T-Rat Talk: Jadher Areinamo

Jadher Areinamo has stood out with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers this season. He plays defense well at several infield positions, hits the baseball with authority, and runs the bases with reckless abandon. Kyle Lobner gets the story from Areinamo in this edition of T-Rat Talk.

When the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers took the field on Saturday to start what would turn out to be their final game before the All Star break one of the mainstays of the 2024 season waited back: Infielder Jadher Areinamo got a rare day off in a game that was suspended on Saturday night and finished on Sunday.

No Timber Rattlers player has appeared in more games (77) or batted more times (332) than Areinamo this season. While most of the Rattlers’ other regulars have claimed a near-everyday defensive position, however, Areinamo has established himself as a mainstay while playing all over the infield: He’s logged 35 games at second base, 25 at shortstop and ten at third. Positional flexibility is a major point of emphasis in the modern MLB game, and it’s something Areinamo has been working on for a long time.

“It takes a really long time,” Areinamo said through translator and Timber Rattlers pitcher Alexander Cornielle. “I’ve been doing it since I was growing up. I always liked to go out to all the different positions and practice and get better, because there are little things that you might not think are relevant, but when they show up in games it’s do or die.”

Areinamo has appeared in defensive highlight reels at all of his positions this season, but it’s possible the best play he’s made all year came at the position where he’s seen the least time: On Wednesday he was playing third base, fielded a ground ball and made the long throw from foul territory to retire West Michigan first baseman Luis Santana. Areinamo’s momentum carried him so far off the field of play that he was able to high five a fan on his way back to his defensive position.

“I always practice throws like that during practice, and I finally got the opportunity to do it in a game and it came out good. So I’m glad,” Areinamo said.

Playing in front of big crowds with Wisconsin has become a common occurrence for Areinamo, but it wasn’t always that way: He was only 18 years old when he joined the Timber Rattlers for the first time to fill in a gap on their roster early in the 2022 season. At the time Areinamo’s only professional regular season games had been on team complexes in the Dominican Summer League, but his home debut with Wisconsin was in front of 3,658 fans. He said those crowds are the biggest thing he remembers from his first time in the Midwest League.

“When I came here I had never played with so many fans before. So I felt the love from the fans. They love baseball here,” Areinamo said.

Areinamo struggled at the plate in his first run with the Timber Rattlers, collecting just two hits across seven games with Wisconsin. He said the experience of playing at this level so early, however, helped him going forward.

“That got me to loosen up a little bit. I already felt the competition, what it was like up here, and when I went back to Carolina for my full season it was easier because I had already faced better talent here,” Areinamo said.

Jadher Areinamo keeps mashing with 3 more 2Bs last night. Since June 1, Areinamo ranks in the 95-percentile or better among High-A hitters in…

• OBP (.439)
• SLG (.588)
• OPS (1.028)
• K-rate (11%)#ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/rGWyKvbx4i

— Brewers Player Development (@BrewersPD) July 10, 2024

That brief run with Wisconsin might be the last time Areinamo has struggled offensively at any level: After being sent back down he hit .323 with a .416 on-base and .472 slugging with the Arizona Complex League Brewers in 2022, then he batted .304/.342/.390 in the same three stats across a season and a half with Carolina. He’s a career .301 hitter across 293 minor league games and even got a hit last winter in a brief stint in the Venezuelan Winter League. Areinamo was 19 at the time, over nine years younger than the average player in that league.

Even before he swings the bat, at the plate Areinamo stands out from his teammates and virtually everyone else in professional baseball. His batting stance includes an exaggerated bat waggle that carries all the way into the pitcher’s delivery. When combined with a highly aggressive approach at the plate, Areinamo is one of the most easily recognizable hitters in the Midwest League.

“Since my first time playing baseball, ever since I picked up a bat I’ve always been different. I always like to swing. It’s different,” Areinamo said.

Areinamo’s unusual approach has attracted skepticism at times, but this season with Wisconsin he’s experienced more success with it than ever before. He’s batting .319 to lead all qualified hitters in the Midwest League and leads the league in hits (96) and doubles (23). He’s already hit more home runs this season (7) than he did in the totality of his professional career before this year, and his .465 slugging percentage is up nearly 60 points from his career mark.

Areinamo CRUSHES it out of the park to put the Rattlers on the board! 🔥

Bot 1
TinCaps 0 | Rattlers 1#TRatNation pic.twitter.com/vYvLAHylhH

— Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (@TimberRattlers) June 2, 2024

It’s easy to imagine a coaching staff wanting to rework elements of Areinamo’s plate approach to be more conventional, but that’s not how the Brewers operate. Their “you be you” organizational philosophy shines through in Areinamo, who operates in a way that wouldn’t work for most hitters but clearly does for him.

“His style, that’s unique to him with the pre-pitch movement,” Brewers minor league hitting coordinator Brenton Del Chiaro said. “That’s who he is, and it fits his personality because he’s very eccentric, likes to play, and he’s a showman. So the style pre-pitch is him, and that’s something we applaud. We want you to be you. But when it comes to getting into a position to hit, he knows that he can hit, and he knows how to get the barrel to the ball.”

Areinamo’s exceptional hand-eye coordination allows him to make solid contact on pitches both in and sometimes outside the strike zone, which is part of the reason he was able to hit .306 despite walking just 17 times in 420 plate appearances for Carolina this season. Areinamo identified pitch selection as the biggest thing he’s working on this season, however, and he’s already drawn significantly more walks in 2024 (25) than he did all of last year.

“So I’ve been being more patient. I’ve been trying to see the ball better, and it’s been working. Trying to see my pitch and not swing at every baseball that comes my way, which was what I was doing last year,” Areinamo said.

With more success has come more confidence, of course, and Del Chiaro noted that Areinamo’s growth in that regard is the biggest difference he sees from last year to this year.

“Any time you move a level you have confidence in yourself, but the more you produce and perform at this level you’re going to gain more confidence in what you can do. I think right now he’s obviously in this little stretch where he’s just getting hits every time he puts the bat on the ball, and when you do that your confidence and your belief in what you can do is going to grow. He’s continuing to do that no matter how hard the guy is throwing on the mound, no matter how much the pitches break or the pitches vary, he’s going to sit there and have confidence that he can put the bat on any pitch,” Del Chiaro said.

Jadher Areinamo extended his hitting streak to 15 games with three hits last night...oh, and he stole two bases, too. https://t.co/4qA3GJQc83 via @milb

— Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (@TimberRattlers) July 3, 2024

Areinamo’s combination of defensive skill and versatility and his offensive production have made him one of the most valuable all-around players in the Midwest League. When asked to pick a favorite between the two, however, Areinamo did not have a preference between making a big defensive play or getting a big hit.

“Both. Both are really important,” Areinamo said.

Given his success as a 20-year-old with Wisconsin this season, Areinamo is a likely candidate to rapidly climb lists of the organization’s top prospects. No major publication ranked Areinamo higher than #23 among Brewers prospects entering the season, although MLB Pipeline has since moved him up to #21. This spring prospect evaluators expressed concerns about his plate approach and defense, which his play this season has largely answered. While he’ll likely get more prospect hype going forward, however, he said it’s not a distraction.

“I don’t think that changes anything. You kind of earn that, doing your work out there and doing all the little stuff right. My main thing that I think about is having fun,” Areinamo said.

On any given night the Timber Rattlers may have Areinamo in their lineup almost anywhere on the infield, but if it were up to him he’d expand his defensive versatility even more. When asked about other positions, without hesitation he said he’d like to try center field.

“Making plays out there just like I do in games, making diving plays, running out balls through the gaps and all of that seems like cool fun stuff,” Areinamo said.

Jadher Areinamo turns on the JETS and scores from first base! ⚡️

TinCaps 0 | Rattlers 3#tratnation pic.twitter.com/fwF0PlEv6X

— Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (@TimberRattlers) June 2, 2024