The San Diego Padres have suffered a lot of losses this offseason without making many meaningful additions, and today they lost another key cog in their offense, as first baseman Luis Arraez signed a one-year deal with the division-rival San Francisco Giants.
This one hurts. The new was tweeted out by MLB Network Insider Joel Sherman, and Maria Guardado of MLB.com has Arraez landing a one-year deal for $12 million. The Padres acquired Arraez in one of GM A.J. Preller’s infamous deals back in 2024, as Preller gave up four prospects to get the first baseman from the Miami Marlins. Only one of those prospects has appeared to the majors so far, so it seems safe to consider the early years of this deal a rousing success.
Arraez hit .318 for San Diego and won his third batting title after coming over in 2024, but his numbers dropped in 2025. He was still productive, though, with a slash line of .292/.327/.392, so in some ways it’s surprising he lasted as long as he did on the market.
But Arraez’s free agency was considered something of a referendum on the value of contact hitters who can get base hits, and it turns out his value wasn’t all that high. He played for $14 million for the Padres last year, according to Spotrac, and there were reports early in the offseason that Arraez would be returning to San Diego for a similar number.
There were other issues that kept Arraez on the market and kept him from getting paid. Arraez doesn’t bring power to the table and he doesn’t draw many walks, so his value was mostly in his ability to avoid strikeouts and hit singles and doubles.
His defense was also becoming an issue. Arraez doesn’t have a lot of range, and with second basemen Jake Cronenworth now over 30, the Padres would have faced some issues on the right side of their infield if they’d kept Arraez.
He’ll definitely be missed, though. The Padres offense is built around making contact and playing to the larger dimensions of Petco Park, and Arraez helped generate plenty of traffic on the bases. He did struggle in San Diego’s Wild Card Series loss to the Chicago Cubs, hitting just .182 with no extra base hits, although Arraez had plenty of company in that category.
As the offseason went on it became obvious that the Padres weren’t going to re-sign Arraez, but they still have a big hole at first. This offseason has been characterized by the lack of moves to date, so it will be interesting to see who ends up filling it.