At the All-Star Break’s conclusion, I wrote on expectations, and their virtue as an exercise with this franchise towards a more hopeful future near and far. These Seattle Mariners, 3.0 games back of the AL West and the third Wild Card spot alike, have earned little and less belief. They’ve played poorly, wasted chances, and frittered opportunities to cleanse their palates. Much has rightly been made of the necessity for the core players to perform at or near the standards they’ve set for several
years. But Seattle is giving up massive production on the fringes, and they’ve forced themselves into an uncomfortable, desperate position.
It is time for them to call up Michael Arroyo.
Seattle needs right-handed hitting, and with J.P. Crawford sidelined at least for several weeks, there is no easy solution at third base. Brendan Donovan returns on Tuesday to rotate around the field, but it’s hard to look at the lineup as constructed and see anywhere for him to play more frequently than the hot corner. Arroyo has played some third base, but it’s realistically not where he could be thrown in, although his defense is less egregious and more limited if asked to play second base or corner outfield. But they need his bat, because the Mariners need to take some risks, and rotating Weston Wilson, Victor Robles, Rob Refsnyder, Leo Rivas, and Mitch Garver through to take flaccid swing after flaccid swing is a Wile. E. Coyote kind of road that the Mariners have been slamming into the wall of all summer. The Rainiers’ roster is stocked with similar players who’ve struggled to set themselves apart this year and over many years, from Connor Joe to Patrick Wisdom to Stuart Fairchild, along with injured options like Ryan Bliss and Brennen Davis. With Luke Raley seemingly ailing, the M’s have to be more aggressive to rev up their offense before it’s too late.
Arroyo is a 21 year old Colombian ~utilityman whose profile made him the most-heralded hitting prospect from his burgeoning baseball nation since Colombia’s first and greatest star: SS Edgar Renteria. The 5’10, compact youngster has never been at the top of Seattle’s prospect list, but has hit his way into top-100 status nationally over the past couple seasons, with an approach I first wrote about in the winter before the 2024 season. Following a strong debut at age 18 with the Low-A Modesto Nuts, I said this of Arroyo:
Undersized but not underpowered, Arroyo was an excellent offensive force on a Nuts roster that boasted a quintet of potent teenage position players by season’s end. Arroyo’s .234/.389/.373 line belies a few factors: firstly a staggering 18 hit by pitches in just 265 California League plate appearances that both aided his OBP and sent Arroyo to the IL once and to the bench for a few days on multiple occasions. Still, his 9-16 line with a 2B, 3B, HR, and 4 BB in the playoffs and championship helped showcase the young Colombian’s advanced offensive toolkit. Arroyo will turn 19 in November, and already has a knack for elevating the ball with authority due to quick hands and strong wrists. He may be a 2B or 3B, but the bat will be putting him on the radar for a quick progression up the ladder.
Two and a half seasons later, every bit this remains the same, simply against better and better competition. Arroyo is now in Triple-A, where he’s spent nearly a month performing almost identically to each other level. His .300/.368/.479 line between Arkansas and Tacoma this year comes with just a 16.6% strikeout rate and 13 homers alongside 15 steals in 18 attempts. The righty-hitting youngster impressed me early with his ability to make swing decisions later than most hitters could manage, using those strong wrists to flick breaking balls into the outfield grass with acuity far beyond his years. It’s a skill that’s often slowest to develop, if it ever does, for young hitters, where as professionals they face consistently competent off-speed pitches for the first time in their lives.
And yet, that’s part of why Arroyo may never seem overmatched in the moment. His father Carlos was a Mariners prospect who made it up through then-Short Season-Everett, Low-A Wisconsin, and High-A Inland Empire (the latter once again being Seattle’s affiliate, now at Low-A). Alongside his elder brother, young Michael has been steeped in baseball throughout his upbringing in Cartagena, the baseball capital of Colombia. Michael’s pedigree and performance placed him on Colombia’s national teams at every level, starting in his youth and allowing him to represent his country against the best international talents all throughout his teenage years. In the World Baseball Classic, on a roster with established big league veterans like Gio Urshela, Harold Ramírez, and Donovan Solano, Arroyo set himself apart as the premier hitter, ensuring the club’s qualification for the 2026 WBC and then starring to ensure a performance that locked them in for the 2029 WBC as well.
It’s ample preamble to say Arroyo has yet to be overmatched. That’s not to say the big leagues won’t provide ample challenge for him. But his style of play is suited to a transition from the minors in a way some prospects are less clearly. Arroyo is exceptional at putting the bat on the ball when he swings at pitches in the zone, a 91.3% contact rate on such pitches since starting in Triple-A where the data is public, but I’ve watched enough Arroyo to know that’s a continuation of the same thing he’s been level by level. This is dramatically different than, say, Lazaro Montes, who is a player I don’t think merits a call-up, nor even Colt Emerson who was given an aggressive promotion this year as well. Arroyo’s style as a hitter works in the way many of the most successful recent debutants have. If any player in the M’s organization is going to improve Seattle’s offense right now, it is Arroyo.
This club has pushed itself out of the clear driver’s seat it had maintained for months to defend their division title. That forces Seattle’s hand. If they still see themselves as contenders, they have to get uncomfortable and take a swing with a young player who can pour fuel into the engines of the foundering Mariners.
