San Francisco Giants: Why Christian Arroyo Had to Be Called Up Now

The San Francisco Giants certainly didn’t want to call up 21-year-old Christian Arroyo this early in his development, but they had no choice.

It’s not like Arroyo hasn’t had a lot of playing time in the minors. He’s registered almost 1,500 at-bats in parts of five minor leagues seasons.

However, just over 500 of those at-bats are from the Double-A level and up. I know the Giants would have liked for him to continue to develop in the minors this year and bring him up either in September or for the start of next season.

But after a disastrous 6-13 start to the 2017 season, they had to make this move. Especially with the losses of Madison Bumgarner and Jarrett Parker.

Not that anybody is losing sleep over Parker not being in the lineup, but I think that forced the Giants hand. They gave it a week with sub par talent, and that wasn’t getting the job done.

The reason I mention Bumgarner is because I think at that point the fan base, and team, needed a shot in the arm.

Things were really gloomy after Bumgarner went down, and then getting swept by the Rockies didn’t help.

The organization needed to do something to re-energize this team and fan base. The best way to do that was calling up the team’s top offensive prospect.

That’s not to say that Arroyo hasn’t earned his call up to the big leagues, he’s certainly done that and more. He has a career batting average of .300 in the minors, and so far this season he was hitting .446 with 3 home runs.

A lot of fans, including many writing for Around the Foghorn, have been clamoring for Arroyo for weeks.

More from Around the Foghorn

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• SF Giants activate 2B Donovan Solano, option Thairo Estrada
• SF Giants place closer Jake McGee on IL, recall Jay Jackson

I think the organization heard the fans and made a bit of a knee jerk reaction. That’s not to say this was the wrong decision, not all knee jerk reactions are bad, I just think their hands were forced into calling up Arroyo when they obviously didn’t want to.

If they did want Arroyo on this team he would have been here weeks ago. Left field has been a problem all year, and it’s probably cost us several wins.

Instead, they waited until they had no other choice.

Hopefully it’s not too late, and hopefully Arroyo can continue to swing a hot bat and help the Giants win some games.

We’re already seeing his usefulness in his first big league game. He was 0-4 at the plate, but he moved a runner from second to third who eventually scored, and he made a couple of outstanding plays at third.

Next: San Francisco Giants Promote Top Prospect Christian Arroyo, In Monday’s night lineup vs. Dodgers

Even though they were forced to make this decision, I think it was the right move, and hopefully it wasn’t made too late for the San Francisco Giants in 2017.