Spotlight On: Drew Garcia
Throughout the offseason, I’ll have a weekly blog highlighting one of Charlotte’s players from the 2015 campaign. The Knights finished at 74–70 in the International League South Division, which was tied for third with the Durham Bulls. On-the-field and at-the-gates, the 2015 season was a successful one in Uptown Charlotte.
A familiar face returned to the Chicago White Sox organization in 2015.
Infielder Drew Garcia, who was originally drafted by the White Sox in the 21st round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft, was back in the Chicago system and back in a Charlotte Knights uniform in 2015.
While he began the 2015 campaign in Double-A Birmingham, Garcia returned to the Knights for his fourth season on April 23 when he was promoted from the Barons.
An eight-year minor league veteran, Garcia appeared in 227 games with the Knights from 2011–13. He was traded to the Colorado Rockies organization in 2013 and spent the remainder of that season, as well as the 2014 season, in Colorado Springs (Triple-A).
In 2015, Garcia returned to Charlotte and began to move up the ranks in Knights franchise history. He played in his 300th career Knights game on Friday, August 28, which moved him into an elite club.
On that date, Garcia became just the fifth player in Knights franchise history to appear in 300 career Knights games. He joined four other Knights (Jordan Danks, Joe Borchard, Rusty Crockett, and Chris Clapinski).
After playing in the final game of the 2015 regular season on September 7, Garcia finished his fourth season with the Knights and tallied a total of 310 games (fifth in Knights franchise history).
Also in 2015, Garcia totaled his 1,000 career Knights at-bat on August 14. During the season, he passed Carlos Sanchez for sole possession of fifth place on the all-time at-bats list and later went on to pass Josh Fields for fourth place. Overall, Garcia finished his fourth season with Charlotte with a total of 1,074 career Knights at-bats, which ranks fourth in franchise history.
Garcia also added 13 doubles in 2015 and has 63 doubles during his Knights tenure, which ranks eighth all-time in franchise history.
