Arraez has won three straight batting titles while totaling 30 or more doubles a year. The contact-hitting guru slashed .314/.346/.392/.739 with four home runs and led the NL with 200 hits through 637 at-bats in 2024. As impressive as last season was, he posted these numbers while dealing with a torn ligament in his thumb. In 2023, he hit for an astounding .354 batting average.
Unlike Bregman, there are two problems with Arraez. The latter is one of the worst infield defenders in the game and doesn’t hit for much power. While power shouldn’t be a concern when a batter is consistently topping averages of .310, Arraez’s glove presents a problem for most teams.
The Yankees showed interest in Arraez but refrained from aggressively pursuing him due to his lack of defensive ability. This, however, shouldn’t be a problem for the Tigers; should Kerry Carpenter take to the outfield grass next season, the DH spot will be open.
Without a clear table-setter hitting ahead of Riley Greene and with only one guaranteed year of Flaherty (who has an opt-out after the 2025 season), trading for Arraez makes perfect sense. The Padres have been persistent in tall asking prices for Cease, but a package potentially led by Spencer Torkelson might be sufficient for a one-year rental who is a liability on the infield. Arraez is owed $14 million next season.
Pass.
Already have a glut of infielders add in his poor defense and I don’t see him being a fit.
Plenty of mix and match pieces on the board already for Hinch to play with.
I think the author was suggesting Arraez be the DH.
HIs BA was 30+ points higher than anyone on the team and his OBP would have been right near the top. Of the players who played at least 100 games, he would have been a close No. 2 to Riley Greene.
Victor Martinez was a professional hitter who spent most of his time with the Tigers as the DH. Granted, Martinez had more power and drove in more runs, but Arraez would be a table setter in the Tigers lineup.
Arraez is kinda a strange player. Cause he can hit for very good average. But doesn’t walk much. Just slaps the ball around. No real power. Is gonna hit 80 percent singles, which would be great if he could run. But he’s not a good base runner and is an awful fielder. So he’s a singles hitting DH that can’t run. Don’t see those types very often in modern baseball.
I’m aware he was proposing him as a DH, I still pass.
Hinch uses multiple players in the DH role based on the SP and bullpen of opposing team, sets up bench for that. I’d rather pursue someone else than Arraez.
Love Martinez, but that manager and team was constructed/utilized differently than this one and I’m not sure the comparison fits beyond just the power difference.
Arraez kinda reminds me of Ichiro at the plate… Extremely hard to strike out. Tons of soft contact singles. But Ichiro could steal 50 bases and play gold glove RF. Whereas Arraez is a liability on the bases and in the field.
Really don’t know where to bat him in a lineup. Cause he’s too slow to leadoff but doesn’t drive in many runs either.
Except Polanco wasn’t a bad defender.
edit, never mind you addressed it was hitting only. Brain dead this am due to business travel and more starting again tomorrow.
I mean…when you get a random hit from Vierling, Keith, Rogers, etc, the next three guys you have to send up have all had a sub .230 BA over the past like seven years.
What if those types of guys could be brought in instead of being left stranded?
He literally doesn’t help in any other way. He doesn’t score a ton of runs. He doesn’t drive in a ton of runs. No stolen bases. Huge liability on defense.
I still believe we need someone who can just consistently get on base, and consistently get base hits to bring in runners. Arraez is going to be top 5 in BA every year, and he’s not too expensive for our payroll.
I have no issue with batting Arraez behind Greene and Carpenter, in say the 5 spot. If one of those two guys get on base, we can get someone to bring them in.
I think his best spot may be the 9 hole. Batting Arraez in the middle of the lineup is with all due respect, hilarious to me. You need thumpers batting 4th or 5th.
I enjoy the topic though… Cause Arraez is such a unique player.
Everyone sees that batting average…but he just has so many flaws.
The Tigers have some extremely bad bats. So it’s not hard to make the lineup. Not playing a position is bad. But it looks like he plays first base. That spot is open.
