Otsapa Victory
Red’s Arroyo Breaks silence with Bold Statement saying ” I’m back to …
The last time Edwin Arroyo had a four-hit game in a professional setting was with Single-A Modesto on June 3, 2022. That feels like a lifetime, or maybe even two, ago in the career of the 21-year-old shortstop. Arroyo was traded from the Mariners to the Reds as part of the Luis Castillo deal a month later and underwent left shoulder surgery this past spring that ruled him out for the entire 2024 regular season.
In other words, Tuesday’s Arizona Fall League performance — in which Arroyo went 4-for-5 with a double and two runs scored in Glendale’s 8-1 win over Peoria — has been a long time coming.
“Here, there’s freedom, so I can just be me,” Arroyo said. “I’m actually back to it.”
As expected, it’s been a process to get the Reds’ No. 3 prospect to a place where he could participate in the Fall League at all.
Arroyo underwent the surgery on March 20 after suffering a torn labrum on a dive back to first base one week earlier. He had gotten plenty of Cactus League run as a non-roster invite to Cincinnati’s Major League Spring Training camp, appearing in 11 games before the injury in preparation for an assignment to Double-A Chattanooga. But the procedure immediately ruled out Arroyo for the summer, and he couldn’t get into games until the instructional league.
The fact that it was Arroyo’s non-throwing shoulder may have helped him continue to get some defensive arm work in — notable because he’s arguably one of the best defensive shortstops in the Minors — but his work in the batter’s box was still a slow buildup. Because MLB’s No. 65 overall prospect is also a switch-hitter, that meant extra diligence to get into playing shape, and that work continues even now.
“It’s mostly hitting from my right side, where it feels maybe cold for a little bit,” Arroyo said. “But when I do some swings, a couple of one-hand drills, it gets there and feels normal. … I don’t want to say it bothers me from the right side, but it is where it takes more time to warm it up. But besides that, it’s ready to go.”
