Brewers add prospect Eduardo Garcia to 60-man player pool

The Milwaukee Brewers filled one of the vacancies in their 60-man player pool yesterday when they announced that prospect Eduardo Garcia had been added to the group of players stationed at the alternate training site in Appleton. The move was first reported by the venerable Jim Goulart of Brewerfan.net.

Garcia, who just turned 18 last month, signed with the Brewers as an international free agent in 2018 and received a bonus in excess of $1 mil. He suffered a broken ankle 10 games into his professional career, but it is not believed that the injury will hamper him over the long-term. Garcia is ranked as Milwaukee’s #10 prospect in Baseball America’s latest top-30 prospect list for the org, previously writing “[h]e’s a true plus defensive shortstop with a plus arm, and those tools could very well get even better as he matures physically and adds strength. At the plate, Garcia shows promise with a good approach and smooth swing that already yields gap power.”

With just 32 at-bats at the lowest level of affiliated baseball, Garcia is not someone who will be ready to contribute at the big league level this year. But as intrepid reporter Adam McCalvy points out, only players who are members of the 60-man player pool are allowed to be traded this year. That means that if the Slingin’ David Stearns wants to go out and improve his team before the August 31st trade deadline, he’ll have to do it using players who are either on the current roster or training up in Appleton.