The hair. The leg kick. The guitar. Bronson Arroyo was known for many things throughout his 16-year Major League career.
Now he can add another one to the list: Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer.
Arroyo was elected to the Reds Hall of Fame on Wednesday. He became the 82nd player and 91st person elected to the Reds Hall of Fame since its inception in 1958. The last pitcher elected to the Reds Hall of Fame was Fred Norman in 2018.
“It seems like there are more plaques inside the hall there," Arroyo said.
The Brooksville, Florida native spent nine seasons with the Reds (2006-13, 2017), selected to the All-Star team in 2006. He ranks sixth in club history in strikeouts (1,157), tied for seventh in starts (279) and tied for 16th in wins (108).
“It’s something you work for your whole life," Arroyo said. "You just want to play in the Major Leagues. You have no idea if you’re going to play long enough to leave your mark in any way, shape or form. One of the things you don’t think about as a player a lot of times is sticking with the same team long enough to build up these types of numbers to be in their hall of fame, especially in this day and age, guys bounce around every two to three years with different teams."
Arroyo, 45, led the Reds in innings pitched from 2008-11 and helped the franchise to division titles in 2010 and 2012. He received a 10th-place vote for National League MVP in 2006 when he went 14-11 with a 3.29 ERA in a league-high 240 2/3 innings. He received a fifth-place vote for Cy Young in 2010 and earned a Gold Glove that season.
In one of his finest starts in a Reds uniform, he pitched seven shutout innings in Game 2 of the National League Division Series in a 9-0 win over the San Francisco Giants. He retired his first 14 batters and permitted only one hit.
The Reds acquired the lanky 6-foot-3 right-hander in a trade with Boston before the 2006 season for Wily Mo Pena. Arroyo, who won a World Series with the Red Sox in 2004, became a rotation mainstay for nearly a decade. Before returning to the Reds for his final season in 2017, he pitched at least 200 innings in seven of his eight years in Cincinnati, falling short by one single inning one year.
As much as he helped the Reds on the mound, he probably made a bigger impact off the field. He was as well-liked as any player and could relate to players from all backgrounds. He pulled legendary pranks. He served as a mentor. The local chapter of the Baseball Writers of America Association selected him as the Good Guy Award winner a team-record four times.
“When I came from Boston, I was a younger guy on the team," Arroyo said. "I was 26-27 years old and I really felt like I was a bat boy on that team. It was such an All-Star cast. To come to Cincinnati and have some of the older guys like Scott Hatteberg, Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. kind of leave the team and leave me holding the reigns as somebody who was going to have to show what professionalism was like, to show up every day to guys like Mike Leake, Mat Latos and Johnny Cueto and Jay Bruce and Joey Votto, I kind of set the template for those guys early on. That was probably as satisfying as anything I did on the field."
The other players on the Modern Player Ballot considered for the Reds Hall of Fame this year were Aaron Harang, Aaron Boone, Scott Rolen and Francisco Cordero. The Reds Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee could announce further inductees at a later date.
Arroyo was the top votegetter among fans voting online, Reds alumni and media members. Each bloc represents one-third of the vote. Arroyo and any Veterans Committee selections for the Reds Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will be inducted on July 15-16.
"Even in the end, having a ligament repaired in my elbow, my shoulder torn and hurting me at age 40, to be able to pitch that first half of the season in 2017 throwing 83-84 mph and still finding ways to win ballgames was always the joy in it," Arroyo said. "I relished in that more than anything else, having my back up against the wall and having a nice big crowd there and finding ways to take the sting out of guys’ bats with almost nothing out there."
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