{"id":258731,"date":"2026-08-04T03:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T03:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/258731\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T03:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T03:10:10","slug":"luis-arraez-is-a-great-fit-for-philadelphia-say-phillies-who-played-with-him-before-trade-hes-going-to-bring-a-lot-of-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/258731\/","title":{"rendered":"Luis Arr\u00e1ez is \u2018a great fit\u2019 for Philadelphia, say Phillies who played with him before trade: \u2018He\u2019s going to bring a lot of energy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Luiz Arr\u00e1ez is coming to Philadelphia. (Brendan Baldwin\/Phillies Nation)<\/p>\n

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Jes\u00fas Luzardo reached out to his longtime friend and old teammate Luis Arr\u00e1ez as soon as the news broke.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, ahead of Major League Baseball\u2019s 6 p.m. trade deadline, the Phillies swung a deal with the San Francisco Giants for Arr\u00e1ez, a three-time batting champion and four-time All Star. The extremely contact-oriented left-handed-hitting second baseman will now join up with Luzardo once again in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked right away,\u201d Luzardo told Phillies Nation. \u201cHe\u2019s excited. He said he\u2019s on his way over. So we\u2019re excited to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two former Marlins formed a kinship during parts of two seasons together in Miami. In 2023, the club made the postseason. Luzardo had a breakout year on the mound, and Arr\u00e1ez batted .354 with 203 hits. Arr\u00e1ez was traded during the 2024 season and has since played for the Padres and Giants, while Luzardo was traded to the Phillies before the 2025 campaign. Still, the two have remained close friends.<\/p>\n

Luzardo said he appreciates the energy and \u201cgood vibes\u201d that Arr\u00e1ez provides. He described the 29-year-old infielder as a \u201chard worker,\u201d a \u201cgreat guy\u201d and a \u201cfamily man.\u201d Arr\u00e1ez attended Luzardo\u2019s wedding in Italy this past offseason. On Tuesday, they\u2019ll reunite as teammates for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the guy for how he acts as a professional,\u201d Luzardo said. \u201cBut I think he\u2019s going to bring a lot of energy. He\u2019s going to bring really professional at-bats. He doesn\u2019t like to give away at-bats. He takes a lot of pride in \u2014 offensively and defensively \u2014 the work that he\u2019s done this year. I feel like he\u2019s done a great job of earning that respect on the field defensively. So I think he\u2019s going to be a great fit for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arr\u00e1ez is batting .324 this season, a mark that leads the National League. He\u2019s not a serious power threat, with only four home runs in 105 games; he\u2019s never hit more than 10 homers in a season. But he has an outlier ability to put the ball in play and rack up hits. Last year, he didn\u2019t add much more than the base hits, with a .719 OPS despite leading the NL with 181 hits. This season, he has a .360 on-base percentage and an .801 OPS, along with improved defense at second. The Phillies were glad to acquire a different dynamic in the form of Arr\u00e1ez.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely excited for Luis,\u201d interim manager Don Mattingly told reporters. \u201cNot putting too much pressure on him, he\u2019s kind of like the modern-day, for me,\u00a0Tony Gwynn,\u00a0Wade Boggs. The guy just hits, has always hit, won batting titles. He just continues to do it. Obviously, a huge addition to our lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having Arr\u00e1ez in the offensive fold, however, will require some defensive shakeups. Star first baseman Bryce Harper, who continued to express willingness to go back out to right field for the first time since 2022, will shift to the outfield for the remainder of the season. Second baseman Bryson Stott will move from second base to third base, a position he played for a very short bit in 2022. Third baseman Alec Bohm will slide over to first base.<\/p>\n

Arr\u00e1ez has experience at first base as well, and placing him there while putting Harper in right could have left Stott and Bohm alone. But it does not seem like that was ever a consideration. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that the team never discussed the topic with Arr\u00e1ez, who said at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia last month<\/a> that he would not move away from second base if traded. So second base it will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s probably more about him and his concerns,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s fair. I think we knew that, or Dave knew that going in, that that wasn\u2019t really an option for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Phillies\u2019 view, the shuffling will be worth it for Arr\u00e1ez\u2019s presence in the batter\u2019s box. In the deal with San Francisco, the club also landed reliever Caleb Kilian as it sent out pitcher Ramon Marquez, the No. 4 prospect in the system<\/a>, and Single-A reliever Marty Gair. Philadelphia also made a move to get late-inning left-handed reliever Brooks Raley from the Mets for prospects Luke Gabrysh and John Spikerman. Additionally, the Phillies swapped reliever Seth Johnson for Triple-A outfielder Colby Thomas right at the deadline.<\/p>\n

But no new player will be expected to boost the team more than Arr\u00e1ez, a free agent at the end of the year. He\u2019s unlike just about any other hitter in the big leagues, and his style of play should complement a lineup that has its fair share of boom-or-bust batters. It\u2019s something several members of the organization have been able to watch up close. Luzardo and outfielder Bryan De La Cruz both played with Arr\u00e1ez in Miami. He and closer Jhoan Duran were teammates on the Minnesota Twins. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just that,\u201d De La Cruz said through a club interpreter. \u201cIt\u2019s just the way that he hits and the ability that he has to make contact and the way he goes about his game and the way he plays the game. The things that he does to be able to do that and perform like that on the field, I think that\u2019s what makes him special. I think that he\u2019ll be a great addition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattingly would not tip his hand when asked where Arr\u00e1ez will bat in the order. But it would not be a shock to see him leading off against the Nationals on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park after he arrives, a sight that a handful of Phillies have taken in plenty of times before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where he\u2019s going to hit here,\u201d De La Cruz said, \u201cbut I can see a couple guys being happy here, like (Kyle) Schwarber, Harper, seeing him at the top of the lineup. I think that that would be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luiz Arr\u00e1ez is coming to Philadelphia. (Brendan Baldwin\/Phillies Nation) PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Jes\u00fas Luzardo reached out to his longtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-258731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}