Jon ConahanThu, November 27, 2025 at 5:26 AM UTC·1 min readPadres' Luis Arraez free agency prediction will make real baseball fans laugh originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It seems like not many people are talking about what could happen with Luis Arraez, the San Diego Padres infielder who is on the free agency market.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt's been stated a few times, but Arraez might be the toughest player in baseball to evaluate on this free agency market.
Fans will truly get to see whether the thinking of batting average still matters is right or wrong, as Arraez is all that. He's led the National League in hits twice throughout his career, and batting average three times. He's coming off a somewhat disappointing year for his standards, even though he still led the NL with 181 hits. He hit .292 with just a 99 OPS+, with the OPS+ being the worst of his career.
There are obviously fits around Major League Baseball, but it depends on what that contract looks like. Will Laws of Sports Illustrated recently predicted it would be with the Cleveland Guardians, but didn't predict a contract.
“Baseball’s King of Contact is beyond compare. Nobody else runs a strikeout rate like Arraez’s career 6.1%, and for a while, his singular approach was remarkably effective. Arraez won three straight batting titles in three different uniforms from 2022 to ‘24, averaging 630 plate appearances with a 123 wRC+ during that span,” he wrote.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Guardians are perhaps the most ideal landing spot for someone like Arraez when it comes to what the team is looking to do.
He'd be a nice addition to a Cleveland squad that loves guys who get on base. However, the Guards probably need some more power at this point.
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