Ryan Francis Garko (born January 2, 1981) is an American former professional baseball outfielder, first baseman, and designated hitter.

Garko was seen by former ESPN reporter John Sickels as a good hitter who hit to all parts of the field, but with poor defensive instincts.

[4] He spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons as manager of the Tulsa Drillers, a minor league affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, before being named the head baseball coach at University of the Pacific on July 23, 2017.

[5] He graduated from Servite in 1999 alongside future major league players Ben Francisco and Brian Wolfe.

[8] He led the Stanford Cardinal baseball team in batting average in his sophomore season (2001) with a .398 clip, and was named their Most Improved Player.

[17] The next season, 2004, he split time between the Class-A Advanced Kinston Indians, the Double-A Akron Aeros, and the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.

[25] On September 18, 2005, Garko made his major league debut against the Kansas City Royals, pinch-hitting for Travis Hafner in the eighth inning and striking out against Chris Demaria.

[10] Entering the 2006 season, Baseball America ranked Garko as the fifth best prospect in the Indians' organization and the best at hitting for average.

[33] Although Garko favored his traditional position of catcher, the Indians moved him to first base so he would have a better chance of competing for a major league roster spot.

[35] Garko finished the season with a .292 batting average, 12 doubles, seven home runs, and 45 RBI in 50 games at the major league level.

[2] Going into 2007, Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com reported that Garko would have to improve on the defensive end to make the 25-man roster because the Indians already had a first baseman in Casey Blake.

[36] Towards the end of spring training, Indians' manager Eric Wedge noted that Garko had made improvements on defense.

On April 22, Garko hit a game-winning three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays.

[38] He became the everyday starting first baseman early in the season after Casey Blake moved to third base because of an injury to Andy Marte.

[39] He began to dislike interleague play because during it, designated hitter Travis Hafner was moved to first base, which forced Garko to the bench.

[58] He was acquired to be a full-time first baseman; however, during his tenure in San Francisco, he was third on the depth chart (behind Pablo Sandoval and Travis Ishikawa) after he got off to a sluggish start.

[2] Combined with his time in the Indians and Giants organization, Garko batted .268 with 13 doubles, 13 home runs and 51 RBI in 118 games.

[62] He added about signing with the Mariners: Going through the process and studying what teams were doing, and what Jack [Zduriencik] is doing in Seattle, I realized how much I wanted to be there.However, Garko batted only .220 with a home run and 4 RBI in 15 spring training games.

[65] The final decision, Baker stated, was that the Mariners had their organization full with back-up first basemen and designated hitters like Sweeney and Tommy Everidge.

[63] As a result of his signing, the Rangers optioned Max Ramírez to the Triple-A Oklahoma City RedHawks to make room for Garko on the 25-man roster.

[63] The Rangers had shown interest in Garko at the trade deadline in 2009, however, no transaction ever formed and he was sent to the San Francisco Giants.

[67] Later that day, the Rangers officially optioned Garko to Triple-A Oklahoma City and placed him on waivers after Cruz was activated from the disabled list.

[69] Garko hit his first home run of the season, a grand slam, with the RedHawks against the Triple-A Portland Beavers on May 21.

[74] Garko spent the rest of the season playing for the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League, batting .297 with 68 hits, eight home runs, and 40 RBI in 61 games.

[2] After his playing career ended, Garko joined the coaching staff at Stanford University, a position he held through the 2014 season.

Garko was named as the manager of the Double-A Tulsa Drillers of the Texas League, a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate for the 2016 season.

[75] On July 23, 2017, Garko resigned from the Drillers to take on a new job as head baseball coach at University of the Pacific.

On September 23, 2021, it was announced that the Detroit Tigers had hired Garko as their new Vice President of Player Development, replacing Dave Littlefield.