George Alberto Arias (born March 12, 1972) is an American former

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

and

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

Career

Arias was drafted by the

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West Division. Since 1966, the team has pl ...

in the seventh round of the 1993 Major League Baseball draft after graduating from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. He made his major league debut in , and played 84 games, hitting .238 with seven

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 28 RBI. He went back and forth between the majors and minor leagues after that. In August 1997, the Angels traded Arias to the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

as the

player to be named later In Major League Baseball, a player to be named later (PTBNL) is an unnamed player involved in exchange or "trade" of players between teams. The terms of a trade are not finalized until a later date, most often following the conclusion of the seaso ...

in the earlier trade that sent Ryan Hancock and Stevenson Agosto to the Padres for

Rickey Henderson Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson (December 25, 1958 – December 20, 2024), nicknamed "Man of Steal", was an American professional baseball left fielder who played 25 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, inc ...

. He played with the Padres until , before joining the

Orix BlueWave , styled as ORIX, is a Japanese diversified financial services group headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan. ORIX offers leasing, lending, rentals, life insurance, real estate financing and development, venture capital, investment an ...

in Japan. Arias became the regular

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

in his first year with the BlueWave, and was the team's best power hitter, hitting 38 home runs in . He was a slow but solid fielder, and had a strong arm. Arias was a very streaky hitter, and had a very low

batting average with runners in scoring position Batting may refer to: *Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs *Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ru ...

. He signed with the

Hanshin Tigers The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to their main stadium, Hanshin Koshien Stadium. The Tigers are owned by Hanshin Electric Railway Co., ...

in , and hit 38 home runs with 107 RBI in , contributing to the Tigers' league championship. He also won a Golden Glove award at

first base A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

, and the Best Nine award that year. He left the Tigers after , as they dropped him as they were making a bid to sign

Yokohama BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current ...

foreign star

Tyrone Woods Walter Tyrone Woods (born August 16, 1969 is an American professional baseball player. He played five seasons with the Korea Baseball Organization then six further seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, primarily as a first baseman. Career M ...

, before the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

got him, and signed a minor league deal with the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...

in , but was cut at the start of the season. He played in the Mexican League for the rest of the year. Arias was signed by the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They h ...

in June , and made his debut with the Giants in July as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

. He was unable to repeat his previous success, and was demoted to the minors after playing 17 games. He hit only .167 his last year, and was cut at the end of 2006. In 639 games in NPB, Arias hit .259 with 169 home runs and 436 RBI.

References

External links

ESPN Article on Arias
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arias, George 1972 births Living people Águilas de Mexicali players American expatriate baseball players in Canada American expatriate baseball players in Japan American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Anaheim Angels players Arizona Wildcats baseball players Baseball players from Tucson, Arizona California Angels players Cedar Rapids Kernels players Hanshin Tigers players Lake Elsinore Storm players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Major League Baseball third basemen Mexican League baseball first basemen Mexican League baseball left fielders Mexican League baseball third basemen Midland Angels players Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball third basemen Orix BlueWave players Pima Aztecs baseball players Rancho Cucamonga Quakes players San Diego Padres players Vancouver Canadians players Yomiuri Giants players

Career

See also

References

External links