The Philadelphia Phillies are just about a week out from Opening Day of the 2026 season. The two-time defending NL East champions will look to defend their division title once again and overcome the playoff rut they have been in offensively over the last few years.
One player brought in to remedy that situation was Adolis García. García, the 32-year-old veteran slugger, is coming to the Phillies after a down year with the Texas Rangers, where he had career lows in OBP, home runs, and RBIs.
García’s struggles at the plate carried over with him into Spring Training with the Phillies. Before last week, García was hitting .192 entering Tuesday’s game with one extra base hit and one RBI. However, since then, García has turned a corner, going 6-for-14 in four games, with two home runs and five RBI. Credit for the uptick in offense? A new batting stance.
Changing His Stance
Adolis García has suddenly found his swing as Opening Day quickly approaches, and he is getting his groove back.
Before his breakout game last Tuesday, García had put 13 of the 24 balls he put in play on the ground. For a power hitter like García, that is not ideal. So, the Phillies went to work on helping García make adjustments to his batting stance. He usually held his hands higher on the bat and tilted the bat towards the pitcher. The Phillies tried to break the bat tilt habit.
Matt Gelb of The Athletic, in his March 18 article, wrote about García and his stance adjustments. Gelb got Phillies manager Rob Thomson’s thoughts on García and tinkering with his batting stance.
“He tends to wrap it a little bit,” Thomson said. “So, trying to just calm that down so he gets a shorter route to the ball essentially. … He’s got aptitude and a work ethic, so hopefully it’s going to come through.”
Garcia believes the key to everything is not swinging at bad pitches.
“What I believe is that there’s no good swing with a bad pitch,” García said. “First and foremost, we’ve got to work on going after the good pitches. And once we get that good pitch, I think we can start working from there.”
In addition to his batting stance adjustments, García is attempting to chase less at the plate.
Improving His Chase Rate
One of the keys to Adolis García’s turnaround at the end of the Spring was improving his chase rate. Last season on the Rangers, García posted a 35.8% chase rate, ranking among the bottom 10 among MLB hitters. Before his turnaround game last Tuesday, García entered with a 21.8% chase rate.
García was finally rewarded for his patience with a good stretch of at-bats in his last few games before the start of the regular season. Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, in his March 17 article, wrote about Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long working with García, and how there is no magic formula to improve your chase rate.
“I just tell him that he has three or four in his pocket that he can use a day,” Long said. “If you’re chasing [35.8%], you’re probably chasing six, seven times a game. If he knocks that down to three or four … But you don’t go in saying, ‘You can’t chase.’ No, you can chase. But you only have so many to use. If it gets a little wild at times, we’ll reel it back in. It’s more of a mindset.”
García will get the chance on Thursday in the Phillies home opener to show his old team, the Rangers, that he is back to the player who won the ALCS MVP and helped the Rangers win their first World Series.
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