The San Francisco Giants made no secret about their desire to acquire a second baseman this offseason. They were never really in on free agent Bo Bichette, it seemed. There was a little smoke with Nico
Hoerner, but it never seemed likely that the Chicago Cubs would deal him. They surprisingly made a run at CJ Abrams but (thankfully, in my eyes), the Washington Nationals rebuffed them. And they’ve spent months dancing around Brendan Donovan and the St. Louis Cardinals.
On Saturday, they finally found their man and … well … it’s certainly not where I envisioned them going. As first reported by ESPN’s Jorge Castillo, the Giants agreed to a one-year contract with contact maven Luis Arráez. The deal with the three-time All-Star is for $12 million.
Before I get into why I kind of hate the move, we should be clear about one thing: it’s not hard to see why the Giants are enamored with Arráez. President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey has made it clear that the organization values contact hitters, and we’ve seen that on display with the prospects they’ve targeted in the draft and in trades. Arráez, who won the batting title three years running from 2022 through 2024, is arguably the greatest pure contact hitter of this generation. His strikeout rate of just 3.1% last year lapped the field: only five qualifying hitters had a strikeout rate below 10%, and the next-closest player (Jacob Wilson) struck out more than twice as frequently as Arráez, at 7.5%.
That’s not just something the Giants covet, but something they need help with. Last year, San Francisco’s strikeout rate of 22.7% was 18th in the Majors, while their batting average of .235 was 25th. Arráez and his .292 batting average last year (and .317 for his career) is an excellent tonic for that issue. So it’s not hard to see why the Giants targeted Arráez as someone they needed to take 600 at-bats.
Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end. While Arráez is all-world from a contact perspective, he has no power whatsoever, and doesn’t draw walks, either. For his career, he has just 36 home runs in 3,533 plate appearances, and a 6.5% walk rate. The underlying metrics are almost comical: while he ranked 100th percentile in whiff percentage, strikeout percentage, and squared up rate in 2025, he was 1st percentile in hard hit rate, barrel rate, and bat speed, and 6th percentile in average exit velocity. Perhaps even more concerning is that all of those numbers have been trending in the wrong direction, even though Arráez doesn’t turn 29 for a few months. As a result, the total offensive line has been in a downward spiral: after posting a 128 OPS+ in both 2022 and 2023, Arráez fell to 107 in 2024, and just 99 a season ago.
But if his power is poor, it’s nothing compared to his defense, which is the truly confounding part of the signing. It was odd enough that the Giants, preaching a desire to win with pitching and defense, “upgraded” the rotation with Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser, and then flirted with Abrams. It’s another thing entirely to pursue Arráez (and, for those wondering, the beat reporters have already clarified that Arráez will be the team’s second baseman, with Casey Schmitt moving into a utility role).
After playing all over the infield earlier in his career, Arráez was moved almost exclusively to first base last season, where his Fielding Run Value was 248th out of 299 qualifying players. In 2024, when he split time fairly evenly between first and second, he ranked 302nd out of 311 players. And in 2023, when he was a full-time second baseman, he was 299th out of 311 defenders. In total, since the start of 2023, Arráez’s Fielding Run Value of -25 in 296th out of 303 players. His Outs Above Average paint an equally grim tale.
Suffice to say, it’s a strange addition, and one that could work wonderfully or horribly. I fear it’ll be the latter; but I’ll hope for the former. Arráez will certainly be motivated: according to Bob Nightengale, he rejected a few multi-year deals for a chance to play second base, so he’ll be looking to reset his value before re-entering free agency next winter, while still in his 20s.
