The San Diego Padres have yet to sign a replacement first baseman for Luis Arraez. Is he re-signing with the team?
The San Diego Padres have gone another day without signing a first baseman to take over for former Padre Luis Arraez and it is raising eyebrows.
Arraez is a natural second baseman and he played second base for most of his career before the Padres acquired him. Both the Minnesota Twins and Miami Marlins gave him playing time at first base but not nearly as often as he played second base.
But Arraez’s defense was a concern for the Padres, who moved him to first base full-time after he was brought in. He has played 178 games at first base as a member of the Friars and just 23 games at second base. His lack of range up the middle prompted the team to swap him with infielder Jake Cronenworth.
Cronenworth is a much better defender and is already under contract, so the Padres may opt to move him back to first and put someone else at second base, like free agent signing Sung-Mun Song.
Though both sides expressed interest in a return, Arraez is still on the open market. To me, that signals that the club is fine with letting him walk to join a new team, but nobody else has signed him either.
Why does no one want an established .300 hitter and three-time batting champion? He doesn’t hit for power, he’s not going to steal bases, and his defense is below-average, but the guy hits everything and gets on base at an elite clip.
Arraez is the best contact hitter in Major League Baseball and rarely strikes out, yet his market is nonexistent right now.
Here is the latest on Arraez and his free agency sweepstakes as of Monday:
“One of this offseason's most interesting free agents, Arraez was linked to the [Texas] Rangers earlier this winter,” MLB.com reported. “Texas is now managed by Skip Schumaker, who was his manager with the Marlins from 2023-24. There has been very little buzz surrounding Arraez, who could ultimately end up back with the Padres as they still have a need at first base.”
It’s shocking to see a player who excels at putting the ball in play and getting on base isn’t under contract as we near the end of January, but the league wants to see power, not singles. Unfortunately for Arraez, teams don’t value batting average as highly as they once did and because he isn’t great at anything else, his stock has fallen off a cliff.
He was the National League-leader in hits (181) this past season and is falling by the wayside. The Padres, Rangers and Colorado Rockies are the most logical fits for three-time All-Star.