On Saturday, the San Francisco Giants made what will likely be their last major move of the 2025-26 offseason, agreeing to a one-year deal with three-time All Star Luis Arráez and his preternatural left-handed
contact abilities. It was a move that not many saw coming, but after failing to swing a trade for Nico Hoerner or Brendan Donovan — despite the latter feeling like a lock for much of the offseason — the Giants pivoted.
Arráez is the embodiment of a player that people have varying opinions about, as evidenced by the fact that our newser on the signing is currently sitting at more than 850 comments. He has an old-school skillset that analytics mostly hate, and that means some people love him and some people hate him. He does some things great and some things horribly — it’s not an exaggeration to say he might be both the best and worst player in the Majors in multiple areas — and that means some people think he’s a great signing and some people think he’s an awful one. He represents a notable move the Giants made when none was expected, but not the move that fans were hoping for, and that means that some people are excited by the deal and some people are annoyed by it.
You can read more of my opinions here, but I’m interested in yours. So let me help you out with a very non-comprehensive list of some of the pros and cons of the Giants signing Arráez to be their second baseman.
Some of the good
- He has the best bat-to-ball skills on the planet.
- It’s not even close.
- Like, he’s in the first tier all by himself.
- And no one is in the second tier.
- Maybe there’s a name or two in the third tier.
- Maybe.
- He almost certainly makes the Giants offense better.
- He provides his offensive value in a way that is otherwise entirely foreign to the Giants roster, and versatility is a good thing.
- He annoys the holy heck out of opposing pitchers.
- He’s a good clubhouse guy.
- He takes the pressure off of Casey Schmitt.
- He gives the Giants an honest-to-goodness lineup where they have a starter at every position with no timeshares.
- He’s only 28.
- The Giants now employ Ron Washington, who works wonders with infielders.
- There’s no such thing as an awful one-year deal.
Some of the bad
- His defense is almost as bad as hit contact skills are good.
- I don’t know how to explain how bad his defense is.
- Like, the Padres moved second baseman Jake Cronenworth to first base because he was so bad defensively at second base and then moved him back to second base so they could put Arráez at first base rather than let him play second base.
- The Giants have a ground ball-heavy staff, and no pitcher in baseball induces more ground balls to second base than Logan Webb.
- You love Logan Webb, and you want him to have good things, and you’re really, really, really, really tired of the Giants finding ways to lose games when he pitches well, which is usually because they can’t score runs but now maybe it will be because they can’t field ground balls and we’ll have to enter “Webbing” into the vernacular as a Caining that occurs through the fault of the infield defense.
- Both his raw numbers and underlying metrics have been in a steady decrease for a few seasons.
- By the advanced metrics, he was a league-average hitter in 2025.
- He has non-existent power, to the point where there’s a decent chance that Rafael Devers might have more home runs in one series at Coors Field than Arráez will have all year.
- He doesn’t draw walks.
- He is shockingly slow and, as a result, struggles to go first to third on singles or first to home on doubles, and as such scored just 66 runs last year despite leading the league in hits and playing on a team with an above-average offense.
- He means you’re going to watch less Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss, though that may end up being a good thing.
There’s more good than I mentioned. There’s more bad than I mentioned. I could do this all day. Your turn, though.
