Robles has many more at bats against MLB pitching but you want hike playing CF for the Nats. Not clear to me why you think one guy needs to learn in the minors and not the other?
Robles plays elite defense at the MLB level. Garcia does not. He hasnt even shown passable defense.
Robles has shown he can hit major league pitching in the past. Garcia has not.
Robles only has one more minor league option left. Garcia has two and I see no reason to build MLB service time and burn an option when this team is uncompetitive.
Robles was called up out of necessity, due to injuries on a team competing for a World Series.
I think Robles was called up too soon and is a prime example of why this is exactly the time we need to be letting Garcia develop in Triple A. He had initial success, and then once he got scouted, they found the hole in his swing. Robles needed more time at the minor league level to develop an approach and work on secondary pitches.
This is Garcia in a nutshell. He hits four seam fastballs and cant hit anything else. He's going up against guys who are learning to pitch with a new, smoother baseball than they've ever used. While he is exceeding expectations, he should be hitting well against Triple A pitching.
What does the team/organization gain by promoting Garcia to the MLB club? Not a whole lot, honestly. Best case scenario is they win a couple more games. So 96 losses instead of 98.
But the potential downsides are pretty substantial:
- Potentially, he stunts development. He either sits on the bench or struggles (again) against MLB pitching.
- He is a defensive liability on a team that doesnt field very well.
- He accumulates service time in meaningless baseball, thereby becoming more expensive and leaving for free agency sooner.
- He takes playing time away from players that we need to move at the deadline, in order to continue rebuilding and creating a window to compete while Soto is still under contract.
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