With a roster crunch looming, Christian Arroyo is heating up at the plate
With the trade deadline drawing closer by the hour, the Red Sox are playing some of their best baseball of the season. While they are getting contributions throughout the lineup, one player who has been an on-base machine is Christian Arroyo. Since the calendar flipped to July, the Tampa native is showing encouraging signs offensively.
After finishing last month with a .209 batting average, Arroyo is finally locked at the plate. Through 34 at-bats this month, he has posted a .324 batting average. The 28-year-old has at least one hit in eight of the ten games he has appeared in this month, including a three-hit performance against the A’s on July 8th.
As Arroyo has frustrated opposing pitchers, his average on the season has risen from .234 to .251 in the last 18 days. In that stretch, he has cut down on strikeouts and added 11 hits to his season total. While Arroyo isn’t hitting with a lot of power, he has recorded four doubles this month which is only two short of matching his total from June.
Although Arroyo’s numbers this season don’t jump off the page, he is showing that his bat still has some value. He already has three multi-hit games in July, which matches his total from last month. With Pablo Reyes and Trevor Story nearing their returns, Arroyo is turning his season around at the perfect time.
Over the next few weeks, the Red Sox will have a few difficult decisions to make as the infield becomes crowded. Arroyo could be an odd man out, as the Red Sox have recently said they plan to get Justin Turner more involved at second base for the rest of the season. Kiké Hernández is also one player who could be in jeopardy of losing his roster spot when this team is fully healthy.
While Arroyo has somewhat of an uncertain future, his bat is heating up when needed the most. The coming weeks will show if it has been enough to keep his spot on a team with playoff aspirations.
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