Maikel Garcia Makes Honest Admission About Lingering Hand Injury

Kansas City Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia was pulled from Tuesday's 6-4 loss to the Washington Nationals in the sixth inning after his left hand started bothering him again.

The 26-year-old has dealt with a number of injuries throughout the 2026 season, and after the game he was open about why he has no plans to take extended time away from the field to let it heal.

"I can take two weeks, and then getting back to the game, my first swing can hurt, so I'm gonna think, 'I lost two weeks and am still in pain,'" Garcia said.

According to Anne Rogers of MLB.com, Garcia says the hand really only flares up on him when he hits foul balls.

It doesn't hurt when he makes clean contact and it doesn't bother him in the cage either. He was held out of Wednesday's lineup against the Nationals.

That makes the situation especially tough because of how tied it is to the act of hitting itself.

Hand and finger injuries are some of the hardest for hitters to manage because every swing sends vibrations through the bat and into the palm, fingers, and wrist.

Foul balls that catch the end of the bat or get jammed inside send far more shock through the hand than squared-up contact, which is why Garcia can feel fine in batting practice but then deal with real pain during a game when the timing is off and the ball catches a bad part of the barrel.

Over time, that kind of pain can change a hitter's swing without him even knowing it, as the body starts to guard against the contact that hurts and small changes creep into the grip and follow-through.

Garcia earned his first All-Star selection and a Gold Glove in 2025 after posting a .286/.351/.449 slash line with an .800 OPS across 160 games, a true breakout that proved he was one of the better third basemen in the American League.

This season has been a very different story.

Between an elbow issue in April, a hamstring strain that kept him out of the lineup in late May, and now the hand problem, Garcia has been limited all year and his numbers have slid well below that breakout pace.

The Royals sit at 29-45 and in last place in the AL Central, and the team has been in a tailspin for much of the season.

Kansas City entered the year with real expectations after reaching the postseason in 2024, but injuries and a lack of consistent offense have buried them in the standings.

Garcia is one of the few players on the roster who can change the way a game feels when he's right, so losing him for any stretch only makes things harder.

For now, he plans to keep playing through the discomfort and hope the hand holds up, even if the results suggest the injury might be having more of an effect than he's willing to let on.