There’s a lot of excitement about the Minnesota Twins lineup in 2016.
The signing of Korean slugger Byung Ho Park, moving Miguel Sano to the outfield, watching how young players Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton grow after getting their first taste of Major League Baseball last summer.
Even the signing of veteran free agent outfielder Carlos Quentin is generating a little buzz.
Lost in all of that excitement is a player who at one point just two seasons ago was considered one of the Twins’ top offensive prospects – Oswaldo Arcia.
After hitting a combined 34 home runs in 2013 and 2014 with the Twins, Arcia played just 19 games with the team in 2015. He injured his wrist early and never regained his form, hitting just .199/.257/.372 at Triple-A Rochester. Things were so bad, he didn’t even return to Minnesota as a September call up.
“I’m terribly disappointed in the year he had and he knows it,” Twins GM Terry Ryan said on an episode of The Scoop podcast with Darren Wolfson. “He’s got a lot to live up to here. I know he’s been in Fort Myers since the day his season concluded in Rochester. But when you’re not a September recall with the type of ability he has, there’s something wrong. And we need to fix him.”
That’s a long way from the promising young outfielder who would crush majestic looking home runs like this.
Now out of minor league options, it will be a big spring for Arcia.
Twins blogger for MLB.com, Rhett Bollinger, writes that Arcia will have a chance to make the roster as a fourth outfielder this season “as they don’t want to risk losing him on waivers given his youth and power potential.”
But potential can only last so long and with Rosario, Buxton, Danny Santana, Quentin, Sano and even Max Kepler all in the mix to be Twins outfielders, it might be time for Arcia to produce.
