September 1st brought a new chapter in the life of Joaquin Arias. The once highly touted prospect was traded away from an organization that was loosing faith in him to an organization that is searching for answers. Arias may already be coming into New York with an interesting target on his back. The Mets fans may (and I really do mean may, its just a possibility) expect big things from Arias since he was traded for an everyday Major League player.
At this point in Arias's career, which has had him bouncing around from the Majors and the Minors since he was 21, he needs to find a spark to get his career in motion. The good about Arias is that he is quick. He is quick on the field, and quick on the base paths. He also gets hits. He is a career .286 hitter and this season a .276 hitter. The problem is that has practically zero power and zero patience at the plate. In his 101 AB this year he has 2 BB and 6 extra base hits. When that is the case, he needs to be hitting .276 (which is ok to hit when you are slugging and getting on base in other ways).
Even as early of 2007 he was still on the top 10 list of the Rangers prospect ranked at #6. In the 2004 and 2005 season he was hitting above .300 in the minors. Things were looking ver good. He was brought up for a very quick stint in 2006 where he smoked the ball going 6-11. The next time he retuned was 2008 where he went 32-110 (.291 BA) with 7 doubles and 3 triples. That is where he had the height of the performance. In 2009 he took a huge slide in the minors only hitting .266 and then when he went to the majors he went 0-8.
Now its 2010. In a young career Arias has been all over the place. The only way for the Mets to know what they have in him is to let him play and let him take Castillo's spot (we can't keep using him off the bench if we want an in-depth view). He projects right now to be a utility infielder, to be carried for his defense and thats about it.
