027 season, though right-handers Seth Lugo<\/a><\/strong> and Michael Wacha<\/a><\/strong> can be retained via club options. Kansas City also controls lefty Cole Ragans<\/a><\/strong> and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 another extension candidate \u2014 through the 2028 season. Team captain and franchise icon Salvador Perez<\/a><\/strong> is signed through 2027 and seems likely to continue re-signing in Kansas City until he opts to retire. That could increasingly be as a designated hitter, given the emergence of top catching prospect Carter Jensen<\/a><\/strong> (with fellow backstop Blake Mitchell<\/a><\/strong> not far behind him).<\/p>\n

Between his previously projected $4.8MM salary in 2026 and what would have been three arbitration raises, it\u2019s reasonable to think that Garcia\u2019s four arbitration seasons might\u2019ve cost somewhere in the vicinity of $35-40MM. That\u2019s obviously just a rough approximation, but the extension seemingly values the free agent year around $17-22MM, depending on how bullish one is on Garcia\u2019s earning power in free agency. In a best-case scenario, Garcia could have topped $40MM in earnings and hit free agency ahead of his age-30 campaign.<\/p>\n

The Royals are clearly buying into him as a perennially productive regular, and if that proves to be the case, they\u2019ll be rewarded handsomely with an extension that could play out like a bargain. For Garcia, this type of contract would\u2019ve been unfathomable just nine months ago. As is the case in any extension scenario, it\u2019s possible he could\u2019ve earned more going year-to-year and reaching free agency at a younger age. However, it\u2019s plenty understandable that a player who signed for under $100K as a 16-year-old back in 2016 and had well below-average offensive output in his first two MLB seasons would jump at the opportunity to lock in a deal that guarantees nearly $60MM and could top $80MM if that option is picked up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"December 16th: The Royals officially announced the extension today. December 12th: The Royals and infielder Maikel Garcia are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":453116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[131059,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-453115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-maikel-garcia","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115734711033066810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}