Washington Nationals recall Luis García; place Starlin Castro on the Restricted List...

Early this afternoon the Washington Nationals announced that they have recalled infielder Luis García and placed infielder Starlin Castro on the Restricted List.

There is no word yet on why Castro, who was not in the lineup on Tuesday night, has been placed on the Restricted List.

You can read about the Restricted List here. Here’s Baseball-reference’s description of the Restricted List:

The Restricted list is a compendium of players who are out of organized baseball but are not free agents. A team can request that a player be placed on the restricted list if that player has left the team without a valid reason, or has announced his intention to retire but is still of an age or level of skill that could allow him to return to professional baseball in the future. In effect, the team states that it retains rights to the player if and when he becomes active again. The list is also used to place a player who is unavailable to play for non-baseball reasons, such as personal issues or trouble with the law.

B-R’s explainer does note that, “The restricted list is sometimes confused with the disqualified list, which is used as a form of disciplinary action.”

Castro, 31, has hit .239 with 11 doubles, two home runs, 23 RBIs, 17 walks, and 14 runs scored in 63 games this season, over which he’s been worth -0.4 fWAR.

García, 21, is back for his third stint in the majors this season.

At Triple-A Rochester, García has put up a .270/.336/.478 line overall, with three doubles and seven home runs in 28 games and 128 plate appearances, with the Nationals noting today, in their press release on the moves, that he has put up a .319/.396/.553 in 11 games this month.

García was recently named the Triple-A East Player of the Week on June 7th, after he went, “11-for-27 (.407) with a double, three home runs, nine RBI(s), and seven runs in six games from May 31-June 6.”

“He’s doing really well, so that’s great to see,” Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez said last week, after García earned that AAA PotW honor.

“He’s one of the guys that’s going to be a big part of our future, so we wanted him to get off to a quick start and he’s doing that.

“So he’s playing really well, we’ll keep an eye on him for the future, but I hope he continues to swing the bat the way he’s swinging.”

Asked what the club would like to see before they called him back up, Martinez explained that they just wanted to see some consistency in all aspects of the infielder’s game, after García debuted in the majors in 2020, when Castro suffered a broken wrist that required a surgical fix, and was assigned to Triple-A this season.

“We just want him to continue to do what he’s doing and play consistent baseball,” Martinez said, “... not only his hitting portion, but his defense as well, and just play the game the right way, everything. We want these guys to come up here better baserunners, situational hitting, and all that stuff, defense, we talked to him a lot about consistent defense, making the routine plays every day, getting ready every pitch, that was a big thing for him, and he’s doing well, he’s doing a lot better.”

Now García is coming back up. Will he take over for Castro at third base?

He has played 36 games there in the minors, though all of those were back in 2018, before he started playing short and second base.

Jordy Mercer is starting at third for the second straight game today in D.C.

Martinez talks to reporters in advance of the series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates at 2:00 this afternoon. We’ll update with more info on Castro is there is any...