{"id":805286,"date":"2026-05-18T14:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/805286\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T14:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:58:09","slug":"pirates-expected-to-promote-jhostynxon-garcia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/805286\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Expected To Promote Jhostynxon Garc\u00eda"},"content":{"rendered":"

9:52am:<\/strong> While Garc\u00eda is expected to be promoted, Hiles adds in a follow-up report<\/a>, the Pirates have been considering one other player as well. A decision has not yet been finalized.<\/p>\n

8:55am:<\/strong> The Pirates are set to recall outfielder Jhostynxon Garc\u00eda<\/a><\/strong> from Triple-A Indianapolis, reports<\/a> Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Bucs are off today, so the move won\u2019t be official until tomorrow\u2019s road date with the division-rival Cardinals in St. Louis. The Pirates already optioned infielder\/outfielder Nick Yorke<\/a><\/strong> to Indianapolis following yesterday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda, 23, was acquired from the Red Sox in the offseason trade sending Johan Oviedo<\/a><\/strong> to Boston. \u201cThe Password\u201d ranked on various top-100 prospect list during the 2025 season but has slipped a bit; he\u2019s still a generally well-regarded outfield prospect who\u2019s bounced back from an awful start to his 2026 season to catch fire.<\/p>\n

Despite an eye-popping spring with the Pirates in which he batted .405\/.463\/.595 in 41 plate appearances, Garc\u00eda opened the season in the minors. The Pirates had Oneil Cruz<\/a><\/strong>, Bryan Reynolds<\/a><\/strong> and Ryan O\u2019Hearn<\/a><\/strong> locked into outfield spots and Marcell Ozuna<\/a><\/strong> at designated hitter. The Bucs understandably wanted Garc\u00eda getting everyday reps rather than sparse playing time on the bench when he\u2019s still in his formative, developmental years. The situation is a bit different now, with O\u2019Hearn hitting the injured list over the weekend and Ozuna having struggled through an awful 39-game stretch to begin his season (.182\/.271\/.311).<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda himself opened the season mired in a 1-for-27 slump through his first 29 trips to the batter\u2019s box. He broke out with a three-hit game on April 5 and hit safely in six of seven games before landing on the minor league injured list due to a back injury. Garc\u00eda rehabbed with the Pirates\u2019 Class-A club for a few days in early May, then erupted with a 5-for-5, three-homer outburst in his return to the Triple-A lineup last month. Overall, since that three-hit game in early April, he\u2019s slashed .324\/.365\/.632. It\u2019s only 68 total plate appearances \u2014 a handful of them in A-ball \u2014 but it\u2019s clear that Garc\u00eda has broken out of that early-season slump.<\/p>\n

For the Pirates, the inverse is true. Pittsburgh was swept by their intrastate rivals over the weekend, dropping three straight to Philadelphia by scores of 11-9, 6-0 and 6-0. The Pirates were 16-11 back on April 25 and have gone 8-12 since. They\u2019re still a game over .500, at 24-23, but they\u2019ve five games back of the Cubs for the NL Central lead and 3.5 games out in the NL Wild Card hunt.<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda should jump into the mix and get everyday at-bats, likely in right field in place of O\u2019Hearn. Jake Mangum<\/a><\/strong> can float between all three outfield spots as needed. If Garc\u00eda is hitting well when O\u2019Hearn is ready to return from the injured list, that could put some pressure on Ozuna \u2014 at least as long as the rest of the roster is healthy. Reynolds, Cruz and O\u2019Hearn have been key cogs in a Pirates lineup that ranks sixth in the majors in runs scored (229), sixth in batting average (.248), fourth in on-base percentage (.332) and is tied for 13th in slugging percentage (.388). They\u2019re not going to be displaced. O\u2019Hearn can also play first base, but Spencer Horwitz<\/a><\/strong> is slashing .273\/.383\/.414, so he\u2019s not going anywhere either.<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda made his major league debut with the Red Sox last year, but he received only nine plate appearances and accrued just nine days of major league service time. There isn\u2019t enough time left on the calendar for him to reach a full year of service in 2026, so he\u2019ll be controllable all the way through 2032 in Pittsburgh. Future optional assignments could change that trajectory, of course. He\u2019s in his second minor league option year and will have one remaining beyond the current season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"9:52am: While Garc\u00eda is expected to be promoted, Hiles adds in a follow-up report, the Pirates have been…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":805287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[218765,46712,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-805286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-jhostynxon-garcia","tag-marcell-ozuna","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116596173014208007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805286","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=805286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}