ERLANGER, Ky. — The ageless Bronson Arroyo had some sage advice for those in the audience this week at the Griffin Elite Sports Performance Center in Northern Kentucky.
Not only were there hundreds of high school baseball and softball players in attendance listening to the 46-year-old explain how he threw 200 innings virtually every season for nine seasons in a Reds uniform, there were two young pitching prospects behind him while he spoke that the Reds are hoping can contribute in the near future.
Rhett Lowder and Ty Floyd were in attendance at the equipment drive sponsored by the Reds Community Fund, Pitch In For Baseball and Softball and St. Elizabeth Healthcare of Northern Kentucky.
Arroyo told the group that his durability started at a very young age with an attitude that was ingrained in him by his athletic father, Gus.
“I thought of baseball as a year-round thing,” Arroyo said. “I played basketball as as a youth, as well. I graduated high school being the second all-time scoring high school but I just played basketball really, as a hobby. But baseball was always the thing we were focused on. I also grew up in the weight room as a very young kid. I had DVDs of me as an eight year old kid I weighed 60 pounds. I squatted 255, dead-lifted 235 and benched 130. So it was an odd life.”
Aside from 2011, when he threw 199 innings, Arroyo’s run of 200 innings between his last season in Boston in 2005 and his last season in Cincinnati (2013), stands as one of the more remarkable achievements in recent pitching records.
“And because of that training at a young age, when my father and I realized that this sport needed to be played year round, especially if you’re a pitcher, because the muscles that break inside of the arm are so small and tender,” Arroyo said. “And so, I would play catch, basically year-round. I would only take October off if we weren’t in the playoffs, and I would just start slow. I was a huge advocate of trying to get outs with less. If you can get outs with having not having to go max effort.”
Max effort is something Reds 2023 first-round pick Rhett Lowder is accustomed to giving on the mound.
In 2023, Lowder went 15–0, leading NCAA Division I in wins, and also finished in the top 10 nationally in ERA (1.87), strikeouts (a school-record 143), and WHIP (0.95), playing a key role in the Deacons’ run to the Men’s College World Series. Lowder repeated as the ACC Pitcher of the Year, and was also a consensus first-team All-American.
Then there’s Ty Floyd, the second-round pick of Cincinnati’s 2023 draft.
Floyd made 20 pitching appearances, all in relief, during his freshman season with LSU, posting a 4.44 ERA and striking out 39 over 24-1⁄3 innings pitched. Floyd finished his junior season with a 7-0 record and 4.35 ERA with 120 strikeouts, helping LSU capture the 2023 Men’s College World Series. He set a CWS record with 17 strikeouts in the first game of the finals against Florida.
Both are excited to get a chance to show how much they’ve grown when they arrive in Goodyear in two weeks.
“You have the ability to get deep in the ball game and preserve some of that stuff for later in the game, and also try not to break down,” Arroyo told the crowd. “And so for 19 and a half years, I went without missing a start, from high school all the way till I was 37 playing for the Diamondbacks was the first time I had to go to disabled list. I attribute the childhood weight room and just being dedicated for the craft year round and constantly telling my arm, ‘Hey, you’re gonna be playing catch. You’re gonna be playing catch. This is what we do.’ And I think that helped me a lot.”
Of course, there’s something else that’s kept Arroyo young – his music. He played a pair of songs he wrote within the last two weeks, including one about not taking life for granted. He told the audience the song takes on added significance given the sudden death of former teammate Tim Wakefield on Oct. 1, 2023 from a brain tumor.
Bronson Arroyo performs Thursday afternoon and Erlanger Kentucky for the @RedsCommunity Fund @StElizabethNKY Healthcare and Pitch in for baseball and softball equipment drive for 42 high schools in Northern Kentucky, Southeast Indiana and Southwest Ohio. pic.twitter.com/6v7tBfCmeb
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 25, 2024
Whether it was playing baseball or living life, Arroyo’s overriding theme to the audience this week was all about preparing to live it to the fullest.
