Multiple teams showing interest in Bronson Arroyo comeback

Bronson Arroyo hasn’t taken a big league mound since 2014, but that doesn’t mean the 38-year-old hurler is ready to call it a career. The right-hander has been throwing over the winter and a handful of teams are checking in on his progress.

FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports that the Cincinnati Reds are interested in a reunion with their former pitcher, and the Washington Nationals have reached out as well. Peter Gammons adds the Miami Marlins as a third possible suitor.

Arroyo missed all of the 2015 campaign as he recovered from Tommy John surgery. It was still an eventful season for him, however. He began the year with the Diamondbacks but was subsequently traded to the Braves and then the Dodgers. L.A. declined his option at the start of the offseason, making him a free agent.

Despite his age and recent health issues, Arroyo has maintained a reputation as a workhorse throughout most of his MLB career. Prior to 2014, he had made at least 30 starts in nine consecutive seasons. In 2006 with the Reds, he led both leagues with 240.2 innings pitched. He also won 14 games to the tune of a 3.29 ERA that year, enough to earn him his first and currently only All-Star nod.

Originally a Pirates draftee in 1995, Arroyo made his major league debut with the Buccos in 2000. He rose to prominence, however, as a member of the 2004 World Series-winning Red Sox. He spent three seasons in Boston before being traded to the Reds prior to the 2006 campaign. He spent the following eight years in Cincinnati, compiling a 105-94 record and 4.05 ERA there.

Arroyo has been an average pitcher for the most part during his 15 seasons in the big leagues, evidenced by his lifetime 103 ERA+. His season-by-season results have tended to be a bit erratic over the years. Arroyo struggled to a 5.07 ERA in 2011, his worst mark since becoming a full-time starter. To his credit, he followed that disappointing experience up with two much improved seasons in 2012 and 2013, posting a 3.76 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 3.67 K/BB over 404 total innings.

Any team taking a flyer on Arroyo would likely be satisfied with numbers in that neighborhood. But after having missed a season and a half to elbow surgery, expecting the soon-to-be-39 hurler to once again assume the role of innings-eater might be a bit too much to ask.

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Still, this is the time of year when teams take chances on reclamation projects, and Arroyo’s name and reputation seem like they will earn him another shot on the major league stage if he can stay healthy.