Rangers just gave Blue Jays a possible outfield gift with latest bold decision

The Texas Rangers may have just made a move they'll come to regret. On Friday (Nov. 21) the Rangers decided to non-tender 32-year-old outfielder Adolis Garcia and the Toronto Blue Jays have a golden opportunity sitting in front of them.

Garcia was projected to make just over $12 million this year in his final year of arbitration, and that feels like an easy number to swallow to take a one-year flyer on a guy with 30 homer potential.

Rangers just gave Blue Jays a possible outfield gift with latest bold decision

While the Blue Jays are said to be in the market for the top free agent available, this Garcia decision by the Rangers could allow Toronto to do a few things differently. They could pivot from their alleged pursuit of Kyle Tucker and instead get a buy-low high-reward type player in Garcia. That would also allow them to concentrate more of their efforts on bringing back shortstop Bo Bichette, while saving the massive amount of money it will take to sign Tucker.

Garcia is by no means the same kind of hitter that Tucker is, but for less than a fraction of the cost he could provide the same kind of power the Blue Jays would hope to get from Tucker. Both Garcia and Tucker have been playing in the majors since 2018 and Tucker has hit just six more home runs than Garcia, but Tucker has superior numbers in virtually every other category.

But with the potential to already deploy an outfield that will have Daulton Varsho, George Springer, Anthony Santander, Nathan Lukes, Addison Barger, Davis Schneider, Myles Straw and Joey Loperfido looking for playing time - maybe there's some thought being given to having a right handed platoon power option for some of those players. That feels like the one thing the Blue Jays were missing last year, the ability to bring a right handed batter off the bench that could absolutely mash.

The downside is, there is a reason the Rangers aren't bringing back Garcia. He has had a hard time making consistent contact over the last two years. He hit .224/.284/.400 in 2024 and .227/.271/.394 in 2025 while hitting a combined 44 home runs, after hitting 39 home runs in 2023.

When he does make contact, he hits the ball hard, averaging 92.1 mph off the bat, but his chase rate on pitches off the plate rose to 35.1% in 2025. Meanwhile, his contract rate on pitches in the zone dipped to 79.5%, six percentage points lower than his career norms.

However, these feel like the same tendencies that Springer was trending toward in 2024 when he had the worst offensive season of his career. But Springer rebounded thanks to some extensive coaching by hitting coach David Popkins.

The new approach allowed Springer to win this years' Silver Slugger award as the American League's top hitting DH. While there's no guarantee that Garcia would have a similar renaissance season to that of Springer, but working through some of the challenges of not expanding the strike zone and concentrating more on making better contact seems to be Popkins forte.

The Blue Jays are expected to make a big splash this offseason and certainly signing Tucker would fit that bill, however, if they don't land the big fish in Tucker, then they may consider taking a flyer on Garcia. While his bat hasn't been as strong as it once was, he has also been an above average outfielder throughout most of his career and was worth 16 defensive runs saved last season.