Gabriel Arias made his big league debut at the beginning of the 2022 season. He bounced back and forth between the two levels the rest of that season, made an impact during the playoffs, and spent the entire 2023 season with the major league club.
The only problem is that Arias has yet to be the difference maker for the Cleveland Guardians that some thought he might be. The 23-year-old has a career batting average of .207, .282 OBP, and .630 OPS. To be fair, a lot of this playing time has been sporadic and inconsistent.
Is there any chance Arias will break out during the 2024 season? Guardians hitting coach Chris Valaika had some interesting remarks about his upcoming season and the possibility of just that.
“He just needed reps. I think for a lot of those young guys, they fall into a trap sometimes of chasing results, trying to force their way into playing the next day, not having a result. It’s the elephant in the room, the lack of success he had against left-handed pitching. I think that just compounds. ... Him going to winter ball and playing was good."
Again, the inconsistency in which Arias has played has certainly done nothing to help his development. However, there are also some major red flags that Vlaika brought up too. Arias hit .083 against left-handed pitching last season.
In a perfect world, Arias improves against lefties, plays stellar defense which he's already shown he can, and hits 15+ homers a season. That's not impossible considering that his teammate Josh Naylor had a similar narrative attached to him heading into last season and that's all but gone now.
A breakout season shouldn't be ruled out for Arias.
Arias feels like the safe guess as to who will be Cleveland's Opening Day shortstop. However, he's going to need to prove quickly that he's gotten better with the increase in reps or the Guardians are going to turn to one of their other young, talented middle infielders.
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