Giants' Luis Arraez has made a totally unexpected change from his entire career
Giants' Luis Arraez has made a totally unexpected change from his entire career originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
No one saw this coming from Luis Arraez .
When the San Francisco Giants signed the three-time batting champion, that's what they wanted -- a guy who hits for incredible contact and high average.
It may not be the most popular thing in modern baseball, but it's what Arraez was known to bring to the table.
So color everyone surprised with what has happened since.
Arraez, a notably terrible defensive player, has been stellar on defense so far this season.
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The Giants moved him back to second base from first, which he had played more often recently.
And somehow, Arraez already has five outs above average through about a month of the season.
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Somehow, he's behind only noted superstar defenders Bobby Witt Jr. and Pete Crow-Armstrong so far in that metric.
Defensive metrics aren't perfect, but they also tell at least some of the story -- and clearly, Arraez has made a turnaround.
The last season Arraez played a lot of second base was 2024, and his biggest struggle that year was coming in on the ball -- he had a negative-6 OAA in that specific category that year.
So far this season, Arraez is a plus-1 coming in on the baseball -- and also has positive marks moving lateral both to his glove side and arm side.
Could he regress more toward his recent mean? Probably.
But something has changed here, and it seems unlikely Arraez falls totally off the table. That's a big positive for the Giants.
