The Hall of Fame isn’t preparing room for Deivi Garcia just yet, but the 21-year-old right-hander is the betting favorite to get a second big-league start against the Orioles on Friday night in Camden Yards where the Yankees and Birds play a doubleheader.
Promoted from the alternate site in Scranton on Sunday as the “29th’’ man for the twin bill against the Mets, Garcia went six innings, didn’t allow a run, gave up four hits and fanned six in his first taste of the big leagues.
“Composed and a strike-thrower,’’ general manager Brian Cashman said of Garcia’s outing against a formidable lineup in which he retired the first nine Mets and 12 of the initial 13. “He looked very comfortable and he looked like he belonged. It didn’t look like it was his first time.”
Ever since Garcia blossomed last year at Single-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton he has been a guy who has been talked about a lot inside and out of the organization.
“We have asked a lot of him at his stage of his development,’’ Cashman said. “After seeing some of his performances in spring training, 1.0, 2.0 we saw a better version of Deivi Garcia [Sunday] which is one we envisioned but just not at this level. Obviously, that was the question.’’
Of course, Aaron Boone has seen plenty of young arms dominate a big-league lineup in their debut simply because of the unknown factor. There might have been a little bit of that against the Mets but it was good enough to get Boone dreaming a bit about how Garcia can help the Yankees down the stretch.
“Very possible. A lot of times, especially in championship runs sometimes you get contributions from unexpected places or sometimes from somebody coming up for the first time in their big-league career and having an impact,’’ Boone said. “Our game is littered with stories of people coming up and impacting September runs and things like that.’’