Garcia was acquired by the White Sox from the Texas Rangers in exchange for Alex Rios in 2013. He was a speedy, small infielder who had played every position on the field except first base. His abilities on the field were highly praised, but his bat didn’t excite. The White Sox, as they are wont to do, rushed him to the big leagues before he could even have a chance to adjust to more advanced pitching. The team then wisely limited his major league plate appearances in 2015 and 2016.

It appears that decision has payed huge dividends for the White Sox. Despite not even starting the season as a regular starter, Garcia has earned his spot as the starting center fielder. Even more than that, he’s been one of the best center fielders in all of baseball. Yes, it’s still a small sample size. But we are fast approaching the end of small sample size warnings with Garcia holding a perfectly sustainable .305 BABIP.

By every WAR metric, Leury has been among the best at his position. He’s accumulated 1.6 bWAR. If you can believe it, he’s tied for fourth among all centerfielders — yes, all of them — with 1.3 fWAR. By WARP, he’s the third best center fielder with 1.3 WARP. Needless to say, he’s been really good. A lot of that value comes from defense, which each model measures differently. The Fangraphs model likes that he’s racked up a 2.6 UZR and plus-5 DRS. Here at Baseball Prospectus we use FRAA, which thinks Garcia has accumulated 3.6 fielding runs above average.

That FRAA is why he’s been able to top everyone but offensive powerhouses Mike Trout and Charlie Blackmon. The usual suspects of Jarrod Dyson, Byron Buxton, and Ender Inciarte are the only center fielders who sit above him in the category. While Garcia does fit into the same speedy defender profile that precedes each of those players, he’s been the best of the group offensively.

The different wins-above-replacement models are dangerous to use because each and every defensive metric is flawed. Knowing that all three of the mainstream metrics agree that Garcia is very good in center tells us enough without having to necessarily quantify it perfectly. Garcia’s always had a reputation of flashing the leather, though. The real revelation this season has been at the plate.

By purely looking at offense, Garcia remains one of the best center fielders in baseball right now. In wRC+ among qualified hitters he ranks fourth at 125. The only players above him are Trout, Blackmon, and Kevin Pillar. In TAv among qualified hitters he ranks fourth at .284. The same three players rank above him. While Pillar is having a breakout season of his own, the other two players are established stars. Garcia is right there with them. Heck, even by ISO he’s still sixth among center fielders at .194.

Who knows if this version of Garcia will disappear in a month, after this season, or not for another five years. Right now all signs point toward him continuing to rake. His contact rate is excellent at 85 percent while he’s managed to keep his approach (swing rates on both pitches in and out of the zone) essentially the same. Perhaps that contact rate will fall a little, but his 13.4 percent strikeout rate and 4.2 percent walk rate aren’t likely to change.

Rebuilding is centered around the big names, of course. But finding a diamond in the rough because there’s no pressure to win ballgames can help fill out the depth of a future roster. Right now, Garcia is making the best case to be the center fielder of the future. He’s just 26 years old and perhaps hitting his prime. The White Sox lack of patience did him in early in his career, but they’ve made up for it by providing him with enough time to recover from those mistakes.

Now he looks ready to shock the league for a full season, possibly even riding his great first half to an All-Star appearance. That would be a huge win for a White Sox farm system that is sorely lacking in the outfield, despite just adding a big name in Luis Robert. It’s not easy to find a player up the middle that can contribute on both sides of the ball the way Garcia is right now. Garcia is the real deal, and I’m not convinced that he plans on stopping his torrid pace.

Lead Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Sports Images

I guess the White Sox will do well if they can keep holding teams to 2 runs or less…

— Nick Schaefer (@Nick_BPSS) April 20, 2016

The White Sox are the first team in the American League to reach 10 victories after Wednesday afternoon’s 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The offense remains mostly listless, with just five hits a day after scoring five runs for the first time in a week, but the pitching staff has been good enough to make up for it thus far. There’s still plenty of problems for the team to address going forward, but banking 10 wins in their first 15 games is tough to complain about.

1. A day after putting up five runs for the first time in a week, and stopping a three-game losing streak behind the arm of Mat Latos, the White Sox turned to their ace, Chris Sale, and Sale authored another chapter in his book of pitching restraint, continuously dialing down his velocity, pitching to contact and racking up just three strikeouts in his seven innings of work. The only run he allowed was of the unearned variety, coming after he hit Kole Calhoun to lead off the eighth inning; he was replaced by Nate Jones, and Calhoun came around to score on a two-out error by Todd Frazier.

2. The HBP ended a streak of 10 straight batters retired by Sale, with only two of those 10 outs coming via the strikeout. In fact, the only Angels hitter who seemed to be able to square the ball up on Sale all day was the otherworldly Mike Trout, who rocketed singles into center field in his first two at-bats — the only two hits Sale allowed all afternoon.

3. Speaking of Trout, despite the two hits he uncharacteristically ran the Angels into two outs in a game where they were clearly at a premium. He was thrown out attempting to steal second base after his single in the fourth inning on a beautiful throw by Alex Avila, and in the ninth inning he slipped while trying to advance to second on an infield single that Jerry Sands was unable to pick cleanly at first base, and was gunned out for the second out of the inning while representing the tying run.

4. Robin Ventura’s strange decision to hit Tyler Saladino No. 2 in the batting order, of course, paid off immediately when Saladino crushed a 96-mph fastball from Garrett Richards into the left field seats for a home run in the first inning. The outcome of a decision doesn’t make it the right decision, of course, as batting a guy with a career .266 OBP second in your lineup isn’t a good decision no matter how you shake it. But kudos to Saladino for making the most of just his fourth start of the season and not missing a dead-red fastball.

5. A taxed bullpen meant some tough decisions for Ventura late in the game. After letting Sale start the eighth inning at 102 pitches and then yanking him upon the leadoff HBP, he turned to Jones, fresh off a two-inning, 19-pitch performance less than 24 hours earlier. With Zach Putnam, Jake Petricka, and Dan Jennings presumably unavailable after mopping up for Carlos Rodon on Monday, and Zach Duke basically a LOOGY at this point, Ventura’s options basically boiled down to riding Sale up above 110 pitches, trying to get two innings out of David Robertson, or putting his faith in Jones. While it seems unwise to go with Jones, particularly given his recent injury history, there didn’t seem to be a clear-cut right answer, and he somehow got out of his 2/3 of an inning unscathed before Ventura turned the game over to Robertson for the final four outs.

Team Record: 10-5

Next game is Thursday at 1:10 p.m. CT vs. the Angels on CSN.

Top Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports