Giants sign Luis Arraez to 1-year, $12 million deal: Sources

The San Francisco Giants added one of baseball’s top contact hitters Saturday, agreeing to a one-year, $12 million deal with infielder Luis Arraez, according to league sources.

The first major leaguer to win three consecutive batting titles for a different team in each season, Arraez is a singular, polarizing figure in the modern game. While he might be the sport’s best pure hitter, he was ranked No. 33 on The Athletic’s Free Agent Big Board, with a contract projection of two years and $30 million. Debates about his value continued to rage in 2025 as Arraez submitted underwhelming numbers during his platform season.

The Giants have been looking for an upgrade at second base throughout the offseason. Arraez, never known for his defense, wanted to sign with a team that would allow him to play that position, and the Giants were willing to give him that chance in 2026.

Signed by the Minnesota Twins as a teenager in November 2013, Arraez made his big-league debut in 2019 at age 22. He hit .314 in four seasons with the Twins before being traded to the Miami Marlins in 2023 in a deal that brought right-hander Pablo López and others to Minnesota. Arraez was dealt again the following year, going from Miami to San Diego in an early-season trade. He won batting titles in 2022 (Twins, .316 BA), 2023 (Marlins, .354 BA) and 2024 (Marlins/Padres, .314 BA) and led the league in hits in 2024 with exactly 200.

A year after catalyzing the Padres’ contact-oriented offense, Arraez slumped to the tune of a career-worst .292 batting average in 2025 (though he did lead the NL in hits with 181). He continued to supply limited value as a defensive infielder and baserunner. Arraez carries a gaudy career .317 average, but the Padres did not extend a one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer, anticipating that the 28-year-old lefty hitter would struggle to approach that kind of average annual value in free agency.

Despite his down year, Arraez remained a marvel in some respects. The man with the majors’ slowest, shortest swing continued to whiff at pitches less often than everyone else. In one span, he went 141 consecutive plate appearances without striking out. It was the longest such streak since Tony Gwynn’s run of 170 plate appearances in 1995. Arraez’s 3.1 percent strikeout rate was easily the lowest in the majors. It was the lowest in a single season since Gwynn in 1995.

Still, Arraez never quite approached Gwynn’s level of well-rounded production in San Diego. While his batting average in 2025 ranked 13th in the majors, he was merely 125th in wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs. His .327 on-base percentage marked another career low.