'It's a special thing': Aranda's wild journey to becoming an All-Star

BOSTON -- There's a philosophy in scouting that Rays assistant general manager Carlos Rodriguez likes to share: “You're always dangerous at the ballpark.”

Ten years ago, that mindset helped the Rays discover an All-Star -- but not the one they set out to find.

Facing international spending restrictions, the Rays couldn’t sign a player for more than $300,000. But Rodriguez, Tampa Bay’s international scouting director at the time, didn’t want to miss a chance to see a Cuban outfielder with a ton of potential who was training with the Toros club in Tijuana, Mexico.

Randy Arozarena never showed up for his workout, and that’s how the Rays wound up signing Jonathan Aranda, the breakout star who will take part in his first All-Star Game alongside Tampa Bay teammates Junior Caminero, Drew Rasmussen and the injured Brandon Lowe on Tuesday night in Atlanta..

“It's just kind of funny,” Rodriguez said, “the serendipity.”

It started with Eddie Diaz, a Rays scout who was managing the Toros. He tried to set up the Rays and Arozarena with a workout in Tijuana, so Rodriguez made the trip to San Diego and drove across the border. With no guarantee that Arozarena would appear, Diaz arranged another workout with younger players in the Toros’ academy.

One of them was a 160-pound shortstop with a sweet left-handed swing that immediately stood out to Rodriguez and the Rays.

“A lot of the things that you see today were kind of in place back then,” Rodriguez said. “Really good bat-to-ball [ability], the barrel awareness. This could have been like the thin air back then, because Jonathan was about 160 pounds, but he struck a couple balls over the fence. And I was like, 'Oh, OK, there's a little pop in there.'”

That’s a pretty good description of the hitter Aranda has been for the Rays this season. He’s batting .324 with a .399 on-base percentage and a .492 slugging percentage through Sunday, and his .891 OPS ranks 12th among all qualified hitters in the Majors.

Aranda, who had been approached by the Astros before the Rays, wasn’t initially aware of the original intent of the scouting trip. But he couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. He signed with the Rays at 17 years old for about $130,000 on July 2, 2015.

“I knew years after that,” Aranda said through interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. “But the story about how they came to me and they found me, it's a special thing.”

Carlos Rodriguez also shared the story with Arozarena years later. In response, Arozarena joked, "Why would I try out for you? I was looking for seven figures.”

Sure enough, he got $1.25 million from the Cardinals … only to eventually be traded to Tampa Bay, where he became a postseason hero, a fan favorite and teammates with Aranda.

“It was a win all the way around for us,” Rodriguez said.

But it took a decade, plus a lot of patience and perseverance, for Aranda to establish himself as the elite hitter he always expected to be.

Among current Rays players, Aranda has been in the organization longer than everyone but Lowe. He played for eight Minor League affiliates in the system, slowly working his way from the Dominican Summer League to Triple-A, with stops at several levels that no longer exist.

The final step proved to be the most challenging.

Aranda made cameos in the Majors in 2022 and ’23 with middling results, then finally seemed poised to seize his opportunity after a great Spring Training in ’24. An ill-timed injury delayed his arrival, but he has made the most of every opportunity this season.

“I don't think he ever lost confidence in his ability,” manager Kevin Cash said. “There’s always been a strong belief that he could hit, and he's gone out and proved it this year.”

Aranda’s journey was reflected in the flood of messages he received from former coaches and teammates in the Rays’ system after being named an All-Star.

“It’s very special. I grew up here as a player, and I have a lot of memories with the coaches and everybody else,” he said. “Good memories.”

In a lot of ways, Rodriguez said, Aranda is still the same kid he saw during that workout in Tijuana 10 years ago. Same swing. Same smile. Same humble approach. But he’s filled out and grown up, too, starting a family with his wife, Milka, and their baby daughter, Regina.

And now, he’s an All-Star.

“It's about as much fulfillment or enjoyment or pride or whatever you want to call it -- not just for myself, but for our player development staff and the people who have been here for a while,” Rodriguez said. “He can forever say that he was an All-Star in the Major Leagues, which is pretty damn cool.”