A former Miami Marlins star who signed one of the team’s biggest free-agent contracts is now speaking out about what he says really ended his Major League career.
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Outfielder Avisail Garcia was expected to be a key piece of the Marlins’ lineup but was released after injury-plagued and disappointing seasons.
Now, Garcia has filed a lawsuit, claiming the injury that cost him his career was missed by local doctors for more than a year — and changed his life forever.
Highlights from Garcia’s career show him hitting it out of the park. Moments from his 12-year career with several Major League Baseball teams. Garcia says he remembers them all.
“Every day,” he said.
“It makes me happy because it happened,” Garcia said. “A passion, a childhood dream, and I was able to do it.”
But it’s also a painful reminder.
“It’s hard to accept that it ends this way,” Garcia said.
The outfielder, from Venezuela, signed with the Miami Marlins prior to the 2022 season. It was a four-year, $53 million deal. But the Marlins released Garcia in 2024, partly due to injuries, the team said at the time.
“Without anyone knowing what was really happening.”
Now, for the first time, Garcia is speaking publicly about what he says ended his career.
“It all started with back pain.”
Garcia said he remembers the moment during a game early in the Marlins’ 2023 season. He said he got a hit and as he was rounding the bases, he felt something was off.
“I got to second, and I felt something in my back.”
What happened next is now the focus of a lawsuit.
Garcia alleges doctors for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine failed to identify the extent of his injuries, despite an MRI “revealing” a pars defect, also known as a stress fracture, in his lower back, and a “recommended CT scan” to evaluate the issue — a scan Garcia and his attorney, Jorge Silva, claim UM’s doctors never did.
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“And so, what happened was that the radiology report making the proper diagnosis with the proper recommendation fell through the cracks,” Silva said.
Instead, they allege doctors treated him for muscle or disc pain, instructing him to do “rigorous physical therapy and training,” and causing a “worsening of his symptoms.”
“More therapy, more exercises, more injections,” Silva said.
“I feel sad, you know. I don’t like the way it happened. Nobody told me that’s going on with my back and that’s it,” Garcia said.
According to the complaint, it wasn’t until after the Marlins released Garcia in 2024 that a doctor in New York treated him for his actual injury, which by then required surgery.
“Extensive back surgery with plates and screws inserted in his back that could have all been avoided,” Silva said.
They say the delays in diagnosis and treatment cut short his career.
“My career is over. What can I say about that?” Garcia said.
Asked if he misses playing, Garcia responded: “Of course. It’s my life.”
Garcia said he misses it every day and wonders what could’ve been, while now living with constant pain.
“It’s not fair, you know. It’s not fair,” Garcia said.
NBC6 reached out to the University of Miami about the lawsuit and, at this time, is waiting to hear back. NBC6 is also waiting to hear back from the Miami Marlins. The team is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
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