I expect at the start of the 2019 season many of us would have guessed that at this point in the season the top hitter for the OKC Dodgers would be Edwin Rios, Will Smith or perhaps Matt Beaty. Most of us might not have guessed Kyle Garlick.
Right now Garlick is the team leader in hits (26), home runs (7), total bases (55), BA (.292), OBP (.394), SLG (.618) and OPS (1.012). Blake Gailen and Connor Joe do top some of those marks but have had three and 15 at bats respectively. Garlick is also a close second in runs and doubles.
He is in his fifth season in the Dodgers organization having been drafted in the 28th round of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft out of California Polytechnic State University in Pomona CA.
Now 27, Garlick was born in La Habra, California and attended high school in Chino Hills which is a short 45-minute drive from Dodger Stadium. Following graduation from high school he headed off to the University of Oregon where he played three years with the Ducks. In his three years with Oregon Garlick became the all-time leader in triples, was third in runs batted in and ranked sixth in games played.
An injury caused him to miss most of the 2013 season limiting him to 10 games. Upon his return in 2014 he did return to his 2012 form and was not selected in the 2014 June Draft.
Disappointed but not deterred he headed closer to home for his senior year at Cal Poly Pomona. He posted some eye-popping numbers with a triple slash of .358/.456/.667 with an OPS of 1.119 along with 17 home runs and 56 runs batted in. His purpose for playing closer to home was not that he wanted to play at the Division II level. It was to be closer to his mother.
At the beginning of the 2014 season, Kyle’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. To return to the Ducks in 2015 would have meant another long period of time away from his mother. Because of this and with little scholarship assistance available at Oregon, Garlick decided to move back home to Chino Hills where he enrolled at nearby Cal Poly Pomona with hopes of attracting the attention of MLB scouts.
The highlight of his 2015 season came in a championship game in which he hit two long home runs as Cal Poly defeated UC San Diego 7-4 in the NCAA Division II West Regional championship game at Mt. San Antonio College. His second home run was a 415-foot blast over the center field fence in the eighth inning.
Even though Garlick was still disappointed at not having been drafted in 2014, he entered the 2015 draft with confidence and optimism, and he was rewarded. The Dodgers selected Garlick in the 28th round.
“I kind of had a feeling it was going to happen,” said Garlick after receiving the call informing him that he was now a Dodger. “I was talking to a few different teams. It was just a stressful few days for me, man. I kept going back and forth trying to keep myself busy checking the list and then I finally got called. It was super exciting.”
The 6’1”/210-pound right-handed hitter made a quick impact at the professional level. In his first season he played 60 games spread over four levels – AZL Dodgers, Ogden Raptors, Great Lakes Loons and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. He hit at least .329 at each level with an aggregate slash line of .349/.397/.591 along with nine home runs and 44 runs batted in.
Over the next three seasons Garlick has continued to hit with at least 18 home runs in each season.
Garlick is continuing to hit as the invisible man. He is a foot soldier that has continued to work at his trade among incredible odds. He has survived his injury plagued year in 2014, been with his mother in her battle with cancer, played among more high profile players in the Dodgers system and produced.
Almost unnoticed, Kyle Garlick hit three home runs on Sunday, May 5.in a game against the Round Rock Express. That is, three two-run home runs with the third one coming in the top of the 11th inning. It was not his only three-home run game in his professional career. He homered three times once before in his career, for Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga on April 18, 2016.
Garlick is the third Dodger minor league player to hit three home runs in a game this season. Outfielder Niko Hulsizer did so with the Great Lakes Loons and outfielder Cody Thomas with the Tulsa Drillers. A MiLB interview with Hulsizer and Thomas was available to gather their reaction but no such interview was afforded to Garlick. Perhaps it was a time thing with the game going into extra innings.
Hopefully Kyle Garlick will get an opportunity to put on a Dodger uniform this year at Dodger Stadium as Matt Beaty just did.
Minor League Report by DC
Great Lakes Loons 1- Kane County Cougars 8 (Arizona)
All good things come to end as did the Loons winning streak which stopped at 10. Jeronimo Castro started for the Loons and did pitch quite well. He went four innings giving up five hits and two runs with one walk and five strikeouts. He was followed by Joel Inoa who tossed two scoreless innings on one hit. The roof caved in for Brett de Geus who managed to get only one out while giving up five runs on three hits and four walks. The last Cougar run came off Justin Hagenman who finished up with 1.2 innings.
Offensively the Loons had eight hits but couldn’t string much together and for a change registered only two walks. Niko Hulsizer and James Outman both had two hits.
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 2 – Inland Empire 66ers 0 (LAA)
The Quakes came away with an unlikely win on Tuesday. They had just three hits in the 2-0 win. Two were for extra bases including a Marcus Chiu double and Connor Wong’s seventh home run of the season. The first run in the sixth inning was a bit of a gift on a HBP, an error, a single and a walk to Nick Yarnell forcing home a run. Wong’s home run the eighth inning was a shot to right field.
Edwin Uceta made his seventh start of the season for the Quakes and got locked in a battle with 66ers starter Oliver Ortega. He outlasted Ortega going six shutout innings on five hits, a walk and eight strikeouts. Relievers Connor Mitchell, Wes Helsabeck and Logan Salow combined for three additional shutout innings giving up no hits, two walks and striking out five. Salow picked up his first save of the year.
Tulsa Drillers 8 – Corpus Christi Hooks 5 (Houston)
JD Martin, last week’s Player of the Week in the Texas League, had a rough outing to follow up his previous stellar one. In five innings he gave up 10 hits and two walks resulting in five runs. Andre Scrubb took the ball in the top of the sixth inning and pitched two clean innings with two strikeouts. Right-hander Marshall Kasowski struck out the side in the top of the eighth inning and retired the side in the ninth on one hit.
The Drillers scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a Zach Reks ground out and a DJ Peters single. In the bottom of the third inning Gavin Lux homered to right center field. He now has homered in four consecutive games and is tied for the league lead with eight. Zach Reks pulled Tulsa ahead in the bottom of the seventh inning with a three-run home run to right field following walks to Gavin Lux and Zach McKinstry. An additional run was tacked on with a DJ Peters HBP, a Keibert Ruiz single and a Christian Santana infield single. The Drillers scored four runs with two out and nobody on base. Zach Reks drove in his fifth run of the night with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Tulsa Drillers second baseman Omar Estevez has been named the Uncle Ray’s Texas League Player of the Month for April by Minor League Baseball. Uncle Ray’s is the Official Potato Chip of Minor League Baseball and names a monthly winner at all levels of MiLB.
Estevez was a worthy winner of the TL award, leading the Drillers and the league in several offensive categories. For April, he led the Texas League in batting average (.385), hits (30) and doubles (eight) and was third in on-base percentage (.449) and OPS (1.014) and fourth in total bases (44) and slugging percentage (.564).
OKC Dodgers 1 – Nashville Sounds 4 (Texas)
Dennis Santana started for the Dodgers and went four innings giving up five hits and two walks while striking out six but allowing no runs. Rehabbing Tony Cingrani followed Santana for an inning and also gave up no runs but did allow two hits and a walk. He stuck out two. Joe Broussard was unable to record an out while surrendering the Sounds first run on three hits. Josh Sborz was unable to strand two runners when he relieved Broussard and also gave up a run of his own. Jaime Schultz pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth inning on two hits and three strikeouts. Justin Grimm finished up with a scoreless ninth inning.
The Dodgers had only six hits with Edwin Rios and Shane Peterson each having two. They finally broke the shutout in the bottom of the ninth on a Drew Jackson single but that was it as Jackson got caught in a run down to finish the inning.
Discussion (45)
Disagree, not disagreeable
The last two nights give reason for great optimism.
Kelly looking better, and Verdugo looking like he belongs.
Concur with Cassidy above, Hill starts for me.
We be rolling!!!
Happy for Kelly…
Nats are down…Have no mercy on em@!!!
Ok, now THAT was the Joe Kelly we saw in the World Series!!
See AF knew what he was doing signing Kelly. He closes out games when we have 5+ run lead! Joe u da man!
Does Garlick equal Jerry Sands?
Having Seager bat behind Bellinger, who is struggling, offers no support for Bellinger.
Only one post. When Dodgers are doing well, no posters. I was on that site at one time.
Kyle Garlick just hit two more home runs for the OKC Dodgers tonight.
OMG! I just went to LAdodgerReport.com because someone e-mailed me and said “You will not believe what is going on there.” I thought… it can’t be that bad, so I checked it out.
OMG. I don’t even know what to say. I feel shame that I was part of that for a while. OMG! I don’t even know what to say…. so I won’t say anything. If you want to go into shock, watch the video… OMG!
Are you kidding me?
Hill has been a really good big game pitcher especially in the playoffs. I think I’d keep him as the starter and use Urias in a Hader type role.
Agreed ’99, looks great. Hope Joc gets his mojo back. And SoCal, agreed also. I wouldn’t put Seager back into the 2 hole for a while, it is definitely a groove thing with him right now.
Kyle Garlick not on any prospect list I can find so can’t find any scouting report on him. Hmmm, weird.
Baller lineup tonight. Not sure if it could be better.
You need four stud starting pitchers for the play offs. I think we have them in Buehler, Ryu, Kershaw and Urias. I just do not know if they will all stay healthy. Hill is going to be the fifth starter during the season and Maeda is going to the pen. Ryu got it done last night with 93 pitches. The starters are starting to go further and the pen will be used less. It is frustrating to see starting pitchers only go 4-5 innings to start the season.
Baez is using three pitches. He does not rely on his fastball like he did before. I still think Jansen is ok. He has lost some of his control. He will get it back.
Kike is going to be ok. He hit the ball hard last night and got nothing out of it. Muncy is looking good defensively. They are running the bases well. In fact, they are more enjoyable to watch this year than last year.
It appears that Josiah Gray is on his way to Rancho and the California League. His MiLB page shows he has been assigned to NewTeam/Level, but there is no announcement. It also appears that the announcement is going to be delayed until they decide what to do with the RC roster.
I know a/of a ‘Ky Garlick’ but I am certain not the same as above. Is Kyle Garlick really jr.? If so then jr. had a rougher background to get as far as he had than just so low in the pick. It’s really not for me to tell of the situation of what that would be but if there is a relation then Kyle’s dad had some very bad days 20 something years ago.
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I am a friend of Dino Ebel’s cousin as Dino is from Barstow. His cousin coaches his son’s Little League team. I live 2 blocks from a park that hosts Little League games and have been thinking about watching a couple just for kicks and a snow cone or two if that’s still part of the program.
Because of Ryu’s body type, his athleticism is greatly underrated. He made two outstanding plays last night that many pitchers wouldn’t have been able to pull off.
If I were AF I would be more concerned about Ryu’s groin than his shoulder. That said, I’d be very happy to have him here for another couple of years but I would agree it would be smart to see how the next few months play out to see if he can maintain his health.
If Friedman would be willing to offer as many years as other teams (not necessarily a given), I think Ryu might actually give us a bit of a hometown discount. He seems very comfortable here and that might mean a lot to him, in spite of what Boras would be whispering in his ear.
I remember Ryu from his rookie season. He had a productive first year – it felt like he would consistently go 5-6 innings and give up between 2 and 3 runs each outing.
I see something different now than when he first started with the Dodgers. After getting healthy again, last year, he seems more confident attacking the zone. He seemed to nibble a lot more early in his MLB career. Now, it looks like he draws on his experience to trust his command and he attacks the zone more aggressively. He gets ahead of hitters much more frequently than before. Instead of just going 5-6 innings each start, he looks like he can get to 7+ innings this year. There’s something about his comfort level at Dodger stadium that results in more dominating performances at home. Thinking back on last year’s NLCS in Milwaukee, maybe he just gets rattled by the opposing fans?
Count me as one who is eating crow on the QO to Ryu. I thought that $18MM for a pitcher who has a real problem staying healthy was a bit too much. As well as he pitches at Dodger Stadium, he would have to consider a 2 year extension if one was offered. I still think teams would be reluctant to go 3 years, but more than a handful will be in on Ryu for 2 years. Problem will be that Ryu is a Scott Boras client, and he is loathe to give below market extensions. He is more apt to recommend that Ryu go to FA and seek out the max. He just excels at Dodger Stadium. I am happy to be wrong in this case.
Perhaps more than any other Dodger prospect, Kyle Garlick has a “cult-like” following. Maybe the name, maybe the story, maybe the numbers…but for whatever reason he seems to be on everyone’s radar and follow list. I am extremely partial to draft picks 26th round and later who have a chance to make a ML roster, and Kyle is no different. There have been some that have come up later and have become regulars, but they are very rare. Kyle is 27 and has never been considered a major prospect, so the dollar investment has never been there. I do not think that many beleive that Kyle will become a perennial MLB All-Star, but he can certainly become more than a serviceable 4th OF and RH bat off the bench. I do not think he would say no to that.
Thank you DC for the information on Kyle Garlick. I read his story when he was drafted and immediately he became my favorite Dodger prospect. I too hope he gets a taste of the major leagues with the Dodgers. He’s a very deserving young man! Who knows, he could be the right-handed bat we need.
Very nice write-up DC. I especially like the human interesting story behind the player. Have high hopes for many of the young minor leaguers
I have followed Garlick his entire minor league career and I am hoping he gets his chance with the Dodgers as a right handed hitter off the bench and 4th outfielder,
All Ducks are winners. Garlick is a Duck. Therefore, Garlick is a winner.