{"id":549528,"date":"2026-02-01T21:22:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549528\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T21:22:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:22:39","slug":"luis-arraez-is-exactly-the-type-of-player-the-giants-have-been-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549528\/","title":{"rendered":"Luis Arr\u00e1ez is exactly the type of player the Giants have been missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the Section 415 podcast wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My favorite all-time baseball player to cover was Tony Gwynn. Great guy, great interview, great hitter. The Triple Crown on any scribe\u2019s wish list, and he dominated on all three fronts.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t see any Tony Gwynns anymore. Or Rod Carews. Or Wade Boggses. Batting averages no longer have the same value or appeal, and young hitters fashioning upper-cut swings are coming up hunting the long ball, strikeouts be damned.<\/p>\n

I get it. On-base percentage is king. It\u2019s not how you get on base. It\u2019s how often. Makes sense. While a walk isn\u2019t as good as a hit because a hit can advance runners more than one base and lead to defensive chaos, a walk does damage as well and drives up the OBP.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the line, amid the sabermetricians\u2019 distaste for any emphasis on singles over homers, amid their lack of appreciation for two-strike approaches, Luis Arr\u00e1ez sneaked into the major leagues by making consistent contact and hitting \u2019em where they ain\u2019t, all the way to three batting championships.<\/p>\n

Arr\u00e1ez became a free agent this winter and got little love from front offices that don\u2019t necessarily value batting average and bat-to-ball skills. Buster Posey was the outlier. It was no secret that the Giants\u2019 president of baseball operations wanted more contact hitters to help offset the swing and miss of Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, and others.<\/p>\n

As a result, Arr\u00e1ez will be playing his 2026 season at a ballpark near you. The Giants are signing the 28-year-old to a one-year, $12 million contract (pending a physical) presumably to be their second baseman and spark the lineup \u2013 in Bruce Bochy vernacular, \u201ckeep the line moving\u201d \u2013 which way too often has been stale and boring.<\/p>\n

With Arr\u00e1ez and energetic center fielder Harrison Bader, whose two-year, $20.5 million contract was made official Friday, the Giants suddenly have an intriguing and diverse lineup that should be far more aesthetically pleasing than last year\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Bader brings life. Arr\u00e1ez brings action. While most front offices don\u2019t like him because he ranks so poorly with his hard-hit rate, average exit velocity, and bat speed, there\u2019s no disputing his elite contact rate, swing-and-miss rate, and strikeout rate, all in the 100th percentile among big-leaguers.<\/p>\n

To put Arr\u00e1ez\u2019s anemic 3.1% strikeout rate in perspective, it\u2019s the lowest in the majors for a qualified hitter in a season since 1995, turned in by a man named Gwynn. Posey no doubt digs this stat.<\/p>\n

Arr\u00e1ez puts the ball in play, and when he does, good things tend to happen. His .317 career batting average is tops among active players, and he won three straight batting titles with the 2022 Twins, 2023 Marlins, and 2024 Marlins\/Padres. He led the National League in hits the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

1 day ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

4 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, Jan. 23<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

By now, you might have concluded I like this signing. I absolutely do. As journalists, we don\u2019t root for teams. But it\u2019s OK to root for stories, and Arr\u00e1ez should bring a slew of compelling ones. He\u2019s no Gwynn, but he\u2019s a quasi-modern-day version, and that\u2019s good enough from this corner, his defensive inefficiencies notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

The Giants have had all of two batting champions in their 68-year San Francisco history. None at Candlestick Park, an extremely tough place to hit, far tougher than Oracle Park. No batting champ until Barry Bonds in 2002 and 2004, and the only other one was Posey himself in 2012.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that the West Coast Giants haven\u2019t had excellent hitters. Willie Mays won a batting crown for the Giants, but that came in New York. Harvey Kuenn won a batting title in Detroit and shortly thereafter began a five-year run in San Francisco and never sniffed another. Matty Alou hit .231 in his final year with the Giants, then a league-leading .342 the ensuing year with the Pirates. Bill Madlock won two batting crowns with the Cubs then got traded to the Giants and didn\u2019t win again until he was traded to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

San Francisco is no easy place to hit. When you factor in the wind and cold to Oracle Park\u2019s wacky wall in right field, it\u2019s particularly tough on lefties. We can\u2019t expect Arr\u00e1ez to win a fourth batting title in San Francisco. \u2026 can we? Well, \u201chitters hit, John,\u201d as Posey told me when I asked Devers at his introductory news conference about the challenge of hitting at Oracle Park.<\/p>\n

Where will Arr\u00e1ez bat in the Giants\u2019 lineup? I like him leading off. Yes, his OBP last season in San Diego was a meager .327, but his lifetime OBP is a respectable .363 \u2013 .364 in the leadoff slot, where he has his most plate appearances.<\/p>\n

Can you think of a better choice? Until Jung Hoo Lee learns to hit the other way, he\u2019ll continue delivering too many 4-3s (groundouts to second base). Bader is a better fit at the bottom of the lineup.<\/p>\n

My lineup:<\/p>\n

2B Luis Arr\u00e1ez (L)<\/p>\n

1B Rafael Devers (L)<\/p>\n

3B Willy Adames (R)<\/p>\n

DH Bryce Eldridge (L)<\/p>\n

LF Heliot Ramos (R)<\/p>\n

RF Jung Hoo Lee (L)<\/p>\n

3B Matt Chapman (R)<\/p>\n

CF Harrison Bader (R)<\/p>\n

C Patrick Bailey (S)<\/p>\n

This puts a lot of faith in Arr\u00e1ez to enjoy a bounce-back season and a lot of trust in Eldridge to succeed at cleanup, but sometimes you take chances if you believe in your guys. If Eldridge is the next Will Clark, let\u2019s find out right away.<\/p>\n

If the braintrust concludes Eldridge isn\u2019t ready to make a splash on Opening Day, he could begin the season in Triple-A with Arr\u00e1ez serving as the designated hitter. Arr\u00e1ez could also get reps at first base (where he mostly played last year in San Diego) when Devers is the DH.<\/p>\n

Or, because Arr\u00e1ez doesn\u2019t hit lefties as well as righties, perhaps Casey Schmitt could play second when the opposition starts a tough lefty. Or Christian Koss, if Schmitt is traded for a pitcher.<\/p>\n

Either way, the Giants have more depth with Arr\u00e1ez than without him, and depth was a serious issue across the roster when last season went down the tubes.<\/p>\n

Arr\u00e1ez is an old-school hitter in a new-school game, a fascinating test study that solicits polarizing opinions from an analytic-driven industry, largely negative. Nothing more than a singles hitter, they say. Little power, they say. Not much for defending or running, they say.<\/p>\n

Sure. But Posey doesn\u2019t buy into all the industry\u2019s modern-day conformities. He forms his own opinions using analytics but also using successful principles borrowed from the Giants\u2019 championship heyday. He\u2019s undoubtedly convinced his new hitting coaches will get the most out of Arr\u00e1ez and new infield coach Ron Washington will dramatically help Arr\u00e1ez\u2019s glove work.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, Arr\u00e1ez will be worth watching, a story waiting to deliver on any given night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,6595,66,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-549528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-buster-posey","10":"tag-san-francisco-giants","11":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115997479429583947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}