Although the impact of performance enhancing drugs on baseball has diminished greatly over the past 15 years, it hasn’t disappeared altogether. Unfortunately it’s hit the Chicago Cubs organization, and a good pitching prospect, too.
Among four players, 19-year-old Cubs lefty Carlos Garcia has suspended for 60 games after testing positive for the steroid Stanozolol:
Four @MiLB pitchers have each received a 60-game suspension without pay following their violations of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. pic.twitter.com/smaAD4VgiC
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) January 28, 2022
We’ve talked about how the Cubs generally had an underwhelming statistical year in the Dominican Summer League, but Carlos Garcia was one of the few bright spots. His 1.67 ERA was 12th best in the league among pitchers who threw at least 40 innings, and only one of the 11 pitchers ahead of him was younger. His 47 strikeouts (43.0 IP) led his DSL team.
Moreover, he’d only just signed into the Cubs organization out of Cuba before starting in the DSL. I have a feeling the hopes have been high for him among an otherwise thinner group of DSL pitching prospects. When Northside Bound wrote him up earlier this year, a lot of the commentary was about his impressive size and physique at 18/19 years old, and indeed he is a big dude:
Carlos Garcia Cubs
19
From Cuba
Middle low 90s FB
Developing breaker3/3 pic.twitter.com/NsE7eShowu
— TheBullpen🐾 (@RealCubsAnalyst) December 12, 2021
So this news really sucks. Garcia was not considered one of the Cubs’ top pitching prospects or anything, but this is where the Cubs need to pipeline in lots and lots of developing arms, and it seems pretty clear Garcia was going to come stateside this year, with the opportunity to pitch his way from the complex league to Myrtle Beach.
Now that’s all thrown for a loop.
None of that is to say that Garcia’s performance was entirely about the PEDs, or that he can’t continue to develop from here. He’s still very young (which, by the way, makes it all the more concerning – from a health perspective – to see a young guy even trying this stuff). But it’s certainly not a plus, and will put him far behind the 8-ball both because of the development interruption by missing 60 games, but also because it will raise questions about what he can be going forward as the Cubs make decisions about who comes over stateside and when, and who gets promoted and when.