Edwin Arroyo’s spring began as a member of the Seattle Mariners organization and he was about to begin his first full season as a professional. Seattle sent the then 18-year-old to join their team in Modesto. The season would have a few changes by the time it came to an end for the shortstop.
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The season got out to a bit of a slow start in the first two weeks for Edwin Arroyo. Over the first 11 games he hit .174/.283/.239. Things heated up from there, though. From April 23rd through July 28th he went out and hit .338/.401/.559 with 38 extra-base hits and 19 stolen bases in 77 games.
Two days later he was traded for by the Reds in a deal for Luis Castillo. After arriving in the Cincinnati organization he headed out to Arizona where he joined the ACL Reds for two days before moving on to join the Single-A Daytona Tortugas. Things got out to a slow start for Arroyo with Daytona, hitting just .175 in the first three weeks with the team. In the final two weeks he picked things up, going 12-40 (.300) to finish the season.
For all 2022 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).
Edwin Arroyo Scouting Report
Position: Shortstop | B/T: S/R
Height: 6′ 0″ | Weight: 175 lbs | Acquired: 2nd Round, 2021 Draft (Mariners), Trade (July 2022)
Born: August 25, 2003
Hitting | A switch hitter, Arroyo profiles better from the left side than the right side as a hitter. He’s got an average hit tool overall.
Power | From both sides of the plate Arroyo’s power is to his pull side. He’s got average to slightly above-average raw power.
Speed | Arroyo has above-average speed.
Defense | An above-average defender with good hands and footwork at shortstop.
Arm | He shows an above-average arm.
Offensively there’s nothing that truly jumps off of the page at you for Edwin Arroyo. He’s good across the board, with big league average hit and power tools. From the right side he’s shown more power as a pro – including a hilarious six doubles and four home runs on balls he hit to left field from the right side out of 19 batted balls to that part of the field in 2022. But with that power has come some swing-and-miss as he struck out 30% of the time from the right side of the plate this past year. From the left side he struck out just 21% of the time, but didn’t show quite as much power.
While he did play in the hitter friendly California League for much of his 2022 season, he played in the least hitter friendly ballpark in the league, particularly when it comes to power. Modesto, according to Baseball America’s 2022 park factors, had a HR park factor of 52 (!). The next “worst” in the league was 75. Two different parks in the league were over 140 and another two were 119 or higher. You can see that playing out in his splits, too. In 43 home games with Modesto he hit just one home run, while in 44 road games he hit 12. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle as to the kind of power he would have had in a more neutral situation during the year – but the California League just doesn’t provide those circumstances.
Defensively is where Edwin Arroyo can shine. He’s an athletic shortstop who can make the routine and exceptional play. He shows good range, good hands, and he’s got plenty of arm for the position – though the arm doesn’t stick out at shortstop where you need an above-average arm to play at the big league level.
Video
Edwin Arroyo Spray Charts
As a left-handed hitter
As a right-handed hitter
Interesting Stat on Edwin Arroyo
After homering on June 23rd and then two days later on June 25th, Arroyo played in 53 games moving forward on the season and hit just two more home runs. He did have 12 doubles and 5 triples in those 53 games.
This kid. If there’s anyone now in this organization, who could explode like EDLC, Arroyo may be it. Elly, Marte, CES, McLain, AND Arroyo? Acosta, Ascunio, Cabrera pushing up?
@DaveCT, I’m trying not to get too excited for him. I want to see what he does in AA, which probably won’t be until midseason or next season. If he does continue to develop the Reds will have some good problems figuring out.
If we live in a world where Marte takes 3B, EDLC takes SS, and McLain takes 2B, what does maybe the best fielder of the 4 (Arroyo) go? Maybe India keeps 2B for 2 seasons and McLain takes CF, or RF. Then Arroyo becomes the next 2B? We lost Steer in all of this. It’s just too confusing now, but when these guys actually reach the MLB I bet the pieces fall into place.
Better to have a deep bench for a change, I’d add. You think about keeping Mesoraco AND Grandal, that could have been amazing. Even having Yonder off the bench could have helped those 2010-2013 teams score runs, which they weren’t great at.
Financially, the Reds reset should allow them to spend on a FA starter like Stroman when needed instead of adding a Latos type player at great prospect cost. The Sonny Gray deal was a winner that had some risk, but worked out as good as imaginable. Of course, the Straily deal, too. More of those please.
Of this current crop, they need to extend 2-3 players, but that might be all they can afford. India has had one great year, is he really an extension candidate when we have a lot of infield talent coming up? After the Mesoraco contract, do you extend a young catcher?
I’m not certain who to throw money at, yet. I’d lean towards Green and Lodolo, maybe Stephenson too, buying out 2-3 years of FA.
But anyway, build your affordable cost structure around a few current players, add 1-2 quality free agents, then you can allow players like India play out through arb while having a very deep bench and protection against injury, or trade them after 3-5 years to improve the future and be replaced the deep bench. This is how I could see them competing for a 5-10 year stretch instead of 2-3 years.
Somebody is going to play 1b in 2023. My bet is India takes over at first or left field. I’ve thought India wasn’t big enough for first but checking the stats India is teller and heavier than All Star first baseman #14.
MK, I have in the past proposed Senzel for a switch to 1B, but you are correct that India fits better.
Maybe trading for Newman is an indication that they plan to switch India off 2B; there isn’t a whole lot of other possible explanations for it, as long as they keep Reynolds.
Arroyo will be interesting to watch. I would not be surprised if four Reds wound up in the top 25 prospect lists come July 2023. EDLC and Marte are already there. if Arroyo gets out of the gate in similar fashion to 2022 then he is in the top 25. Remember, he will be a year younger than EDLC when he came to Dayton.
Cam Collier could also jump into the top 25 come July.
That would be really cool, and a great sign for the Reds future.
Somebody must play first base at least in ’24 if not part of ’23. To me that is India.