Pitcher Justin Garza considered stepping away from baseball during the tough times in the minor leagues amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Yet, as he now joins the New York Mets after parting ways with the San Francisco Giants, he feels there’s one key component that has helped revitalize his career.
Interestingly, the game in question is a video game. Garza shared, “The MLB show was actually a big part about learning how to pitch and figuring out how to pitch. It’s really realistic at times, just play that video game.” It’s not just Garza; many professional athletes are finding value in video games for their gameplay strategies.
In particular, Garza enjoys the Diamond Dynasty mode. He finds that the various camera angles help him understand pitch mechanics better. By viewing pitches from the catcher’s perspective, he began reassessing his own pitching style. It was a bit of a happy accident, really. “As I start playing more and more, I said, ‘Okay, well, I actually have a cutter, I have this four seam, I have this changeup, and maybe mine can play like this,'” he explained.
Garza was drafted eighth overall by the Cleveland Guardians in 2015, but faced challenges early on. He had a respectable 3.36 ERA in 2018, but only managed to finish one season with an ERA below 5. However, during the break caused by the pandemic, he emerged as a promising pitcher, posting a 1.59 ERA with 31 strikeouts across 14 games in Triple A Columbus. This eventually led to 21 appearances in the Major Leagues in 2021.
His return to the big leagues came in 2023 with the Boston Red Sox, but things didn’t quite go as planned, resulting in an ERA of 8.35 in 17 appearances before he transitioned to the Giants. Now, after spending time at Triple A Sacramento, he’s with the Mets. In his debut with them, he pitched two-thirds of an inning and struck out two batters.
