Less than a month ago, the Philadelphia Phillies inked long-time utilityman Christian Arroyo to a minor league contract with an invite to big league spring training. The seven-year veteran has never functioned as anything more than an oft-used utility infielder over the years, but he's not looking to stay under the radar for very long on his new club.
In fact, Arroyo is making a push for a bench spot on the club's Opening Day roster. It's been one of baseball's worst-kept secrets that the Phillies need to avoid getting any more left-handed-heavy in their starting lineup, so it's worth wondering if a hot streak from Arroyo would be enough to land him a spot on the season-opening squad.
Is Christian Arroyo inching toward an Opening Day roster spot with the Phillies?
As of right now, there's a fairly large group of players fighting for what's likely just one last spot on the Phillies' Opening Day bench. Rafael Marchan, Edmundo Sosa and Johan Rojas have three of the four spots tied down, but there's one still up for grabs.
FanGraphs' RosterResource has Kody Clemens currently projected to nab the spot, but players like Arroyo, Buddy Kennedy and Cal Stevenson are also in the mix. What may give Arroyo a slight edge over someone like Clemens is his right-handedness, which the Phillies could seriously use more of.
Through 12 spring games to this point, Arroyo is 8-for-23 (.348) with a 1.032 OPS, two home runs, six RBI and five runs scored. Stevenson's hitting .115 through 26 at-bats and Kennedy is at .200 over his first 20 at-bats. He also has an OPS over 1.000, mostly in part due to his seven walks so far, but strictly from a hitting standpoint, Arroyo's looking solid.
Defensively, Arroyo has the versatility to bounce around all over the diamond. Over the course of his professional career, he has earned at least seven starts at all four spots around the infield and in right field. This spring, he has already gotten looks at first, second and third base, as well as left field.
That versatility is so important to a team's makeup, and Arroyo's putting himself in a great position because of it. Spring training is prime time to overexaggerate and buy into a player as soon as they get hot, but Arroyo's a former first-round pick (2013 - Giants) who's been bouncing around the majors for over half a decade now. An experienced player like him would look mighty nice rounding out that big-league bench.