![\"May](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/USATSI_29049075-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe 2026 San Francisco Giants are a very bad baseball team. I was one of the last to be convinced, a frazzled lab assistant staring at a chalkboard and whining, \u201cBut according to these calculations \u2026\u201d as the flames behind him started to lick the ceiling.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve come around, though. Woof, this team is a stinker.<\/p>\n
As such, there\u2019s a lot of business to get into. There\u2019s a trade deadline that\u2019s only a few dozen shopping days away, and there\u2019s a lineup to reshape. They should listen to offers on everybody \u2014 everybody \u2014 while realistically expecting to trade a couple rentals and\/or lower-cost players.<\/p>\n
Before all that, though, the Giants should take one of the few veterans who aren\u2019t on a bad contract and give him one.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not going to happen, and I fully expect Luis Arraez to be traded at the deadline. That makes this more of a thought experiment or a way to sneak in some extra appreciation for him. Except it\u2019s not a galaxy-brained, seven-dimensional exercise in contrarianism, and it\u2019s not a tongue-in-cheek bit. Even though the farm system is overstuffed with middle infielders, the Giants should still lock up a 29-year-old middle infielder. They should do it for baseball reasons.<\/p>\n
There will be a longer argument below, but I get it; we\u2019re in a skim-for-bold-print society, so here\u2019s the thesis statement: I can\u2019t imagine a Giants team over the next five years in which Arraez wouldn\u2019t fit. The team in every permutation, every scenario, would benefit from more Arraez, whether it\u2019s the current version or the older player still around at the end of his next contract. A rebuilding team, a reloading team, a contending team or a dynastic team: every single one of them could benefit from a jovial and energetic left-handed base-hit guy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Luis Arraez isn\u2019t just a good ballplayer; he\u2019s the kind of ballplayer other ballplayers tend to gravitate toward. (Robert Edwards \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
This is because every single team in baseball can benefit from a jovial and energetic left-handed base-hit guy. This isn\u2019t a modern invention; baseball teams have known this since the beginning of the sport. For a couple of decades, there were only two types of left-handed base-hit guys: jovial ones and ornery ones, with every World Series winner maintaining the proper balance. It doesn\u2019t matter what era you\u2019re looking at \u2014 dead ball, post-expansion, 21st century, et cetera \u2014 there\u2019s a jovial and energetic left-handed base-hit guy on the best teams, smiling like Jack Torrance in the photo at the end of \u201cThe Shining.\u201d<\/p>\n
What if Jhonny Level and Luis Hern\u00e1ndez and Josuar Gonz\u00e1lez all push their way to the majors in another couple of years? Well, then it sounds like the Giants have a great problem: here\u2019s a veteran who can help mentor them. His position is \u201chitter,\u201d and the team will figure it out. When it\u2019s time for him to spray base hits all over the outfield, the team will say, \u201cGo out there and hit,\u201d and then he will do so, verily. They might even designate him as a hitter of some sort if the need arose.<\/p>\n
What about Casey Schmitt and Matt Chapman, especially considering the latter\u2019s contract? Schmitt\u2019s best position is likely third base, but he\u2019d probably ease into second base with enough time. Committing to Arraez complicates this arrangement, leading to things like Schmitt in left field, with mixed results.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll figure it out. Arraez is a jovial and energetic left-handed base-hit guy, and he\u2019s apparently flexible enough defensively to reinvent himself at second base; it\u2019s not implausible to think he could survive at third base or in the outfield if the roster needs dictated it. Heck, sign him to one of those Tim Wakefield-type contracts, with a perpetual team option, because you know he\u2019s going to play until he\u2019s 45 and become the mayor of whatever town he\u2019s in the longest.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another, almost as important argument to consider, which is an appeal to aesthetics. Arraez makes baseball fun to watch. He treats every pitch like a final-boss battle, and he looks like he\u2019s having fun doing it. He talks to himself and gestures and twitches and gabs, and it\u2019s outstanding baseball theater. Beyond the body language, the experience of a high-average player in a low-average era is delightful. He\u2019s a player who makes you think \u201csingle\u201d every time he\u2019s up, and a third of the time, he makes you feel smart. Those are mighty fine odds in baseball.<\/p>\n
The most important argument of all, though, is that in addition to being a jovial and energetic left-handed base-hit guy, he\u2019s one of the most popular players in baseball among his peers. You can see it in his interactions with opposing players, with his MLB teammates, with his teammates in the World Baseball Classic. He\u2019s someone they seek out, horse around with or otherwise chat up. You\u2019re telling me that kind of personality profile, in addition to being the left-handed base-hit guy, doesn\u2019t have a spot on a rebuilding team? Or a contending team? Or a team in 1973? Or a team in 2083? Oh, he\u2019ll be there, assuming robo-hips are allowed. They\u2019ll probably have to be, especially if they can double as a flotation device, what with the sea level rising at Oracle Park. (Arraez will hit .310 with the floaty-robo-hip.)<\/p>\n
This is all Arraez propaganda, yes, but the argument holds. If you\u2019re imagining a rebuilding team that\u2019s prospects upon prospects, top to bottom, with nobody over the age of 25, remember that those teams never exist. The 1998 Marlins weren\u2019t even one of those teams, and no team tore its roster down to the foundation more than that one. The \u201cYou Gotta Like These Kids\u201d-era Giants had lots of veterans (including Mike Krukow).<\/p>\n
An extension would be a gamble that Arraez is better at being The Veteran on a rebuilding team than whatever veteran is available at a comparable price. I\u2019ll take that gamble, especially considering he\u2019s a jovial and energetic left-handed base-hit guy, something all baseball teams can use. Two boxes checked off the ol\u2019 rebuilding checklist! Oh, how the singles and tutelage will fly.<\/p>\n
Again, it\u2019s not going to happen. He\u2019s gone, to single-\u2018n\u2019-shimmy his way into the hearts of another fan base, for what the Giants hope will be a Camilo Doval-like haul. If Arraez is traded, he\u2019ll be a fit for roughly every contender, so you can hope for a semi-delirious bidding war. And maybe that\u2019s the smart play.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a chance to keep a guy who would be good at baseballing in any capacity you ask him to baseball for the next several years \u2014 and he would do it in a way that would help others baseball better, too. Call me a sap, call me a dreamer or call me a fool for anyone \u2014 ANYONE \u2014 who can hit better than .240, but I\u2019ve talked myself into it. The Giants might be going in strange, new directions, and they can always get worse for an extended period of time. But even in every one of those scenarios, Arraez fits. This is far from the most important problem facing the Giants right now, but it\u2019s an easy win that\u2019s right in front of them. And those haven\u2019t come around often these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 San Francisco Giants are a very bad baseball team. I was one of the last to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,5157,85],"class_list":["post-702851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}