Black MLB Players #10: Randy Arozarena
Background + Path To The MLB
Randy Arozarena is a 25-year-old Afro-Cuban from Arroyos de Mantua, Cuba, a small town about four and a half hours away from Havana. He bats and throws right-handed, and he is an outfielder. He grew up a huge soccer fan, but started playing pro baseball at the age of 18 in the Cuban National Series(CNS), for the team located in Pinar Del Rio. He defected to Mexico in June 2015 for a myriad of reasons, both personal and related to the game of baseball. Because the Cuban Baseball Federation and the MLB have not officially agreed on a posting system for Cuban players that want to play in the MLB for reasons that are mostly political, Cuban baseball players have to hire smugglers and human traffickers to get them out of the country, and to a country where they can establish residency before signing with an MLB team.
The team officials for Pinar Del Rio did not put him on the roster for the Caribbean Series in Puerto Rico out of fear that he would defect and sign with an MLB team due to the tools that he had. The Caribbean Series is the highest tournament for professional baseball teams in Latin America, and even though he had an extremely productive season Arozarena did not get the opportunity to play on the biggest stage for Latin American baseball. This made him feel alienated by his team, his country and made him desperate because of the financial implications as well. After an eight-hour boat ride to Mexico and establishing residency, and two years toiling in the Mexican League fighting for an opportunity to get signed by an MLB team, he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals for $1.25 million on August 1st, 2016.
After two years in the minor leagues, the St. Louis Cardinals called him up and Arozarena made his major league debut on August 14th, 2019, a little over three years after signing as an international free agent. During the offseason after the 2019 MLB season, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays where he would be one of the top four outfielders on the major league roster. After a coronavirus diagnosis delayed his 2020 debut, he played the last 23 games of the shortened 60 game season and was extremely productive in all facets of the game, putting up a 1.000 OPS, racking up 1.1 WAR, and playing in all three OF spots, as the Rays love to mix and match on a game to game basis. So far, Randy Arozarena has been one of the best players in the 2020 MLB postseason, breaking rookie postseason records and individual postseason records for the Tampa Bay Rays. He was named the ALCS MVP and has joined the large group of young black players that made a name for themselves during the 2020 season.
Player Profile
Randy Arozarena profiles as an above-average baseball player on both sides of the ball. He has a respectable eye at the plate, understands the strike zone, and has the bat speed to be competitive when challenged with fastballs that have premium velocity. His only perceived weakness is his aggressiveness in his approach. Arozarena is an elite fastball hitter, batting .316 in the 23 regular-season games he was available and struggled with breaking pitches. He seemed to have good luck with offspeed, as his expected batting average was way lower than his literal batting average. Arozarena has a pull-heavy approach, with the majority of the balls that he puts in play being ground balls. Throughout the playoffs, he’s shown the ability to be adept at squaring up offspeed and breaking pitches in the zone, and he has absolutely crushed mistakes and hangers so far. He only has 40+ games in the MLB so far, while it is a small sample size so far he has performed. With his history of above-average performance in the Cuban National Series, The Mexican League, and the upper minors(A+/AA/AAA), it's safe to say casuals and experts would put their chips on the table if they had to bet on him.
Defensively, he has the wheels to stick in centerfield full time but because of Kevin Kiermaier, Manuel Margot, and the philosophy of the Tampa Bay Rays organization where they typically platoon as many positions as possible, Arozarena will see more time in the corner outfield spots. In my opinion, Arozarena will be an average to above-average outfielder regardless of what spot he’s in because of the athleticism, above-average arm, and hustle, and intensity with which he plays the game. From a baserunning standpoint, he has the speed to rack up steals, but I do not see an opportunity for him to steal more than 20–25 bags at his peak because I think his instincts and acumen for stealing bases is not that good. On the basepaths, I project him as above-average to plus, due to his instincts, intensity, and pure athleticism.
