It’s time again to start making plans for Edwin Arroyo & the Reds

The shortstop’s shoulder looks much, much improved.

The laundry list of injuries to Cincinnati Reds players at the big league level actually made the spotlight on Edwin Arroyo’s shoulder injury last spring that much brighter. After all, when the big leaguers go down (and the team’s record goes down with it), the natural response is to look to the minors and see who might be ready to step in and fix it.

Under normal circumstances, that would’ve been Arroyo. After Noelvi Marte was suspended, Matt McLain re-injured, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand struggled and got surgically repaired, the infield in Cincinnati was in tatters. Arroyo, one of the prize acquisitions from Seattle in the Luis Castillo deal, should have been ripping it up for AA Chattanooga last April, doing his best to prove he was once again worthy of top prospect status within the crowded youth movement the Reds had burgeoning.

His left shoulder simply didn’t comply. On a dive back into a base while with the Reds in Goodyear at spring training, he tore the labrum in said shoulder, and the surgery and rehabe ruled him out for the entire season.

Thank heck for the Arizona Fall League, however. Arroyo’s down there with the large Reds rehabbing contingent, and is fresh off a 4-hit day for the Glendale Desert Dogs. MiLB.com’s Sam Dykstra caught up with Arroyo to talk about his status and the recovery process, and where he feels he stands these days.

There’s some refreshing honesty from Arroyo, who spoke of how the injury impacts him specifically as a switch-hitter. Still, there’s ample optimism from him despite losing an entire season of play, and the work on the field is beginning to show plenty of glimpses of why he was once rated as a Top 50 overall prospect in all of baseball.

His glove and throwing arm are, and have always been ready for big league action. Now that his swing is rounding back into form, it once again looks like the Reds will need to find room for him in the middle of their infield sooner rather than later, the good kind of logjam to have to unwind.