Rene Garcia (minors04)

Rene Francisco Garcia

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 205 lb.
• High School Colegio Sagrada Familia (Corozal)

• Born March 21, 1990 in San Juan P.R.

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Catcher Rene Garcia started playing in the Houston Astros minor league system in 2008 and lasted until the 2017 season. He was taken by the Astros in the 35th round of the 2008 amateur draft.

After working his way through the Astros system, he had the best year of his career, offensively, in 2013, hitting .293/.336/.394 with 108 hits in 91 games between the Corpus Christi Hooks and Triple-A Oklahoma City RedHawks. Though he hit over .300 with Corpus Christi, he batted only .246/.279/.277 in 18 games for Oklahoma City in his first taste of Triple-A. He spent 2014 with Corpus Christi, hitting .244 in 75 games. On July 30th that year, he had apparently managed the only hit of the game for his team, a 6th-inning, against the San Antonio Missions. However, following the game, the official scorer reversed his call, changing it to an error on SS Diego Goris, thus turning the 6-0 win by San Antonio into a combined no-hitter. Pitchers James Needy, Frank Garces and R.J. Alvarez recdeived credit for the feat.

In 2015, he move over to the Philadelphia Phillies organization, splitting the year between the AA Reading Fightin Phils and the AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs, batting .294 in 35 games. In 2016, he moved over to the Milwaukee Brewers, playing 55 games that year and 48 in 2017 as a backup catcher, appearing both years with the AA Biloxi Shuckers and AAA Colorado Springs SkySox. In all, he played 635 games in the minors over 10 seasons, batting .268 with 19 homers and 236 RBIs.

He was a regular participant in the Puerto Rican League in winter ball, mainly with the Gigantes de Carolina. He appeared twice in the Caribbean Series, 2016 and 2017. In both cases, he was loaned by Carolina to the Puerto Rican League champions (participating teams are allowed to add a few players from their home league for the Series), so he was with the Cangrejeros de Santurce the first year, and the Criollos de Caguas the second, when Caguas won the championship.