Red Sox catching prospect Johanfran Garcia back to baseball activities; team ‘monitoring’ his workload

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There’s a lot of buzz in camp around Red Sox outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia, who soared through the system, playing at three different levels.

With Garcia in big league camp, his brother Johanfran, is working back from a knee injury he suffered last season.

The 20-year-old is back to all baseball activities after going down with a significant knee injury last May. Garcia was off to a hot start for Low-A Salem, hitting the cover off the ball, batting .385 (20-for-52) with a .467 on-base percentage, a .596 slugging percentage, a 1.063 OPS, two homers, and five doubles in 14 games.

Red Sox catching prospect Johanfran Garcia wants to follow in the footsteps of Salvador Perez and Yadier Molina

“He’s doing well rehabbing,” senior director of player development Brian Abraham said to MassLive’s Chris Smith, Thursday at JetBlue Park. “All baseball activities and the running progression. Hitting, defense.”

Abraham also added the organization is “obviously monitoring the workload.”

Garcia is currently ranked as the No. 20 prospect in the system, according to Baseball America. A fully healthy Garcia offers the Red Sox a catcher in their system with power potential but will need to cut down his strikeouts if he wants to be a regular starter at the big league level in the future.

"Garcia unloads swings with the intention of smashing the ball into pieces. His approach yields pull-side impact on contact and plenty of whiffs," Baseball America wrote about the Sox' catcher. "Garcia’s 30% strikeout rate across two Low-A seasons suggests a below-average hit tool along with his above-average power."

Masataka Yoshida ready to make the most of his playing time

Now that knee surgery is behind him, Garcia can begin to make a bigger impact in the Red Sox farm system and put his name in the conversation as someone who could impact Boston a few years down the road. His goal right now is getting his knee stronger, getting healthy, and hitting the training room hard.

Boston isn’t sure where he’ll begin 2025 in affiliate ball; the team wants to do what’s right for their young prospect.

“We want to do what’s best for him long-term vs. the short-term,” Abraham said.