Do You Know This Man? Joaquin Arias Remains Rangers Mystery Nearly Six Years After Acquisition

OAKLAND, Calif. – Of the 25 players on the Rangers active roster Tuesday, INF Joaquin Arias ranked sixth in terms of length of service to the organization.

But is there a player on this team about whom the Rangers know less?

It’s been 5½ years since the Rangers acquired him to complete the Alex Rodriguez trade. At the time, Buck Showalter liked to tell stories about how the Yankees tried to hide him by giving him different uniform numbers to wear when the Rangers were scouting him and Robinson Cano as the two top candidates to be the “player to be named later” in the deal.  The Yankees tried to make it hard on the Rangers to know what they might be acquiring in Arias during those three weeks in 2004. And ever since the club picked him over Cano, Arias seems to keep trying to puzzle the team.

Is he an athletic shortstop? Well, he has spent most of this season there at Triple-A Oklahoma City, but it appears to be a moot point now since Elvis Andrus, four years younger than Arias, has seized the position in the majors. Is he a center fielder? No, that experiment lasted a week in January of 2007 and his throwing arm hasn’t been the same since. A utility player? Can’t play third, which kind of takes the “u” out of utility. And after the last two nights in Oakland, things aren’t looking so hot at second either.

Called up a week ago after Ian Kinsler strained his hamstring, Arias got his first two starts of the season in Oakland and nearly single-handedly cooled the Rangers off. In the ninth inning of Monday’s 3-2 walkoff loss, Arias was in an unfamiliar spot – deep in the outfield grass – on an overshift against left-handed-hitting Jack Cust and when Cust bounced a ball to the right side, Arias was tentative in fielding it. He let the ball come to him; it hit the lip of the infield, took a big hop and though Arias caught the ball, he made no throw to first. It started the winning rally.

Tuesday, the Rangers lost 6-0, and there was plenty of blame to spread around, but Arias certainly belonged on that list, too. LHP Derek Holland reminded everybody that you can’t predict rookie performance. He lacked command of his fastball and had no curve ball to speak of. The offense once again went into shutdown mode – a road habit that is reaching crisis stage; the club is hitting just .222 on the road since July 1 and averaging only 3.8 runs per game.

Arias has led off both games and is hitless in seven at-bats, but in his two previous big league cameos he’d hit an impressive .314, so maybe that wasn’t such a huge concern. In the field, though, he was constantly making the wrong move at the wrong time. He looked like he was trying to play second base like a shortstop and that’s only natural since all of his games at Oklahoma City this season have been at short.

“It was a bad day on defense for me,” Arias said after the game.

Yes, yes it was.

With one out in the fourth inning, Arias took away what appeared to be an inning-ending double play grounder up the middle by cutting in front of Andrus. He tried to step on second as his momentum was taking him towards left field and tried to throw at the same time. He missed the bag and the throw to first was weak. Instead of ending the inning, A’s got a run before Andrus turned the next batter’s grounder into a double play.

“There was no real communication,” manager Ron Washington said, assessing blame to both infielders. “When your playing up the middle, you should both understand – before the pitch – who is going to do what.  It was just a common sense play.”

In the eighth, with the Rangers clinging to a faint hope of making a comeback – and it was very faint – he ranged towards the right field line to get Mark Ellis’ two-out grounder. But he let his momentum keep taking him towards the lin while he tried to throw across his body at an awkward angle to first. He delivered what looked like an air-ball jump shot that came nowhere close to Hank Blalock. Replays indicated he had plenty of time to stop himself and make an easier throw to first. Instead the first of two runs scored on the play and, if there was any doubt about the outcome, the eighth removed the doubt.

For a guy who will be out of minor league options after this season and who is seeing his chances of making an impact in Texas become more and more limited, Arias’ first real exposure this season answered no questions about whether his athletic talent will ever translate into real success.

“We know he’s a talented kid,” Washington said. “He can run. He can swing the bat.”

The question, however, is: Can he play at this level?

It’s going to be hard to find out anytime soon. On Wednesday, he’ll be back on the bench. Omar Vizquel, the oldest position player in the game who had never started a game at second until this season, will be back in the lineup.

And Arias will go back to being the mystery talent.