Orlando Arcia this year is one of those mind-bogglingly confusing things where I'm just gonna have to admit that I'm the problem. I don't get it. It doesn't make sense. I'm perplexed and confused and I have no idea how and why this has happened.
Here is what I know. I know that Orlando Arcia came up with the Brewers as a decent middle infielder, had a great full season in 2017 and was valued as a member of the Brewers' infield until the exact moment where his offensive abilities fell off a cliff. For a couple of years, despite Arcia's excellent defensive abilities at short, he was essentially dead weight in Milwaukee, a lot like Keston Hiura would turn out to be. And like Hiura, Arcia limped off the Brewers' roster a few years after the rookie explosion. He settled in Atlanta, and became a perfectly serviceable middle infield utility man, helping them out in times of injuries to Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson. Last year he actually posted decent numbers, but again, was mostly used in utility roles.
This season, the Braves were going into the year with a hole in the infield, and two potential young options to replace Swanson, those being Vaughn Grissom, who had an excellent rookie campaign last year, and Brayden Shewmake, who was cooking up excellent numbers in Spring Training. And yet neither of them made the team, because higher on the depth chart, as well as higher in seniority and experience, was Orlando Arcia.
For a little while, I was getting flashbacks to Doc Rivers starting DeAndre Jordan over Paul Reed, as 'he's the one who's supposed to be there right now'. I had yet to see what exactly Orlando Arcia was working with in order to inspire such confidence in Brian Snitker, whose judgment I was also perplexed by last All-Star season [again for the western audience, RYAN HELSLEY??]. The season started and I began to get it, as through Arcia's first 13 games, he hit .333 with 15 hits and 7 RBIs. He was one of the best hitters in Atlanta through their first few weeks.
Then he got injured, Grissom and Shewmake came up, and I sort of figured that would be the rest of the year. But nope. 21 days later he was back and continued exactly what he was doing before the injury. He's currently hitting .314 with 64 hits and 26 RBIs. We are finally at the point where Arcia is as good defensively as he is as a hitter, and it's happened with a team that took a chance on him and let him germinate at the exact right time.
So all of this I understand. It's a little baffling that he's finding it now and blocking the kids, but it's an intriguing story that I'm kinda happy with. What's baffling to me is that he's currently getting more ASG votes than Francisco Lindor, who to me is the more logical of the two SS options remaining. In a division with shortstops such as Willy Adames, Dansby Swanson, Ha-Seong Kim, Bryson Stott and Matt McLain, having the option of just Lindor or Arcia is a bit shortsighted, but of the two, one is a league star and one is just having a really nice season. Because this is the Braves, 'having a nice season' translates to 'WE'RE GONNA FIGHT FOR OUR BOY TIL THE BREAK OF DAWN'. Which is refreshing.
It's odd, because Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson, Michael Harris and Austin Riley all aren't doing as well in the voting through a day or so, and Arcia has a commanding lead over Lindor. Which is wild. I'm fine with the occasional inspired pick for the ASG, which this is looking like it'll be, but...I'm still baffled over all of this. I don't know if this means he's found it or he's going to go back to normal next year, or if it's just a sign of how well the Braves have been doing. I genuinely have no idea. This defies all logic to me, and I don't know if I ever will understand it.
I kinda hope he keeps it up. Maybe not for Grissom and Shewmake's sake, but, y'know...the A's can never have enough former Braves prospects, maybe Shewmake's the next one up.
Coming Tomorrow- Mets, Giants, take a look at what you could have won..
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