Yankee Prospect Christian Garcia out for year

From Mike Ashmore’s Trenton Thunder Thoughts blog, Right hander Christian Garcia will miss the remainder of the year. Here’s the story:

4:25 PM — Just spoke to Christian Garcia on the phone. Turns out, he had elbow surgery last Friday and is done for the season. He can’t pick up a ball for three months.

“It sucks going through the rehab process all over again,” Garcia said.

“But it was frustrating to be pitching through pain, too. Whatever it takes to get it fixed for good, I’ll have to do.”

Garcia told me that he had a bone spur and a bone chip removed and scar tissue that was rubbing against a nerve pulled away.

Just awful, awful news for such a good kid. He was doing so well and was on the right track. He made five starts for Trenton this year, going 2-0 with an 0.71 ERA. He held Eastern League batters to a .172 average against.

He’s currently down in Tampa, but is rehabbing in St. Petersburg with a former Mets trainer.

I give up on Christian. The Yanks drafted him in in 2004 and he still can’t get past AA due to one injury or another. He pitched 112 innings in his first season of pro ball at age 19 and hasn’t come close (07/53IP-08/62IP-09/25IP) ever since. People love his stuff, but he just can’t stay on the field. I had hoped the Yanks would convert him to a reliever thinking the MLB club might actually get to use him this year, but now that possibility is gone.