The Red Sox announced that they’ve claimed infielder Christian Arroyo off waivers from the Indians, who’d designated him for assignment last week. Boston’s 40-man roster and 60-man player pool are now full.
Still just 25 years of age, Arroyo was a 2013 first-round pick by the Giants who is now joining his fourth big league club. San Francisco initially traded him to Tampa Bay — when current chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was a senior VP of baseball ops with the Rays — in the Evan Longoria swap. Arroyo went to Cleveland alongside righty Hunter Wood in a 2019 deadline deal.
The right-handed-hitting Arroyo has appeared in 71 big league games and tallied 251 plate appearances, though he has only a .215/.280/.342 slash to show for it. Arroyo, however, is a career .298/.359/.487 hitter in 418 Triple-A plate appearances, and he comes to the BoSox with experience at shortstop (2574 innings), third base (1257 innings) and second base (519 innings).
At his prospect peak, Arroyo was known as a hit-over-power player at the plate with a strong throwing arm but questionable range at shortstop. That’s not an issue for the Red Sox, who have Xander Bogaerts entrenched at short with Rafael Devers similarly locked in at third base.
The outlook at second base is far murkier, though, given Dustin Pedroia’s now years-long knee troubles. Jose Peraza was signed to a cheap one-year deal this winter and has paired with Rule 5 pick Jonathan Arauz and Tzu-Wei Lin to handle the workload at second base. That trio, though, has combined for a disastrous .224/.235/.299 slash. Arroyo adds another option to the pile, and it’s hard to imagine he’d offer much of a downgrade from that collective output. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll need to remain on Boston’s active roster or else be designated for assignment once again.
He might finally get a chance for regular playing time. He might no longer have the status he had back in 2016-2017, but he hasn’t gotten a chance for regular plate appearances in the MLB since then either.
Nice to see him go somewhere he can get some consistent at-bats. Boston certainly has a need for middle infielders and he’s young enough to still put a solid career together.
Pereza is horrible
Brock Holt would not have saved the season but he still should be in a Sox uniform. Waiting for bashers to tell me again to get over it. Why do I have to when the product on the field has been disgusting to try to watch?
Would Brock Holt make them better to watch? I get liking him, but he’s not must see TV. It’s also not like he’s doing any better than what they have. I always liked Jeff Blauser, but I never set my clocks to make sure I caught his ABs.
Agreed. I don’t understand Bloom’s pandering to Peraza over Holt… it’s not like Holt would’ve cost us a lot and he’s been a proven success here.
Peraza provides more upside though. he’s still quite young and has shown past success. Holt is good but doesnt have upside beyond what he already is.
Saying peraza has more upside than holt is like buying a salvage late model car from the bottom of the reservoir.
Maybe you could get it running again, but mostly you look dreaming about what it could be while it’s sitting around useless.
Meanwhile you wasted your money when you could’ve bought a dependable if less flashy car. Might not have the potential, but it sure gets you around better.
Or it’s like getting either car but you have no need because you have no place to go, like the Red Sox. Why even buy the car in the first place?
Spending money on a utility guy just because you can afford him isn’t a solid move. He’s not generating revenue like some bad teams do when they sign someone to sell some seats in rebuilding years. He’s a well-liked role player but no one is saying “we are terrible, but at least we can enjoy watching Brockstar give 100%”.
Holt and peraza make equal money.
One was enjoyable to watch on the field.
One is not.
One put back into the Boston community. One has not.
One had goodwill with the fanbase.
One does not.
One had fans wanting to see him signed as a FA.
One did not.
One is a current member of the Boston Red Sox.
One is not.
Final Score: Holt 4, Peraza 1. Game Over, back to your regularly scheduled programming on BDN the Bloom Disaster Network.
One is younger and controllable through arb until 2023. I think Peraza has more situational versatility especially with the new extra innings rules.
Personally I don’t find either of them that enjoyable to watch on the field when compared to everyone else out there. Do they have their moments? Yes.
I get liking the guy but condemning the FO for not resigning him when they had more pressing matters to attend to is a bit extreme. They have 3 guys to give opportunities and see what they have. If they are terrible, then nothing lost. But you know what you get with holt. If they signed him and he’s terrible then what? Keep running him out there because he’s a real stand up guy in the community? If I were a fan of a rebuilding/retooling team I would want them to throw as many t urds against the wall and see what sticks.
Perfect response AtlSox. Thanks for sharing better than I could.
Controllable because he was a free agent who wasn’t highly wanted. Brock was already a winner and not over the hill.
Bring back the BROCKSTAR! The 2nd base is a disaster, and Brock never should’ve left.
Pasha, at least we know peraza pitches as well as he does anything else.
Can’t even handle mop up duty…
Yes, it’s the only place he’ safe to put out there.
I can think of a position the Red Sox are shorthanded and could benefit from that “strong throwing arm” with a little bit of coaching and a lot of luck.
Stranger things have happened.
How about Ron Roenicke? Guy changes the lineup so much he ruins the mojo.
You mean moving lin to catcher while bringing in vazquez off the bench to play 2b where he might get hurt?
I can not stand him.
Arauz has looked pretty good at bat lately, 7 for 19 with a lot of line drives, all singles and no walks but only two strikeouts. No errors in the field and 4 DP as a second baseman. Certainly looks worth an extended view at age 21.
No errors in 17 innings at second base isn’t that impressive.
Didn’t he make a ridiculous throw at third last week? I could be wrong but I recall it was him.
Could also be a fast start for Arauz. If I remember Eckersley, he hasn’t had much minor league experience.
Really hope he can do something for us.
Boston kinda do what the Braves did a few years back. Stocking up on former high end prospects in hope that one of them clicks or clicks enough to get them through the year. I think this kid is already washed up, but that’s just my opinion.
Don’t need infielders. Need pitching. Did I say they need pitching.
Useless move I say on this.
so if someone like Trout gets dfaed you’re not going to claim them because they cant pitch?
Foltynewicz was no season saver. But he was only owed 2.3m for the rest of the season and had control remaining or could be released in the offseason.
Meanwhile, bloom makes no moves for actual pitching.
In other news, arauz is no trout.
If Trout gets dfa’d I claim him and teach him to pitch and let him DH too. HeckF the guy is so talented, who would bet against him being able to pitch too?!
Sox right now other than Pitts are the worse team. Can’t hit can’t pitch and after watching Devers throw a double play ball into right field ,they can’t field. Everything that will go wrong is going wrong with this team Horrible to watch major leaguers play like a bunch of “A” ball players. Hope Cora will be back next year. As this team has no chemistry,no leadership other than the obvious no pitching.
Everything starts with no pitching.
When the hitters know the pitcher is likely to stink they feel pressure at the plate. Makes them try to hard, swings alter, blah blah blah.
When the fielders know the pitcher could collapse any moment, they try to hard. Concentration lapses. Errors happen.
It all starts and ends with a poor pitching staff the position players have no confidence in.
I want Cora back too, along with the players who miss him, xactly what Xman said. The fans need to bombard social media about Cora returning. The yr was shot before they played it, hoping for a high draft pick in the next yr draft, that will be fun, and a coach like Cora to mentor the new players when they are ready to get to the show.
By the way is painful to watch Dever playing baseball !!
Not Mike Olt?
i like this move. i think he’ll blossom with playing time
He wasn’t given playing time because he didn’t warrant more playing time when he was given chances.
Off topic to some degree but also related –
Bronson Arroyo is not related to Christian Arroyo officially.
Both went to the same high school. Same coaches.
Bronson is old enough to be Christian’s dad.
Christian played basketball at Bronson’s house during the baseball season.
Not implying anything but it is sure unique that these guys share the same last name.
Maybe he can give the kid pitching tips and make an impact where Boston really needs it.
I’ve kind of been hoping to see them give Yairo Munoz a shot… but this pick-up seems to more or less seal his fate as not getting a look any time soon to play 2B. I don’t hate the pick-up as he could be a late bloomer… he was just a few years ago considered a top prospect… BUT I’m also curious to see who ends up losing their spot to make room for him. In the immediate future I suppose they can just option down Today’s SP… but over the longer term one of Peraza, Lin or Arauz will have to go. Seeing as Arauz is a rule-5 pick they’ve kept thus far (and is actually hitting surprisingly well in an albeit small sample) Lin seems to be the odd man out. I don’t really have an issue with that I suppose if Bloom things that Arroyo still has a chance to become a legitimate everyday player — like he thought the first time he acquired him (in TB). Just also not sure why Munoz hasn’t/won’t get a shot — he actually was quite good in his first ML season… and to me has higher offensive potential… but we shall see
If there’s one troubling trend to Bloom early on beyond all others is that he seems to go for any former highly regarded #1 pick that’s let go and available cheap, ignoring the to date demonstrated abilities or lack thereof.
Reality is, over a dozen #1 picks in every draft never amount to anything, and another dozen are flash-in-the-pan or barely league average players with short careers. If you waste a roster spot on every single one that comes around to the exclusion of better options, you wind up with nothing.
Exactly true but who exactly is arroyo blocking?
Fills a need and has hit in aaa never has really gotten a real sink or swim shot in majors. Likely a bust/fringe back of bench guy
Could also be like Nelson Cruz who didn’t really get a chance till he landed in a place that would let him sink or swim.
I liked arroyo but he doesn’t have the glove for middle infield and lacks the power for a corner.
If his hit tool works with playing time perhaps he could be a move around the diamond type like holt
Way to go Bloom. This team is positively awful and you are like Dan Duquette of the 1990s picking up everyone’s released players and throwaways. You are turning a great franchise into a second rate one.
You really don’t understand anything.
I like the move, but curious who gets cut… surely they won’t keep all 4 of the scrap heap second basemen on the roster? Although, looking at the roster, they do have a 5th spot on the bench since Beni was replace with a pitcher, so they’ll probably just option a pitcher