Christian Arroyo opens up about lessons learned
The easy avenue to take when defining Christian Arroyo’s current existence is to simply look at his numbers since joining Triple-A Worcester. Those paint the picture of a struggling baseball player.
But in this case - as is the reality for so many ballplayers navigating their way through the good and bad of a season - the story is so much more than the surface level.
Yes, there was the disappointment of being designated for assignment three weeks ago and landing in a place - the minor leagues - he thought was firmly in his rearview mirror. And, of course struggling mightily in his march back toward the big leagues has been far from ideal.
All of that, however, is just part of Arroyo’s existence. And that is notion that has become the biggest curveball.
“I don’t think anybody who knows me or watches me would ever say I don’t care or I don’t try or I’m OK with not succeeding. This year was very apparent that the more I tried the more stuff started to spiral,” Arroyo explained on the 'Baseball Isn't Boring' podcast. “Again, that’s a learning experience. That’s a part of life and it’s unfortunate because you know there were a lot of personal things it affected. When you’re hanging your head and trying to figure out what the hell is going on and you’re trying to figure it out in the box and you’re trying to play good, winning baseball and you come home and you can’t turn it off. It’s unfair to my wife. It’s unfair to my family. I feel like I have been kind of disconnected from the outside world because I beat myself up so much. But that’s one of the biggest things I have to learn.”
He added, “Baseball is the thing I love to do. But no matter what anybody says I’m going to be a former player for way longer … If I play 20 years in the big leagues I would be a former player 60 years longer than I will be a baseball player. If you look at that way, maybe a quarter of your life you spend as a player but at the same time what about the other three quarters of your life. Are you going to beat yourself up because of the way you wanted it to? That was the thing I had to do, man. I had to deal with some stuff, mental health stuff. I’m not afraid to talk about it. It wasn’t an excuse or anything, Not that I was bad at dealing with the failures. I was more bad about always thinking something was wrong because I wasn’t having success. This is a tough game. You can go out there and feel great and go 0-for-4 and line-out three times. That’s just how this game is.”
The 28-year-old’s openness ironically came immediately after perhaps a perfect microcosm of the roller coaster he has had to weather, Thursday night at Polar Park. First at-bat: Line-drive out. Next at-bat: Another line-drive out, this one coming off the bat at 103 mph. A few steps are taken out of the batter’s box before the helmet is flung off, the bat thrown away and the eyes frustratingly are directed skyward.
The third time at-bat Arroyo found himself at the crosswords of a potentially game-changing rally. But intention and effort sometimes results in the undesired outcome. That was the case in At-Bat No. 3, with an inning-ending ground. Finally, in his final trip to the plate - without the option to hit a game-tying, bases-empty, four-run homer, Arroyo easily rifles a single into the outfield.
It was another reminder: The mind is a tricky thing to navigate when playing the game of baseball.
“This year was tough, man,” he said. “I saw AC (Alex Cora) had said something kind of right after the transaction. He said, ‘It seemed at time he was pressing.’ To tell you the truth, I was. I had a good opportunity and just didn’t let myself just play the game. It’s unfortunate that that’s how it happened, but there is really no one to blame but myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself and I didn’t put myself in good situations to be successful. I was always tinkering with stuff. I always thought there was something wrong instead of going back to my baseline and going back to my basics and feel like myself. And that continued being down here.
“It’s a humbling game. It’s a grind. That’s part of it. I’m human being. I’m not going to take this for granted. The amount of opportunity I have been given from this organization is unparralled, so I can be thankful for this. At the same time, I’m working on some things, fixing some things. A lot of it is mental, man, to be completely honest with you. I have beaten myself up a lot. Been super mean to myself. I think I have been harder on myself than anyone has been on me and that’s unfair to myself. Now I have kind an idea what happens when I do that to myself. I think it’s a learning opportunity. An opportunity to grow. The guys up there and the guys down here have been so great as far as trying to get me back untracked and help me out. It was frustrating for me.”
Arroyo’s current struggles - which has him hitting .139 with an .381 OPS with Worcester - began well before the infielder’s demotion. Life as the Opening Day starting second baseman ultimately was far from what he envisioned. It was noticeable to more than just Arroyo.
“At the beginning of the season, actually, I was struggling,” he said. “I think it was a rain delay game against Anaheim. We were home. The rain delay happens and I’m sitting around the locker room and Kiké (Hernandez) comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey man, I think I have a guy for you.’ It just kind of brought me down a different path of understanding. Because you hear it all the time. ‘Don’t focus on results, focus on the process.’ Sometimes you get immune to stuff. You hear stuff so much it doesn’t mean anything. Then you start to question, saying, ‘I’m trusting the process but I’m not seeing the results,’ so then you start questioning the process. That’s the part of the mind that is tough. You almost have to trick yourself that this is the process. I know this is what will make me successful. I just have to trust it.
“When you can start focusing on controlling what you can control and not focusing on things you can’t control I think life just gets easier, man. Nowadays, we spend so much time trying to dictate our future, dictate what we’re going to do. You can’t even guarantee you’re going to wake up tomorrow. That’s one of the things, just trying to take one day at a time. One pitch a time. One game at a time. Everybody looks to the future and I used to all the time, even recently, like a couple of weeks ago.”
For the former first-round pick, what’s done is done when it comes to the opportunity with the 2023 Red Sox. Now it’s about learning the lesson the unexpected road blocks have left behind.
“It was tough coming out to find out what happened, but at the same time I can’t sit there and say it wasn’t warranted,” he said. “I just wish I could have been a little more consistent. I try to not to live my life through regrets. I just want to use it as a learning experience this whole year and finish this year strong and healthy and get going and see what the future holds.”
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