Red Sox 22-Year-Old Slugger Earns Exclusive Invite While Nearing Promotion

The Futures Game is a big deal for aspiring major leaguers, as it marks a sort of unofficial endorsement of a prospect's future big-league status... hence the name.

Based on his outstanding performance this season to put himself on the doorstep of the majors, Boston Red Sox outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia was more than deserving of the honor.

On Monday, Major League Baseball announced the full rosters for the event, which will take place in Atlanta, Ga. on Jul. 12. Every team gets at least one representative; last year, the Red Sox had three (all of whom have since debuted in the majors).

This season, Garcia will be the Red Sox's lone representative. The 22-year-old Venezuelan slugger has been a revelation over the last two years in the Boston system, and now that last year's participants (Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Kyle Teel) have graduated to the big leagues or been traded, Garcia represents the next wave of young talent coming to the show.

Aside from owning the best nickname in all of professional baseball ("The Password"), Garcia has proven himself as a consistent hard contact merchant. He's got a .932 OPS and nine home runs in just 33 games since earning his promotion to Triple-A in May, and since the start of last season, he's totaled 35 homers in 173 games.

MLB Pipeline currently ranks Garcia as the fifth-best prospect in Boston's system and he's not in their most recent Top 100 update. That figures to change relatively soon, though, with Anthony's and Mayer's promotions to the big leagues and Garcia's monster year.

Whether Garcia will make it to the big leagues with Boston or is used as a trade chip will also be a hot topic, as the Boston outfield is already overcrowded. But as long as he keeps hitting balls hard, he'll continue to open up pathways.

The Futures Game is one of those pathways, and Garcia earned his way there. It will be exciting to see him compete with the best farmhands from the other 29 clubs for the spotlight in Atlanta.