The Giants reportedly agreeing to a contract with Luis Arráez has stirred debate in the San Francisco and baseball fandom.
Arráez is excellent at hitting for average but falls flat in other statistical areas such as wRC+, walks drawn, and slugging.
But fellow Giants free-agent acquisition Harrison Bader staunchly defended Arráez in an interview with KNBR 680’s “Murph & Markus” on Monday.
“I think the people who make decisions in the front office understand the value of a player as talented as Luis Arráez,” Bader explained. “I think that there are always going to be conversations about expected stats and whatnot — and those are all well and good for Twitter conversations — but at the end of the day what matters most is the lineup you put out there, advancing 90 feet at a time, getting as many hits as possible, getting on base, all these things.”
Bader presents an outlook that brings baseball back to reality. Stats make for good-looking graphics and social media arguments, but Bader insists that the impact that Arráez can provide goes beyond that.
“He’s stacked three batting titles on top of that; I think that really does speak for itself,” Bader noted. “I’ve seen him work up close. I’ve watched him work. I’ve studied how he works and I know a lot of his coaches and everything, and all of that speaks for itself.
“I don’t want to go as far as to criticize or be rude to anybody, but all I can tell you is that he’s just an extremely gifted hitter. What he does is something that really good major leaguers can’t do.”
From 2022 to 2024, Arráez won three consecutive batting titles and led all of MLB in batting average in 2023. Last season, he led the National League in hits and sacrifice hits. He struck out just 21 times, the lowest total among qualified hitters across baseball.
It plays into president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s philosophy: put the ball in play and put the onus on the defense.
Bader also should provide some improved consistency for the Giants. His .277 batting average would have ranked second-best on the team last season behind Dominic Smith (.284), who played in 83 fewer games than Bader.
Bader looks forward to teaming up with another skilled hitter.
“I’m happy that we acquired him, and I’m excited to learn from him…” Bader said, “…I have tremendous respect for him, and I’m looking forward to having him be a teammate of mine for sure.”