The Reds shuffled four names on their roster Friday afternoon, and the biggest headline was Edwin Arroyo heading back to Triple-A Louisville before the series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Cincinnati also optioned reliever Chase Petty to Louisville. Coming up in their place are infielder Matt McLain, who is being activated from the 10-day injured list, and reliever Zach McCambley.
Arroyo’s first run in the majors has been rough. He’s batting .244 with no walks, which leaves him with a .286 on-base percentage.
He’s also produced only four extra-base hits, good for a .282 slugging percentage. The bat hasn’t been the only issue, either.
Arroyo has spent most of his time at second base, a spot where he has some experience but not a ton, and he’s struggled there defensively as well.
That’s a sharp contrast from what he was doing in Louisville before the call-up. With the Bats, Arroyo hit .323 and slugged .562, piling up nine doubles, five triples and 11 home runs.
The power drop has been obvious in Cincinnati. His average exit velocity is down 2.5 MPH from his Triple-A numbers, and his max exit velocity is 4 MPH lower.
He reached his current MLB high exit velocity of 105.1 MPH 11 times in Triple-A, while his EV50 with Louisville was 99.4 MPH. With the Reds, that figure sits at a team-worst 95.9 MPH.
McLain’s return gives Cincinnati another interesting lineup decision. The question now is whether he simply takes over as the starting second baseman or works in more of a super utility role while Sal Stewart gets more time at second.
McLain is clearly the better defender at the position than Stewart or Arroyo, which makes him a major upgrade on that side of the ball. At the same time, using Stewart at second more often could make the offense stronger by opening first base or designated hitter for a better hitter than McLain.
McLain has been out for three weeks with a calf injury and has been rehabbing with Louisville since the 24th. In five games there, he went 5-17 (.294) with two walks, a hit by pitch and two doubles.
Petty’s stint with Cincinnati was active right up to the move. He came up on July 12th and spent the rest of the month with the big club, appearing in five games and allowing four runs in 7.1 innings.
He gave up 11 hits, walked one, hit one batter and struck out five. He also pitched in each of the last two days, covering 2.1 innings, which likely made him unavailable Friday and possibly even Saturday.
That opened the door for McCambley, who has already seen some big-league time this season. He’s appeared in four games for the Reds, allowing five walks, one hit batter, six hits and three runs over 4.1 innings.
The 27-year-old has spent most of his year in Triple-A with Jacksonville in the Miami organization and Louisville, and he’s been on a roll lately. Over his last six games, McCambley has thrown 8.2 shutout innings without issuing a walk and with 11 strikeouts.
For the season in Triple-A, he’s posted a 2.57 ERA across 49.0 innings.
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