The Philadelphia Phillies are making another bet on a bounce-back season from a corner outfielder, this time spending $10 million on a one-year deal for Adolis García, who was a key fixture on a Texas Rangers team that won the 2023 World Series, but has been mired in decline ever since.
García, non-tendered in November after two consecutive seasons of hitting below league-average, will receive a slight raise from his $9.25 million salary in 2025. The Phillies, desperate for a competent right-handed-hitting outfielder, will turn to García in right field as the replacement for Nick Castellanos, who is expected to be traded or released before spring training.
The deal is pending a physical, league sources told The Athletic. It was first reported by Francys Romero.
Of the top 50 free agents on The Athletic’s 2025-26 Big Board, only six were outfielders, and of that group, only Harrison Bader bats from the right side, making García a logical fit for a team in need of right-handed power.
García provides 89th percentile power in terms of average exit velocity to a club that finished 20th in outfield home runs and 19th in slugging percentage last season. However, his power comes at the expense of some extreme swing-and-miss tendencies, habits that caught up to him following his breakout 2023 campaign.
Only 24 batters chased more pitches than García last season. His whiff rate was in line with Castellanos, a player who graded out with one of the worst percentile rankings in MLB. However, García’s 92.1 mph average exit velocity was higher than that of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cal Raleigh and Bryce Harper, and only slightly lower than the averages posted by Matt Chapman and Michael Busch.
Defensively, García can still have an impact, logging 16 Defensive Runs Saved in the outfield in 2025.
Signed in 2017 by the St. Louis Cardinals, García did not get his first extended chance at playing in the majors until 2021 at 28 years old. He earned an All-Star nod and finished fourth in Rookie of the Year balloting that season.
