Cleveland Guardians Winter Ball Weekly 12/16-22/24
Gabriel Arias adds RF and 1B to his offeason positions
GUARDIANS ORGANIZATIONAL PLAYERS
Gabriel Arias (1B-RF, La Guaira): combined 4-for-20, 4 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K - Arias’ winter campaign may be over after his best outing of the week (2-for-5 with an RBI) was not enough to propel the Tiburones to victory in yesterday’s one-game playoff for the final spot in the LVBP postseason. While La Guaira is done for the 2024-25 season, Gabriel might not be. For those new to winter ball, teams that advance in Caribbean postseasons are allowed to draft refuerzos (reinforcements) off of the eliminated sides’ rosters. On the defensive positioning front, Arias played the remainder of the week at first base after moving there from right field during Tuesday’s contest. Finally, on an interesting note, Gabriel’s five strikeouts were evenly distributed, with exactly one coming in each game.
Victor Izturis (backup C, Lara): 0-2, 1 K, 1 PB - Izturis, who spent the summer of 2024 on the ACL Guardians roster, made his LVBP career debut as a backup catcher for the regular season champion Cardenales in their regular season finale.
Dayan Frias (SS, Monteria): combined 5-for-12, 3 R, 2 RBI, 4 BB, 3 K, 1 SB, 1 E - Frias returned to action on Friday with a pair of RBI, which was enough to restore him to his usual leadoff spot for a two-walk Saturday. It was yesterday, however (ironically, in the Vaqueros’ lone loss of the weekend), when Frias fully got back in his hitting groove, going 4-for-4 with a stolen base.
Johnathan Rodriguez (LF-RF-DH, Carolina): combined 6-for-24, 1 R, 4 2B, 3 RBI, 6 K, 2 SB - Rodriguez’s .250 batting average and six strikeouts last week are a bit deceptive as he entered yesterday 6-for-17 (.353) for the week with only three punchouts and two of his three stolen bases of the season. Then he went 0-for-7 with 3 Ks across the 14 innings of Sunday’s doubleheader, the nightcap of which was his lone DH appearance of a week that saw him get a lot of time in both corner outfield positions.