{"id":768489,"date":"2026-08-03T01:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/768489\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T01:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:57:17","slug":"mlb-nationals-garcia-both-sad-and-happy-to-prepare-for-trade-to-yankees-scranton-times-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/768489\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB: Nationals\u2019 Garc\u00eda \u2018both sad and happy\u2019 to prepare for trade to Yankees \u2013 Scranton Times-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Washington<\/p>\n

Washington Nationals first baseman Luis Garc\u00c3\u00ada Jr., left, is hugged in the dugout by first base coach Corey Ray (23) after he was scratched from the starting lineup before a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo\/Erik S. Lesser)\n<\/p>\n

\"Washington<\/p>\n

Washington Nationals\u2019 Luis Garc\u00c3\u00ada Jr., right, sits in the dugout with Andr\u00c3\u00a9s Chaparro (87) after he was scratched from the starting lineup before a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo\/Erik S. Lesser)\n<\/p>\n

\"Washington<\/p>\n

Washington Nationals first baseman Luis Garc\u00c3\u00ada Jr., center, greets teammates in the dugout after he was scratched from the starting lineup before a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo\/Erik S. Lesser)\n<\/p>\n

\"Washington<\/p>\n

Washington Nationals\u2019 Luis Garc\u00c3\u00ada Jr. swings the bat for strike three for the final out of a baseball game with two men on base in the ninth inning during a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

Washington Nationals first baseman Luis Garc\u00c3\u00ada Jr., left, is hugged in the dugout by first base coach Corey Ray (23) after he was scratched from the starting lineup before a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo\/Erik S. Lesser)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

ATLANTA \u2014 Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. wanted to help but could only watch as the Washington Nationals suffered their fifth straight loss on Sunday.<\/p>\n

As the Nationals inched closer to completing a trade to send Garc\u00eda to the New York Yankees, Garc\u00eda was scratched about 30 minutes before a 4-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves. He watched the game from the dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it was weird, uncomfortable, going out to a dugout and then having all the other teammates look at you,\u201d Garc\u00eda said through a translator.<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda has spent his career with the Nationals but acknowledged he would be excited to move to the Yankees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it\u2019s a mix of both sad and happy,\u201d Garc\u00eda said. \u201cThere\u2019s a new chapter in my career, so yeah, 50-50 right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of early Sunday night, the Nationals and Yankees had not announced the trade. The New York Post and\u00a0ESPN\u00a0\u2018s Jeff Passan reported the Yankees will send the Nationals four right-handed pitchers: Ben Grable, Yovanny Cruz, Jake Bird and Jack Cebert.<\/p>\n

When asked after Sunday\u2019s\u00a02-1 win\u00a0at the Chicago Cubs about a trade for Garc\u00eda, Yankees manager Aaron Boone \u201cAll I know is it\u2019s very close, so you guys can speculate all you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda said he would fly with the Nationals to Philadelphia, where they open a four-game series on Monday.<\/p>\n

Bird, 30, has a 5.93 ERA in 30 games with the Yankees this season, all in relief. Cruz, 26, has a 1.69 ERA in four games. Grable and Cebert have spent the full season in the minors.<\/p>\n

Nationals manager Blake Butera confirmed he was instructed to hold Garc\u00eda out even though a trade was not yet final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told something was really close,\u201d Butera said. \u201cAlso heard nothing\u2019s official yet. But look, if Luis is here, if he\u2019s not here, he\u2019s an unbelievable person, an unbelievable teammate, unbelievable leader for this clubhouse, unbelievable player, you name it. Done everything we\u2019ve asked him to. \u2026 However this shakes out, we\u2019ll always love Luis and he can always play on my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being swept in a four-game series for the first time this season was painful for the Nationals, who fell three games below .500.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more painful was the realization the Nationals were also losing Garc\u00eda, a popular teammate who joined the organization when he was a teenager and this year has become one of the National League\u2019s top sluggers. Entering Sunday\u2019s games, Garc\u00eda\u2019s .560 slugging percentage led the league. He ranked fifth in the NL with 76 RBIs while hitting .283 with 23 homers.<\/p>\n

When asked about Garc\u00eda as a player, Boone said \u201cHe rakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Yankees shortstop Jos\u00e9 Caballero: \u201c\u201cI know that he is a great hitter. I know that. \u2026 So I\u2019m just excited to see him here and what he can contribute for the team, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda, 26, said watching from the dugout was especially painful when fill-in starting first baseman Andr\u00e9s Chapparo was hit by a pitch from JR Ritchie on his helmet in the fourth inning. When Chapparo was replaced the following inning, Butera turned to Brady House, who usually plays third base but made his first appearance in a game at first base.<\/p>\n

Butera stuck with House, who only recently began taking fielding practice at first base. Butera said he removed Chapparo from the game \u201cbecause he was dizzy and just didn\u2019t feel very well. And any time somebody hits hit the head, just don\u2019t want to chance it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butera said Chapparo was \u201cdoing better\u201d and had passed a concussion test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington Nationals first baseman Luis Garc\u00c3\u00ada Jr., left, is hugged in the dugout by first base coach Corey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,4,415,27622,185,414,71,4222],"class_list":["post-768489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-nationals","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-nationals","tag-rail-riders","tag-sports","tag-washington","tag-washington-nationals","tag-washingtonnationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117029099724587568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}