Christian Arroyo Continues to Impress in Cactus League Play
San Francisco Giants’ prospect Christian Arroyo continues to impress during Cactus League play, proving himself a viable competitor in the infield.
The Cactus League has become something of a playground for San Francisco Giants’ top hitting prospect, Christian Arroyo. He is in his third big league camp, and just like the previous two trips, he’s making the most of it early. The 22-year-old infielder wasn’t in the starting lineup on Monday, as has been the case for each of the four Spring Training games, but made an impact later in the contest after entering.
Arroyo entered in the fifth inning as shortstop to replace Brandon Crawford. He had his first at-bat in the sixth inning, leading off the bottom half of the frame with a line drive single to left field. In the bottom half of the seventh inning, Arroyo laced another single, this one going to right field, with the bases loaded. Michael Morse and Juniel Querecuto would both score, tying the game at four.
In the top of the ninth, Arroyo showed off his glove at shortstop, as well. Athletics’ hitter Bruce Maxwell hit a ball into the hole between short and third, and Arroyo cut it off and made a strong throw from deep while slipping on the rain-moistened turf to gun down Maxwell. He received another at-bat in the home half of the ninth, but grounded out harmlessly to first base.
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Arroyo showed the approach that has made him such a highly-touted young player in the Giants’ organization. While he doesn’t have a lot of power, he has a smooth, strong swing that leads to a lot of line drives, and Arroyo has a knack for shooting those line drives all over the field. Though it’s very early in spring, Arroyo is batting .750 through two games played.
Spring Training has never been a problem for young Arroyo. In 2015, as a 20-year-old, he played just six games, but came up with four hits in eight at-bats, including a double and an RBI. During last year’s Cactus League campaign, Arroyo hit .556 (10-18), with a double, two home runs, and six RBI. One of his home runs came against an established major league hurler, the late Yordano Ventura from the Kansas City Royals.
Add in this year’s small crop of results, and Arroyo is a career .567 hitter (17-for-30) in the Cactus League. He has struck out only three times in 33 plate appearances for a 9.1 percent strikeout rate.
Arroyo, the 89th-ranked prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, is coming off a down season for the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels in 2016. Playing in the pitcher-friendly Eastern League, Arroyo hit .274 with a .689 OPS, and hit just three home runs in 517 plate appearances. He did rank third in the league with 36 doubles, and made contact at a great rate as well (13.9 percent strikeout rate).
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Though he has been pegged as the third baseman of the future when Eduardo Nunez‘s contract runs out after this season, he has played both shortstop and second base this spring. He is almost certainly headed to Triple-A with the Sacramento River Cats to start the 2017 season, but if he continues to hit as well as he always has in Arizona, he can make that decision a bit more difficult for Bruce Bochy and his staff.