ARLINGTON -- Adolis García has been one of the defining characters of the Bruce Bochy era of Rangers baseball.
The 2023 ALCS MVP and World Series hero, García has -- as much as anybody -- contributed to the biggest moments in franchise history. The Rangers need that version of García back.
After two months of struggles at the plate, including a steady nosedive in the lineup, Bochy is giving García a few mental days to try to get himself right.
“García, I’m just getting him an extra day,” Bochy said on Friday. “He's getting a little mental break here. He's been battling too. I've been talking about getting him days off too, and he keeps talking me out of it.”
One extra day turned to two, then it turned into maybe more.
“We have a plan with him,” Bochy added on Saturday, when the Rangers lost 2-0 to the Cardinals. “We're going to get with him again and make sure that we're on the same page. I can't tell you when he will be back in there. We just want to give him some time to make this adjustment and get on track. We know what an impact this guy can make on our club. We have to have him right. I think you look at the last 15 days, and even the last 30, he's been battling. We need Doli to be who Doli is, and that’s providing us with a lot of offense.”
García slashed .189/.224/.333 in the month of May, bringing his 2025 OPS to .627.
While his defense is back to his Gold Glove levels from 2023 -- eight defensive runs saved and three outs above average -- it has clearly not been enough to keep him in the lineup at the moment when the Rangers are healthy.
García, professional as ever, understands the importance of getting himself right and helping to contribute to the team. Both the 2024 season and early into have not gone as well as he would’ve wanted.
But now he has the opportunity to take this mental break and turn it into a positive for himself and the team.
“It’s really important,” García said about his time off. “It’s about the mental reset, and coming back with more energy. Bochy has a lot of experience in this game. He said he thinks I need it, so I’ll take it now. I'm working on some stuff without the pressure of having to do something up there. Boch is smart. He’s a Hall of Fame manager. It’s not like I like it [sitting], but sometimes it’s good for everything, even for your body. I have been playing hard in the outfield, and I think it's gonna be good for everybody.”
Bochy added that he wants to give more guys -- not just García -- days off as the calendar turns to June. He isn’t the only one struggling. Through the end of May as a team, the Rangers are slashing .222/.284/.356. Their .640 OPS is the third worst in baseball.
With Corey Seager back from his nagging hamstring injury and Evan Carter well on his way back from his own quad injury, the Rangers’ lineup will be at full strength soon, enabling Bochy to play around with the lineup more than he’s had the luxury of lately.
And he’s willing to try just about anything to get this offense going.
“I mean, we just came off a pretty good grind, and now we get into June and get a little deeper in the season and get a little healthier too, that enables you to give guys more days off,” Bochy said. “It's going to be up to me to make sure I look after these guys. You look at yesterday, guys just really played a good game, and we had the day off before. It’s just a reminder that it's a grind of a season.”