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Oswaldo Arcia

Oswaldo Arcia Signs With American Association’s Cleburne Railroaders

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A pair of former major leaguers recently signed with teams in the American Association, according to the league’s transactions log. Outfielder Oswaldo Arcia has signed with the Cleburne Railroaders, while infielder Darnell Sweeney returned to the Kansas City Monarchs.

Arcia, the older brother of Braves utilityman Orlando Arcia, appeared in the big leagues between 2013-16. Included among Baseball America’s top 50 overall prospects heading into 2013, the now-30-year-old Arcia looked as though he could emerge as a middle-of-the-order power bat during his time in the Twins system. The left-handed hitter flashed some power potential over his first couple seasons, popping 34 home runs with a .201 ISO (slugging minus batting average) over 788 plate appearances between 2013-14.

Along with that power came big strikeout totals and below-average walk rates, however. That led to Arcia struggling from an on-base perspective, and his overall offensive output checked in around the league average. He’s limited to the corner outfield or designated hitter, and public metrics have pegged him as a below-average defender even in the corners. Without the high-end offensive output to compensate for that lack of value with the glove, Arcia bounced between four different clubs in 2016.

The Venezuela native spent the 2017 campaign in Triple-A with the Diamondbacks. He caught on with the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan the following year, hitting .222/.315/.405 over 324 plate appearances. Arcia spent the 2019 season in the Mexican League and will try to work his way back into the affiliated ranks with a strong showing in his first year with the Railroaders.

Sweeney, on the other hand, has suited up for the Monarchs in two of the past three seasons, with a one-year stop as a member of the Winnipeg Goldeyes (also a member of the American Association) in 2020. The switch-hitting utilityman came up in the Dodgers’ system and was traded to the Phillies in 2015 as part of the deal that sent Chase Utley to Los Angeles. He played in 37 games for the Phils down the stretch but didn’t return to the big leagues until 2018, when he made a pair of appearances with the Blue Jays. The 31-year-old is a .252/.320/.394 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons.

Oswaldo Arcia To Sign With Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters

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Free agent outfielder Oswaldo Arcia has agreed to a deal with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan, FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweets (citing Arcia’s agent, Martin Arburua). The former top prospect will take home a $1.7MM salary plus up to $300K worth of incentives on a one-year deal that contains a mutual option for the 2019 campaign.

The older brother of Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia, Oswaldo ranked among the game’s top overall prospects as a member of the Twins farm prior to the 2013 season and held his own at the plate in 2013-14 in Minnesota despite debuting in the Majors as a 21-year-old. However, the elder Arcia never carried much in the way of defensive value, and as his bat regressed over the next two seasons, he became an expendable piece in the eyes of big league clubs.

Arcia, who’ll turn 27 next May, played with four teams in the Majors in 2016, suiting up for the Twins, Rays, Padres and Marlins while posting a combined .203/.270/.366 batting line in 222 plate appearances. Those struggles, unsurprisingly, resulted in a minor league contract last offseason. He latched on with the D-backs and crushed Triple-A pitching at a .326/.410/.639 clip through 400 plate appearances last season (albeit in the extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League).

Arcia has struck out in 31.6 percent of his plate appearances but shown plenty of power against right-handed pitching in the Majors, as evidenced by a career .239/.309/.462 batting line when holding the platoon advantage. However, he’s been limited to a dismal .226/.271/.334 slash when facing fellow lefties. He’s limited to the outfield corners and designated hitter, from a defensive standpoint.

Diamondbacks To Sign Oswaldo Arcia

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3:15pm: It’s a minor-league contract, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.

2:38pm: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with free-agent outfielder Oswaldo Arcia, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). Terms — including whether it’s of the major or minor-league variety — remain unreported.

Arcia, 25, ended up spending time with four organizations — reaching the bigs will all of them — during the 2016 season. Over 222 plate appearances split between the Twins, Rays, Marlins, and Padres, he slashed just .203/.270/.366 with eight home runs. While the constant movement probably didn’t help, that represented a continued decline for the still-youthful Venezuelan.

Never regarded as a good defender, Arcia blasted his way through the minors and posted just-above-average batting numbers during his first two years in the majors with Minnesota. But his on-base abilities have lagged his power at the game’s highest level. Even as he posted a strong .220 ISO over 410 plate appearances in 2014, Arcia went down on strikes in 31.0% of his trips to the dish while walking 7.6% of the time.

Still, there’s reason to hope that Arcia can turn the corner. He carried much more palatable K/BB numbers before his initial promotion, though he struggled at Triple-A in 2015 after a demotion, and he could perhaps have some development left given the rapidity with which he initially ascended the ladder. (Arcia played in only 107 games in the upper minors before his first call-up.) He does carry pronounced platoon splits, limiting his appeal, though his career 110 wRC+ against righties could make him a useful platoon/bench piece.

Earning playing time in the majors with the D-Backs likely won’t be straightforward, though it certainly seems there’s a path to opportunity in Arizona. Other left-handed corner options include David Peralta, Jeremy Hazelbaker, Socrates Brito, Zach Borenstein, and minor-league signees Reymond Fuentes and Jason Pridie.

Padres Designate Oswaldo Arcia For Assignment; Brett Wallace Elects Free Agency

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The Padres announced tonight that outfielder Oswaldo Arcia has been designated for assignment. Additionally, first baseman Brett Wallace has been outrighted off the 40-man roster and elected free agency. In corresponding moves, the Padres added the contracts of outfielder Franchy Cordero, shortstop Javier Guerra and right-handers Walker Lockett and Jose Ruiz to the 40-man roster.

San Diego was Arcia’s fourth organization in 2016 alone, as the former top prospect was designated for assignment by the Twins and bounced from Minnesota to Tampa Bay to Miami to San Diego on waivers. Once hoped to be the Twins’ right fielder of the future, Arcia hit just .203/.270/.366 this year and has batted a combined .219/.286/.369 in his past 287 plate appearances between the 2015-16 seasons. The 25-year-old unquestionably possesses pop — he’s homered 44 times in 1075 career plate appearances — but has looked consistently overmatched by left-handers, shows a lack of discipline at the plate and rates as a negative defender in the outfield.

Wallace, meanwhile, hit .189/.309/.318 in 256 plate appearances with San Diego this past season. The 30-year-old is a former top prospect himself, but the former first-rounder has never established himself as a quality regular or even a reliable bench option in the Majors. Wallace has had productive stretches — including above-average season totals in 2012 and 2015 (in small samples of work) — but he’s a cumulative .238/.316/.389 hitter. That’d cut it for a catcher or a defensively strong shortstop, but for a corner infielder the production is light.

The names added to the 40-man are headlined by Guerra, who was one of the centerpieces of last winter’s Craig Kimbrel blockbuster. Guerra was joined by Manuel Margot, Carlos Asuaje and Logan Allen in the trade that sent Kimbrel to Boston, and though he took a step back with a dreadful season (.202/.264/.325 in Class-A Advanced), the Padres still saw enough upside to dedicate a 40-man spot to him. Prior to the 2016 season, Guerra rated as a Top 60 prospect in the eyes of Baseball America, MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus and ESPN.

Padres Claim Oswaldo Arcia From Marlins

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The Padres have claimed Oswaldo Arcia from the Marlins, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. Arcia will start in the Padres’ outfield tonight. The team has optioned outfielder Patrick Kivlehan to make room for Arcia on its active roster.

The last two months have been something of a whirlwind for Arcia. The Twins designated him for assignment in mid-June, then traded him to the Rays. After 61 plate appearances, the Rays designated him, and the Marlins claimed him this week before designating him for assignment Thursday.

It’s not hard to see why many teams find Arcia somewhat appealing, just as it’s easy to see the flaws that have prevented him from sticking with a team this season. He’s just 25 and has obvious power, with 42 home runs in 1,030 career big-league plate appearances. Unfortunately, he’s also struck out in over 30% of his plate appearances and doesn’t walk much, leading to low batting averages and on-base percentages. It appears he’ll get another shot in San Diego, where he’ll join an outfield that’s been depleted by a host of recent injuries (Jon Jay, Jabari Blash) and recent trades (Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton).

Marlins Designate Oswaldo Arcia For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that they have designated outfielder Oswaldo Arcia for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for the newly acquired Jeff Francoeur. Arcia had only recently been claimed off waivers from the Rays, but his time with the Marlins will amount to just two games/two plate appearances.

The 25-year-old former top prospect has now been designated for assignment three times this season — once by the Twins and once by the Rays prior to today’s move. Arcia showed promise coming up through the Twins system and in 2013-14 when he batted .241/.302/.441 with 34 homers across 200 games in his first two big league seasons after debuting as a 21-year-old. However, Arcia’s defensive shortcomings in the corner outfield are tough to overlook, and he’s posted lofty strikeout totals while hitting poorly against left-handed pitching in the Majors. Over the past two seasons, his power has taken a dip, and an extended run at the Triple-A level in 2015 yielded just a .199/.257/.372 slash.

Nonetheless, Arcia is still young and has shown some legitimate pop against right-handed pitching in his career, so he makes some sense as a bench bat for a contending club looking for some left-handed punch. In 715 career plate appearances against right-handed opponents, Arcia has slashed .244/.316/.467 with 36 home runs. He’s out of minor league options, so any club that claims him will have to carry him on its big league roster. However, with rosters set to expand a week from today, that’s not as tall an order as it would be earlier in the season.

Marlins Claim Oswaldo Arcia, Place Derek Dietrich On 15-Day DL

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The Marlins have claimed outfielder Oswaldo Arcia off waivers from the Rays, the club announced. He’ll take the active roster spot of Derek Dietrich, who hits the 15-day DL with a right knee contusion, and occupy the 40-man spot of first baseman Justin Bour, who moves to the 60-day DL.

[Related: Updated Rays Depth Chart]

Adding an outfielder has long been said to be on the Miami to-do list. While picking Arcia off the waiver wire may not have been the club’s top preference, he’ll help fill the corner outfield mix with Giancarlo Stanton expected to miss much of the remainder of the year.

The talented 25-year-old has had his ups and downs, but was carrying a useful .259/.328/.444 in his 61 plate appearances in Tampa Bay before his release. Still, he parted ways with the Rays by way of his second trip to DFA limbo on the year, so teams obviously have reservations about Arcia’s ability to regain his former trajectory.

Unfortunately, the addition will come even as Dietrich becomes unavailable, joining Bour as injured southpaw hitters who could provide some pop at first base. Arcia represents another lefty bat to help bolster the lineup, but it doesn’t seem that he’ll be an option at first, which he has never played as a professional.

Though Miami has moved Bour to the 60-day DL, that doesn’t seem to change his ability to return when ready. He was placed on the DL retroactive to July 3, and isn’t expected back before the middle of September anyway.

Rays Designate Oswaldo Arcia For Assignment

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The Rays have designated outfielder Oswaldo Arcia for assignment, per Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times (links to Twitter). Arcia’s DFA stems from the fact that the Rays simply didn’t feel they had room for the out-of-options slugger on the 25-man roster upon activating him from the disabled list.

Tampa Bay claimed the 25-year-old Arcia off waivers from the Twins earlier this season after Minnesota designated the former top prospect for assignment. He appeared in 21 games with the Rays, tallying 61 plate appearances and batting .259/.328/.444 with a pair of home runs, two doubles and a triple. Arcia was once one of the more promising minor league outfielders in all of baseball, ranking comfortably within the league’s top 100 prospects by most measures prior to the 2013 season. He made his big league debut with Minnesota at the age of 21 that season and went on to hit .241/.302/.441 with 34 homers in 788 plate appearances over the next two seasons, showing plenty of promise in the power department. However, he’s a poor defender both by defensive metrics and by the eye test due to his limited range, and he’s struck out in nearly 32 percent of his Major League plate appearances.

Arcia’s pop may intrigue a club in search of some power to add to its bench, and he could be of appeal to a rebuilding club with a dearth of corner outfield/DH options that feels it has room to carry him on its 25-man roster, but a great deal of his prospect sheen has worn off over the past two years.

AL East Notes: Kim, Bautista, A-Rod, Arcia

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Let’s check in with some news from around the AL East…

  • Hyun Soo Kim suffered a hamstring strain while running out a grounder and had to leave Sunday’s game after just an inning of play.  The Orioles outfielder will undergo some tests on Monday and manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including Dan Connolly of Baltimore Baseball) that he hopes Kim can heal during the All-Star break and not require any DL time.  Kim entered today with a very impressive .331/.413/.457 slash line over his first 172 plate appearances in the big leagues.
  • Jose Bautista has begun to hit off a tee and the Blue Jays are hopeful the slugger can return before the end of July, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith writes.  Bautista has been sidelined since mid-June due to turf toe, already missing a bit more time than expected with the injury.  The outfielder was hitting .230/.360/.455 with 12 homers in 286 PA — a down year by Bautista’s standards, though he’ll still have at least two months to position himself for a big contract in free agency this winter.
  • Alex Rodriguez will take grounders at first base over the All-Star break and continue to work at the position once the season resumes, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News reports.  Rodriguez made the first two appearances of his long career at first base last season, though those were two of just six total games A-Rod played in the field in 2015.  This season, Rodriguez has appeared only as a DH and pinch-hitter, and his playing time has been cut due to both his season-long slump and the Yankees’ desire to use Carlos Beltran as a DH (for both injury reasons and to improve their outfield defense).  With Mark Teixeira also a health question mark, A-Rod could get some limited action at first, particularly against left-handed pitching.
  • Oswaldo Arcia is happy to be with the Rays but is still disappointed the Twins traded him, the outfielder tells Fangraphs’ David Laurila.  “I don’t think I got the opportunity to show what I could really do,” Arcia said.  “I know the class of player that I am. I don’t know that I got the time to show that.  You’re going to struggle — there are ups and downs in this game — and you’re going to make adjustments. Everybody in this room is making adjustments every day.”  Arcia also said he pressed too hard after being demoted to Triple-A last season, which didn’t help his path back to the bigs: “If you try to do too much, you’ll end up doing less.”
  • In other AL East news from earlier today, we covered some Red Sox and Yankees items in the latest edition of AL Notes, and the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo shared several interesting trade buzz items from around the division (and all of baseball).

Rays Acquire Oswaldo Arcia, Designate Andrew Bellatti

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The Twins announced that recently designated-for-assignment outfielder Oswaldo Arcia has been traded to the Rays in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Tampa Bay has also announced the move, adding that right-hander Andrew Bellatti has been designated for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

[Related: Updated Tampa Bay Rays Depth Chart]

The 25-year-old Arcia is a former Top 100 prospect that batted .231/.300/.452 with 20 homers as the Twins’ primary right fielder as recently as 2014 (his age-23 season) but has struggled tremendously in each of the past two seasons. Since the beginning of the 2015 campaign, Arcia is batting just .236/.307/.373, and he actually hit worse following a demotion to Triple-A in 2015, slashing .199/.257/.372 in 311 plate appearances with the Twins’ affiliate in Rochester. The Rays will hope that a change of scenery can help the powerful lefty regain some of the promise he showed in 2014 and throughout his career in the minors, where he’s slashed .297/.358/.517 in spite of his 2015 struggles.

Arcia is limited to the corner outfield and is a liability even there, but he does have experience in both left and right, and the Rays have seen a slew of injuries deplete their outfield depth. Presently, the team is without Kevin Kiermaier, Brandon Guyer, Steven Souza and Mikie Mahtook, as each is on the disabled list. Arcia is out of options, so the Rays won’t be able to send him down without exposing him to waivers once some of their other outfield options are healthy.

Bellatti, 24, made his big league debut with the Rays last season and posted a 2.31 ERA with an 18-to-10 K/BB ratio in 23 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. He allowed five runs in 5 1/3 innings to open the season at Triple-A this season, however, and hasn’t pitched since.

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