SURPRISE, Ariz. -- With all due respect, Robert Garcia would rather not be in Arizona right now.
He would have preferred that Team Mexico advanced past pool play of the World Baseball Classic and continued their quest for the country’s first-ever championship.
But now that he’s back in camp and reflecting on his experience, the World Baseball Classic was definitely worth the price of admission.
“The big thing is that you get to talk to guys who are on the other side, who you may never play with ever,” Garcia said. “For me, like I got to talk to [Mariners closer Andrés] Muñoz and pick his brain. I learned a lot from him. … A lot of [closing] is just the mentality. ‘How do you go about failure? How do you go about pressure?’ It’s letting go of pressure and understanding that your stuff is plenty good and you’re not going to be perfect every night.”
Garcia knows more than anybody how much closing can weigh on a pitcher. In August of last season, his ERA ballooned to 6.30 for the month, thanks in part to a pair of blown saves in Seattle around the Trade Deadline.
Muñoz had a front-row seat to it.
“I have no problem bringing it up,” Garcia said. “It's already happened, the stats are the stats. I have no problem talking about it. Going in, he was someone that I felt like had a lot of really good information that would be a good person to learn from. He was like, ‘Trust me, I felt for you [in Seattle]. I've been there, that's the worst feeling that you're gonna experience.’”
Garcia said that Muñoz reminded him that everybody has nerves sometimes. What matters is how you quell those nerves in order to make an impact on your team. He probably needed to hear that from somebody who has had ample success in this role.
“I just think it helps him later on in his career, hopefully in the postseason this year,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “He got to experience that he had success against Team USA. He knows how he can be successful in those spots again. Maybe the heartbeat lowers even more because he's been in an atmosphere like that. So as far as quantifying it, you can't. That's the whole thing about the human element. You can't quantify a person's brain or heart, right? The projections are the projections, but he knows he can do it now. That's big time. He's not running from it, he's excited to go attack that again. So I love it for that reason.”
Garcia pitched in a setup role ahead of Muñoz, Mexico’s closer. He had a pair of scoreless innings in his first two outings against Great Britain and the United States. He allowed two runs in one-third of an inning against Italy.
Given the nature of Spring Training, it’s not a stretch to say that Garcia has pitched the most high-leverage innings of any Rangers pitcher this calendar year. That’s the value of the WBC, especially for a relatively inexperienced pitcher like Garcia.
The Rangers acquired Garcia in December 2024 with the idea that he had enough upside to be used in high-leverage situations. The upside has been there. After all, he posted a 2.95 ERA in 2025. But he could never quite lock into the closer role, as he ultimately went just 9-for-16 in save opportunities.
Garcia doesn’t run from his lackluster performance as the closer last season, though.
“That part last year was a learning experience of understanding that you're not going to be perfect every night,” Garcia said. “There are going to be nights where they just get you, that's just the nature of the game. Being able to move on and let that go is what determines a guy who's new to the ninth inning or a guy who's been there.
“Sometimes you think, ‘Oh my god, I can't do it again. I can't do this.’ Then you stray away from the mindset that you've had the entire year. It’s just about keeping it one at a time, and understanding that it's a new day, and learning from everything.”