Nolan

Arenado

Arenado went 0-for-4 in his return to Arizona’s lineup during Sunday’s game against the Mariners after missing three contests due to a combination of groin and elbow issues. The 35-year-old defensive wizard appears unlikely to miss any additional time moving forward.

It’s unclear if it’s because of the groin strain that cost him two games or the elbow bruise he suffered getting plunked as a pinch-hitter last night, but he again appears to be day-to-day. Jose Fernandez started at third base against the Mariners.

Arenado is also likely sporting an elbow bruise after getting plunked as a pinch-hitter in Friday’s game. Nevertheless, he’s playing third base tonight.

Arenado remained out of the starting lineup Friday because of a groin strain, but he entered as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and singled. He then got hit in the ninth by Andrés Muñoz and departed for a pinch-runner. Fortunately, it was just the funny bone, apparently, and Arenado shouldn’t miss additional time.

It’s the second straight contest that the 35-year-old third baseman has missed since exiting Tuesday’s game with right groin tightness. The good news is that he’s improving and isn’t expected to require a trip to the injured list. He remains day-to-day.

No surprise after Arenado made an early exit from Tuesday’s contest with right groin tightness. The 35-year-old veteran will benefit from Thursday’s scheduled off day before Arizona kicks off a three-game road series against the Mariners on Friday night.

Arenado said he didn’t feel a pull in the area, and there are no plans for imaging. If he can’t go Wednesday, then Jose Fernandez becomes more likely to start against the Giants.

Arenado’s slam gave the D-backs a 4-0 lead in the first inning off a completely ineffective Robbie Ray. The 35-year-old has already gone deep seven times this year with a .274/.347/.473 slash to go with those roundtrippers. It’s a far cry from the player Arenado was in Colorado, but that’s more compliment to how good he was there than insult to the first third of this season. This version of Arenado has some fantasy value. The question is will there be a slowdown to the levels he played at in St. Louis the last few campaigns.

Otherwise shut down by Nolan McLean and the Mets’ bullpen, Arenado’s solo home run was the only run the Diamondbacks could push across in this one. It was his sixth long ball of the year and despite not hitting the ball hard very often and making generally poor swing decisions, he’s been highly productive thus far. His .271/.320/.449 is a huge step up from the hitter he’s been over the past few seasons, it just feels unsustainable given his underlying stats.

Perhaps the rumors of Arenado’s demise were a tad overblown? He clocked a 411 foot, go-ahead three-run home run off Brandon Sproat which wound up being the difference for his Diamondbacks. That gave him five home runs and 17 RBI with a .284 batting average and .787 OPS so far this season. Just be advised, he’s still not hitting the ball very hard despite these quality counting stats.