The Giants and infielder Luis Arraez are in agreement on a one-year contract, according to Jorge Castillo of ESPN. Arraez will earn $12MM and is expected to play second base, according to Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. The deal is pending a physical. Arraez is a client of MVP Sports Group.
Arraez entered the offseason seeking a multi-year deal and was reportedly prioritizing teams that would play him at second base. He now gets his wish, as the Giants will slot him in at the keystone to round out their infield mix. Arraez passed up multi-year offers from other teams in order to play second base, according to multiple reports, including from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. We at MLBTR projected Arraez for a two-year, $24MM contract at the start of the offseason. This deal matches that in terms of annual value and allows Arraez to return to free agency following the 2026 season.
The addition of Arraez brings the Giants’ 2026 payroll to $206MM, according to RosterResource, nearly $30MM above last year’s payroll. Their CBT payroll for 2026 now stands at $232.7MM, which leaves about $11.3MM for future additions before the Giants reach the first luxury tax threshold. Arraez represents the second eight-figure signing this week for the club, after they inked Harrison Bader to a two-year, $20.5MM deal on Monday.
Arraez will add a contact-oriented bat to a power-heavy infield. Matt Chapman and Willy Adames combined for 51 home runs last season. Rafael Devers added 20 homers in his 90 games with the team. Top prospect Bryce Eldridge is waiting in the wings to add another big bat to the mix. Each of those hitters comes with varying degrees of strikeout concerns, and Arraez should help balance out some of the swing-and-miss in the middle of the lineup.
The 28-year-old Arraez is coming off a relatively poor season by his lofty batting average standards. He hit .292 in his lone full season in San Diego. That mark still ranked in the top five in the National League, but it was the lowest of his seven-year career. A .289 BABIP could be to blame for the dropoff, though Arraez’s batted ball profile also took a step back.
Arraez has never hit the ball hard, instead relying on a ridiculously low strikeout rate and an all-fields approach to rack up hits. He reached new depths with the hard-hit rate in 2025, ranking dead last among qualified hitters at 16.7%. His previous career low was a 22.7% hard-hit rate as a rookie with Minnesota. He still squared the ball up at one of the highest rates in the league (42.6%), but that doesn’t mean much when you have an extremely low bat speed. Arraez’s average bat speed was about 9 mph below league average last season.
The defensive fit is an unsettling one. Arraez earned poor grades in the field in 2023 and 2024, combining for -26 Outs Above Average across the two seasons. He served as Miami’s primary second baseman in 2023, but moved to first base after getting dealt to the Padres in May 2024. The vast majority of Arraez’s defensive reps came at first base this past season. He posted -9 OAA, though Defensive Runs Saved had him at +3. Arraez will now slot in alongside Devers, who has also earned ugly fielding grades over the past few seasons. Scouts are not excited about Eldridge’s defensive ability, either.
As multiple Cardinals reporters pointed out, including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, the addition of Arraez might remove the Giants from the Brendan Donovan trade discussion. The same goes for Nico Hoerner of the Cubs. San Francisco was known to be working hard on finding a second base upgrade and had engaged in trade talks for both players.
The club’s second basemen finished 26th in OPS in 2025. Tyler Fitzgerald, Casey Schmitt, and Christian Koss handled the majority of the at-bats at the position. Schmitt is the only one trending toward a role with the big-league club next season, assuming he’s recovered from offseason wrist surgery. Given his defensive versatility and underwhelming production at the plate, he’s best-suited for a utility role. Schmitt could conceivably earn second base starts over Arraez against lefties, though his .674 career OPS vs. southpaws is nearly identical to Arraez’s .673 mark.
Photos courtesy of David Frerker and William Liang, Imagn Images