On Second Thought: Giants Sign Free Agent Luis Arraez

After getting what amounted to replacement level production at second base last season, the Giants have a new man for the keystone. The good news is that he’s a three-time batting champion, and he’s not outrageously expensive. The bad news is that lately he hasn’t been an incredibly productive hitter despite his high batting averages, and what’s more, second base could be a stretch. However it shakes out, on Saturday the Giants agreed to terms with free agent Luis Arraez on a one-year, $12 million deal.

Arraez, who will turn 29 on April 9, spent last season and most of the previous one with the Padres after being acquired from the Marlins in a May 4, 2024 trade. While he won his third straight batting title in 2024 and made his third consecutive All-Star team, his time with San Diego was one of diminishing returns on both sides of the ball. Last year again he led the NL with 181 hits, but his .292/.327/.392 slash line only amounted to a 104 wRC+, the lowest mark of his career and down from a 109 wRC+ (on .314/.346/.392 hitting) in 2024. By comparison, he hit for a 130 wRC+ (.316/.375/.420) when he won the AL batting title with the Twins in 2022 and a 131 wRC+ (.354/.393/.469) when he won the NL batting title in ’23. He slipped from being more or less a three-win player (6.1 WAR in 2022–23) to a one-win player (2.0 WAR in 2024–25).

Arraez is an odd duck, an anachronism in that the things he’s best at don’t fit this historical moment particularly well. At a time when home run and strikeout rates are near their all-time highs and batting averages closer to an all-time low, he’s the game’s most contact-oriented hitter, as well as the active leader in batting average (.317). That makes him a fun player to theorize about, as colleague Davy Andrews did when he recently pondered the possibility of Arraez signing with the Rockies, whose spacious ballpark would’ve provided him with the most room to run up his batting average on balls in play by dumping single after single in front of outfielders playing deep.

Arraez’s skill set makes him a player of statistical extremes. Last year, he whiffed and struck out less often than any qualified hitter (5.3% and 3.1% of the time, respectively) while also squaring the ball up more frequently than anyone (42.6% of all swings). But one problem for Arraez — who’s not a big guy, listed at just 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds — is that he didn’t put a charge into the ball very often. His 62.6-mph average bat speed was the majors’ lowest among qualifiers, as was his 16.7% hard-hit rate. His 1.1% barrel rate didn’t make it out of the first percentile either, and his 86.1-mph average exit velocity placed in just the sixth percentile. He was in similar territory in 2024, but in ’23 he mustered a bit more oomph, averaging an 88.3-mph exit velo (29th percentile) and 3.5% barrel rate (ninth percentile). While those aren’t terribly impressive numbers, they produced an expected batting average of .327 and an expected slugging percentage of .461; last year he was down to a comparatively meek .287 xBA and a .358 xSLG.

The main reason Arraez went unsigned until the end of January is the combination of his defense and his fit onto a roster. During his seven-year major league career, he’s played all four infield spots, but he’s moved down the defensive spectrum rather quickly. He spent most of his tenure with the Padres playing first base or DH — I’ll get to the details below — but in his first trip through free agency, he specifically sought out a landing spot where he could return to second base on a regular basis. According to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser, “San Francisco landed Arráez with assurances he would play second base; he turned down multi-year offers from clubs that pegged him as a DH.”

Even at his 2025 level of offense, Arraez’s bat is a good fit for second base. Major league second basemen combined for just a 90 wRC+ in 2025, so a 104 wRC+ is near elite there; only five teams got a 104 wRC+ or better out of their second basemen. The Padres, still with a lineup made mostly out of shortstops, didn’t need a second baseman; they already had a very competent one in Jake Cronenworth, so they used Arraez there just 14 times last year, compared to 117 at first base and 29 at DH. Since the bar for offense is much higher at first base (where major leaguers averaged a 109 wRC+) and DH (110 wRC+), Arraez’s bat wasn’t as valuable as it might have been elsewhere.

The real problem is that no matter where you put him, Arraez’s glove is something of a liability, and has been for some time. Here’s a look at his defensive metrics over the past four seasons, at three different positions:

That’s not pretty. A closer look at the Statcast numbers shows that as a first baseman, Arraez has struggled on plays to his right, with -7 outs above average when moving laterally toward third base last year, and -4 in the same category in 2024. At second base, his big issue has been coming in on the ball, with -10 OAA in that category in 2023, and -6 in ’24. (He was average in last year’s very small sample.) His issues are compounded by a lack of a strong throwing arm; according to Statcast, his arm strength based on the average speed of his competitive throws placed him in just the 26th percentile, and he’s been in the 35th percentile or lower each of the past four seasons. He was in the 90th percentile circa 2021 while splitting time between second and third base, but for one reason or another just hasn’t been the same since.

The Giants went 81-81 last year while using four players at second, namely Tyler Fitzgerald, Casey Schmitt, Christian Koss, and Brett Wisely. That quartet combined for a sickly 73 wRC+ and 0.3 WAR, both of which ranked 27th in the majors. None of the four players distinguished himself as a second baseman, though Schmitt, a 2020 second-round pick, did hit .237/.305/.401 (98 wRC+) with 12 home runs overall while also spotting at first and third. He’s likely ticketed for a utility role that could include taking starts at second against lefties — the lefty-swinging Arraez has just a 90 wRC+ for his career against them, compared to a 126 mark against righties — and serving as a late-inning defensive replacement.

With Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge both on the roster, the Giants already have first base and DH covered, and appear to be banking on new infield coach Ron Washington to help Arraez man a more difficult position (Tell him, Wash). During his second go-round as an infield coach with Oakland in 2015–16, he helped current Giants third baseman Matt Chapman, then a top prospect, become one of the game’s elite defenders at the hot corner. (He’s since won five Gold Gloves and one Platinum one). Washington also molded future Gold Glove winner Marcus Semien. In his first stint with the A’s (1996–2006), Washington helped third baseman Eric Chavez win six Gold Gloves. He also spent seven seasons (2017–23) as the infield coach of the Braves, and Atlanta third baseman Austin Riley has credited Washington with turning him into a plus defender (by DRS anyway, as Riley has +20 DRS for his career at third but -21 FRV). While I wouldn’t expect Arraez to join that honor roll, I wouldn’t dismiss the prospect of Washington’s guiding him to some improvement.

At least on the offensive side, the projection systems are optimistic about an Arraez rebound, with our Depth Charts forecast projecting him for a .302/.343/.397 (109 wC+) line and 2.5 WAR. That would be a great return for the Giants’ $12 million investment. For what it’s worth, Arraez ranked 37th on our Top 50 Free Agents list in November, with Ben Clemens estimating that the three-time batting champ would wind up with a one-year, $11 million deal, while our median crowdsource came in at two years and $28 million.

All told, while Arraez may be a bit of an awkward fit for second base, the particulars here are enough to help mitigate the risk. In the big picture, the Giants chose this winter to steer clear of long-term free agent deals while trying to stay under the first competitive balance tax threshold of $244 million. All six free agents they’ve signed to major league deals have been on either one-year contracts (starter Tyler Mahle, relievers Jason Foley and Sam Hentges, and Arraez) or two-year ones (center fielder Harrison Bader and starter Adrian Houser); per RosterResource, that’s left them with a $232.7 million tax payroll, giving them about $11 million of space before bumping up against the threshold. Those aren’t bad moves — San Francisco’s 84-win ZiPS projection is the second-highest total in the NL West — but they’re not high-impact ones. We’ll see if they’re enough for a Giants team that has finished within four games of .500 in five of the past six seasons to mount a challenge for a playoff spot.