FORT MYERS, Fla. -- First-round draft picks are supposed to be stars.
Maybe not first-ballot, no-questions-asked Hall of Famers, but at the very least, solid regulars and longtime major leaguers. That level of accomplishment is expected.
But it hasn't happened for Christian Arroyo.
Selected 25th overall by the San Francisco Giants in 2013, Arroyo has not, to date, enjoyed the typical career path usually associated with a first-round pick. For one thing, he's on his fourth organization, having been traded by the Giants to the Tampa Bay Rays before spending a brief time with the Cleveland Indians, and eventually, being claimed by the Red Sox.
But a decade after being chosen in the first round, this spring marks the first time in his career that Arroyo has arrived in camp, knowing that he has a starting spot in the lineup. That much seemed obvious over the winter and was further confirmed earlier this week when manager Alex Cora erased any uncertainty when he almost casually confirmed: "Christian Arroyo's our starting second baseman.''
As recently as last spring, Arroyo was tasked with getting ready for a number of different positions in the infield, along with the request that he get in some work in the outfield, where the Sox were looking for some depth options in right.
This time, for a change, he can focus on one spot.
"It is a little bit of a different feeling,'' said Arroyo. "But I don't want to take anything for granted. Any opportunity, even if it's being the last guy off the bench, it doesn't matter to me. It's going to be the same preparation.''
By his own admission, he could have never imagined that it would take nearly a decade after being chosen out of high school for him to begin a season as an everyday player.
"It's funny, when I was younger, I probably had a jaded sense of reality,'' he said. "But obviously, everybody's path is completely different. We've got guys that almost went right to the big leagues. Some people do that, some people don't. Everyone kind of deals with their own struggles. But I think that once you appreciate the path that you're on, you appreciate the opportunity that you've been given, you get a better sense of the game. It kind of helps you and provides some perspective.
"But yeah, if you had told me when I first got drafted that at this point of my career that I would just now be in line to play regularly, as a starter or whatever. I probably would have said, 'We'll see...' But at the same time, I see how this game operates and I see what I've done. Now, it's about taking that opportunity and making the most of it.''
Arroyo has performed well as a member of the Red Sox, with a slash line of .273/.320/.427 with 15 homers and 69 RBI and 29 doubles in 158 games in Boston. The problem? It's taken Arroyo parts of three seasons to accumulate the equivalent of a full season, thanks mostly to a series of injuries.
Fairly or not, Arroyo has been labeled as someone who is injury-prone. Some of his setbacks have been freakish and unavoidable -- twice, two years ago, he missed time after being hit in the hand by a pitch. But other times, he's suffered the usual myriad of pulls and strains, costing him valuable playing time and, in turn, chances to further establish himself.
In the last year, to counteract his history, he's begun a new training regimen, with the goal of avoiding the kind of soft tissue injuries that have often derailed him.
"I worked with the same group of people that did my body work since I was in high school,'' said Arroyo, "but tried to pinpoint some things. In the offseason, I tried to really focus on mobility. Flexibility is one thing; mobility is another. It allows you to be strong in areas where you need to be stronger. That was a lot of it, for me, honestly. I kind of stayed with the same regimen, as far as workout, lifting, running, whatever, but I tried to increase my mobility and try to stray fluid with whatever I was doing.
"It's called FRC -- functional range conditioning. That was one of the things I was doing. Very intricate. I feel good, feel great coming into spring and I want to have that continue into the season. I think one of the keys in finding a plan before games that works for me, to put myself in position to perform in that day's game and to also avoid the nagging stuff. For me, it's about staying loose and staying limber.''
In the last few months of 2022, Arroyo began taking more careful note of the pregame routines for teammates, especially those who play on a daily basis. He drew from J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and others and incorporated aspects into his own work.
Arroyo has been around long enough to know that even a starting job in spring training comes with no long-term assurances. If Trevor Story returns in the second half, it's possible the Sox could shift Kiké Hernandez from short to second, and in turn, send Arroyo back to being a utility piece. But if that happens, he'll deal with it then.
"Every step I've had, every challenge I've been given, has been a learning opportunity,'' Arroyo said. "It's pretty cliche. Everything that happens, good or bad, you need to learn something from it. But I've tried to do that. Listen, I'm not perfect and I definitely haven't figured it all out by any means. But I'm working on it and getting better at it.
"There's days when you can get down on yourself. Then you realize that guys would kill to be in your shoes, just to be playing baseball. It's all about perspective. So I just try to never take any of this for granted.''