Could a new pitch keep inconsistent Luis Garcia in the majors?

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The drive from South Philadelphia to Allentown is 70 miles, and Luis Garcia knows how it feels from each direction. The Phillies signed the righthander from independent ball, brought him to the majors on July 9, 2013, and sent him back 47 days later to triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Garcia has been optioned to or recalled from the minors 17 more times since.

"Right now," Garcia said, "I'm not thinking about tomorrow or what's going to happen, if I'm going to make the team."

The Phillies purged half of their 40-man roster this winter, and Garcia is still here. There is a reason. It is interesting to hear how those around the Phillies have glowed this spring about Garcia. He could be nothing more than a complementary piece, but his emergence is reminiscent of Hector Neris' last spring, before his breakout season.

"He may have reinvented himself," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "We're going to see how he looks the rest of the spring."

"He's pitched better this spring than I've ever seen," Phillies pitching coach Bob McClure said.

The spring is typically full of stories like Garcia's, hope for a player on the fringe who has adopted a different strategy. But there is no reason to assume Garcia has discovered some sort of strike-throwing enlightenment. He has always performed well in triple A but sputtered under the pressure of the majors, where one bad pitch could mean another trip on I-476.

The proof this spring is not in the numbers, which can be skewed this time of year because of various factors, but in how Garcia has thrived. He has filled the strike zone. He has not run deep counts. He started throwing a splitter, the pitch that energized Neris.

"It's a new pitch I can use on lefties and righties," Garcia said. "It's another weapon."

It was not unreasonable to consider Garcia, who owns a career 4.24 ERA and posted a 6.46 mark in 17 games last season, in danger of losing his 40-man spot. He is 30 years old and has yet to display the consistency required of a big-league reliever.

There are numbers in favor of Garcia - his 54.7 percent ground ball rate was one of the highest last season for a Phillies pitcher and his 96.5 mph average fastball velocity was the best - but the number that has determined his fate, so far, is 5.7 walks per nine innings.

That is far too many.

"Maybe it's his time," McClure said. "We're hoping. He's worked very hard. It's been tough for him, up and down. He still has a ways to go. He can always improve. We're starting to see some consistency, which is really what we're looking for the most. We knew he had pretty good stuff. But what we're looking for is less pitches per inning and more being ahead of batters."

The new splitter has played well in games this spring. Garcia said he threw a splitter while with the independent Newark Bears in 2012. When the Phillies signed him, they told him to ditch it and focus on a fastball-slider combination. Last spring, Garcia searched for something. His locker was near that of veteran reliever Edward Mujica, who taught Garcia his "split-change," which was a modified, three-finger change-up. He toyed with it a few times in games last season. It never really stuck, Garcia said.

But Neris kept bugging Garcia.

"He wanted me to throw it," Garcia said. "As soon as he started throwing it, he wanted me to do it too. I was like, 'Hmm.' "

This spring, Garcia was shelled in his first two outings. Then, in his next four, he did not walk a batter and struck out four. Of his 126 games in the majors, just 18 have featured clean innings without a runner on base. He posted three straight in the Grapefruit League this spring.

"What I have to do to be good every single day, and that's it," Garcia said. "If I make the team or not, that's their decision."

That is the kind of perspective provided by the 70-mile drive between South Philadelphia and Allentown.

Aaron Altherr: He looks different at the plate than he did last season, in limited action after wrist surgery. A much improved power stroke. It will be interesting to see how many starts a week the Phillies can find for Altherr.

Tyler Goeddel: The Phillies are in a tough spot with Goeddel. They carried him on the major-league roster all of last season because they believed in his upside. He could be traded this spring because of the 40-man-roster crunch. If he stays in the organization, it's likely he would go to double-A Reading so he could play in the outfield every day.

Kyle Kendrick: It's somewhat incredible what has happened to the former Phillies pitcher. Last spring, the Braves released him a day after the Phillies destroyed him. Now, after some adjustments made by the Red Sox, Kendrick has thrown 15 straight scoreless spring innings and emerged as important depth for Boston.

mgelb@philly.com

@mattgelb