Nevius: Rookie Christian Arroyo is a jolt of high energy for the Giants

There was his sizzling spring training, the brief drama to see if he'd make the club right out of spring training (nope, but close) and then the glowing reports from the minors - “OMG, he's hitting .400.”

Events and injuries transpired and he got the call last week. He was immediately handed Will Clark's number 22, probably the most famous Giants' number that has not been retired by the team.

(Which, presumably puts that discussion to rest. And although Clark was classy about it - “Congratulations,” he texted to Arroyo, “there's a lot of hits left in that number” - it had to sting a little to know a retired number wasn't going to happen for him.)

Regardless, that is not the normal order of things for rookies. Remember when Matt Duffy made the team in 2015? He was given number 50, which is more suitable for a relief pitcher or platoon player. Only when it seemed Duffy was going to stick was he upgraded to number 5.

Arroyo was immediately installed the starting lineup against (wow) the Dodgers. In his second game he got his first big league hit with a clean single off three-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw. The next night he hit a two-run homer and gave a stream of consciousness TV interview that was both endearing and unsettling. How old is that kid again?

Guys like Kelby Tomlinson must be thinking: Geez, when they called me up nobody talked to me for a week.

Clearly, the Giants are all in on Arroyo. After this coronation you don't send him back to the minors.

The move says two things about the Giants. First, this is not an organization that plays it safe.

The front office is ready and willing to make the confident, bold move. Good for them.

But second, it says they were worried enough about how things were going - even this early - that a big, bold move had to be made.

Of course, if Arroyo had executed a faceplant all of that would go out the window. We would write that the team never should have rushed him. And by the way, left field is still a black hole, the bullpen remains combustible, and, what, exactly, is Eduardo Nunez's role on this team?

The pleasant surprise, and nice distraction from the bad news, is that so far Arroyo has been as good as advertised. He's hit, hit in the clutch, and has been at least an adequate third baseman.

He also seems supernaturally at ease in the bigs. Play-by-play broadcaster Duane Kuiper called Arroyo “a six-tool player,” meaning that in addition to the five-tool metrics - hit for average, for power, fielding, throwing and baserunning - he can also handle the media.

Four games into his career on Thursday, after delivering a two-out single to score the Giants' only run in a losing effort, Arroyo faced a semi-circle of notebooks and TV cameras and looked the slightest bit nonplussed.

“It's a little different in the minor leagues,” he said.

But although he started out with a nice safe run of baseball clichés - he was just trying to put the barrel of the bat on the ball - he was quick to pick a spot for a witty response.

Asked what he'd picked as his walk-up music Arroyo said it was “Humble” by Kendrick Lamar.

And, he was asked, is there any special meaning to the choice, like reminding himself to stay humble?

“Well now that you say that,” he replied with an impish grin, “it DOES have meaning. Thanks.”

Happy to help.

The team can certainly use his hitting, but he's also bringing some of those hard-to-define baseball intangibles. There's been a noticeable lack of energy among the Giants so far this year.

Which, of course, is a byproduct of this horrible, discouraging start. But this is a team that rallied to the World Series around the pre-game dugout sermons of Hunter Pence, followed by a shower of sunflower seeds.

So far the prevailing sight has been a line of veterans, leaning sadly on the dugout railing. So it should not be overlooked that Arroyo is a jolt of high energy. He just seems hard-wired that way.

When Pence hit the sacrifice fly to win the Wednesday night extra-inning game, Arroyo was out of the dugout and in full sprint toward Pence before some of the veterans got their legs over the dugout fence.

Arroyo has been such a welcome revelation that we've already moved on to the next stage for emerging stars - a nickname. There's been some talk of calling him “Baby Boss,” for the cartoon character who looks a little like him. And surely there will be some clever references to his shocktop haircut. But nothing has stuck so far.

No rush. There will be plenty of time.

You can reach C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter @cwnevius.