How former Jumbo Shrimp Robert Garcia went from retiring to The Show

It was over. Robert Garcia was done, retiring. All he was waiting for now was the Kansas City Royals filing his paperwork.

Only, they didn’t… And sitting at his desk at his new job in the real world on a cool December day, Garcia’s phone buzzed. It was a former teammate alerting him that he had been selected by the Miami Marlins in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. If Garcia wanted it, his baseball career was still on.

“I was not expecting it (being selected in the Rule 5 draft) at all,” said Garcia. “I had actually retired, and I was at my job at my desk and got a text from a buddy saying, ‘Hey, I am going to miss you.’ And I told him I was not coming back, and he was like, ‘Wait, you just got selected in the Rule 5 draft by the Marlins,’ which was a shock. And about five minutes later, my phone was blowing up with my agent calling me and everything took off from there.”

Fast forward a couple years later through a pair of campaigns mainly with Triple-A Jacksonville, one of the newest major leaguers is also one of the most unlikely members of its club. Robert Garcia made his way through every single level of the minor leagues, skipping no steps on his long journey to the major leagues. Garcia spent five years in the Royals minor league system before making the decision to retire to prioritize his family, and if not for a phone call from the Marlins, his baseball career would have been over, with his business journey just beginning. That text changed everything.

Former Jumbo Shrimp Robert Garcia made his major league debut for Miami on July 14 at Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards. A couple weeks later, he was claimed off waivers by the Washington Nationals. Remarkably, for a player who was given nothing, he’s still in The Show, thriving.