Guardians, Terry Francona Standing By Gabriel Arias Through His Struggles At The Plate
The Cleveland Guardians committed to playing their young talent post-trade deadline. A lot of these players are stepping into a full-time role for the first time in their Major League careers which is going to carry new challenges as well.
Gabriel Arias is learning this the hard way as he adjusts to his new job on the team.
Cleveland has used Arias in more of a utility role at the end of last season and through the first half of 2023. Playing right field, first base, and the occasional third base allowed Cleveland to hide Arias' flaws and only play to his strengths.
However, he's now playing every day which means he's going to have to work through his struggles in order to prove he can be the answer for the Guardians at shortstop.
Right now, the biggest problem Arias is facing is left-handed pitching.
Take Tuesday night for example. The Toronto Blue Jays had Yusei Kikuchi on the mound and Arias had three plate appearances against him. He went 0-3 in those at-bats and struck out in two of them.
Looking at the season as a whole, the 23-year-old has had 68 at-bats against southpaws and he's batting an abysmal .074 against them. Even more concerning is that 45 percent of these ABs have ended in strikeouts.
On the bright side, one of Arias' five hits against lefties was a home run.
Improving against Southpaws is crucial for Arias to prove he's more than just a platoon player. There are still two months' worth of games left and it looks like he'll get more opportunities to show he can do that.
Terry Francona didn't shy away from talking about Arias' difficulties. He said, "We love what (Arias) can do defensively ... but against lefties, he's not really doing much. But if we don't play him, we're not going to find out what he can do."
It's important that a young player knows that his manager has his back. Arias knows better than anyone that he needs to work on hitting lefties. But the fact that Tito commits to playing him, despite these struggles, will give Arias the confidence he needs to reach his fullest potential.
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