MINNEAPOLIS -- Maikel Garcia (left hand muscle strain) faced a setback in his rehab assignment, and is headed back to Kansas City for further evaluation.
Garcia went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and played five innings at third base on Tuesday night in his first rehab game with Double-A Northwest Arkansas. During his last at-bat, Garcia felt similar discomfort in his hand that had initially caused his injured list stint a month ago.
Garcia was supposed to be the Naturals’ designated hitter on Wednesday as the Royals gradually increased his workload. Instead, he will be seeing the doctor again in Kansas City to determine his next steps.
“He felt it again on a couple of swings in his last at-bat,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “It’s a slightly different area, [so] we have to leave no stone unturned and find out what’s going on.”
Garcia has been on the IL since June 23 with the muscle strain. The 26-year-old had tried to play through it for several weeks before the Royals eventually put him on the IL. At first, Garcia only felt pain on certain swings, specifically on balls he didn’t square up well.
That made it hard for Garcia to rehab, because he would feel asymptomatic in the batting cage as he took good swings. In games, though, it’s harder to predict what and where pitches are coming and what swing you’re going to take off each one.
As Garcia began swinging again in his rehab process, he experimented with different bats and different machine work in the cages using the Trajekt machine. But he didn’t quite know how his hand would react until he took live swings in a game and saw how he felt.
Once Garcia is evaluated in Kansas City, the Royals will have a better idea of when he might be able to return to the field. Either way, it’s a frustrating setback for Garcia, who has now missed 30 games since he went on the IL.