There was so much hype about Gabriel Arias when he made his debut with the Cleveland Guardian in 2022.
He’s always been a great defender and has flashed potential on offense, but Aria’s inconsistencies were too much and he found himself back in the minors in mid-2024 after batting .222 and posting an OBP of .255.
He hit the ball better in Triple-A, but does that performance justify another chance on Cleveland’s major league roster?
Arias was promoted back to Triple-A on July 11 and has been a completely different hitter since the roster move. Arias has a slash line of .351/.390/.519, including six extra-base hits in his 77 at-bats with the Columbus Clippers.
Arias’ biggest weakness has always been his swing-and-miss rate. This season, he had a major league strikeout rate of 32.9 percent.
However, Arias seems to have ironed out some of those issues during his time in the minors this season, as he’s touched 78.3 percent of the pitches he’s seen and the strikeout rate is just 19.5 percent. This even comes with a BABIP of .424, which shows the damage Arias can do when he hits the ball up.
At this point in the season, it wouldn’t hurt to give Arias another chance as the team’s shortstop.
Brayan Rocchio has not shown enough offensive power to play every day, and Daniel Snowman was also inconsistent at the batting mark. This even led to Stephen Vogt back to Tyler Freeman sometimes to play the position.
Maybe Arias has finally made the adjustment that will help him make more contact. Maybe some low-stakes at-bats at Triple-A were just what he needed to find his swing again. That clearly worked for Will Brennan.
The only way to find out is to put Arias back on the major league roster.
