With the new year approaching, Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees have been busy putting together a lineup worthy of possibly getting back to the World Series. With additions to the batting order like Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, the pieces are starting to fall into place. However, there’s still a spot in the infield that could best be filled by one hitter in particular: Luis Arraez.
Arraez has made a name for himself across the baseball world the last few years, taking home three batting titles, three Silver Sluggers, and three All Star nods in his six year career so far. He’s a dying breed of hitters in this league, focusing on average and striking out as little as possible.
Arraez led the American League in batting average in 2022, with a .316 batting average with the Twins. In 2024, Arraez would post a .314 batting average between both the Marlins and the Padres, good enough to lead the entire National League. However in 2023, Arraez would lead all of Major League Baseball in batting average with a .354 average.
Arraez in 2024 ranked in the 100th percentile with an elite K% of 4.3% and a just as elite 6.9% Whiff%. Nothing new for Arraez as from 2022-2024, he’s stayed within that 100th percentile for both strikeout and whiff rate.
He is exactly the type of bat the Yankees could use, someone who can get on base for bats like Judge, Stanton, Chisholm, Bellinger, and Goldschmidt to hit in. He’s made for the leadoff role in the Bronx with this current Yankees lineup. Anthony Volpe is currently projected to be the leadoff hitter in 2025, but with a .242 batting average in that spot last season, it doesn’t seem like the way to go.
Arraez on the other hand has over 1800 plate appearances at the leadoff spot. In those plate appearances, Arraez has recorded a .323 batting average, a .364 on base percentage, and a 118 wRC+. With 409 career games at the leadoff spot, the Yankees would be trading for a seasoned leadoff hitter.
While they are nowhere near the bottom of the pack, the Yankees recorded a .248 batting average with runners in scoring position according to StatMuse. The Yankees could use a situational hitter, especially when runners get on base in the bottom of the order. When looking at his career statistics in situational hitting, there may not be a better hitter to go after.
With the bases empty, Arraez has a career .300 batting average, with men on base he has a .365 average, and with runners in scoring position he has a .369 average in 540 plate appearances. When looking at the advanced metrics, Arraez strikes out less than 5% of the time with men on base, and with men in scoring position he strikes out 5.4% of the time.
Now let’s look at this in terms of leverage. With those numbers with men on base and in scoring position, one can assume Arraez has very good numbers in high leverage situations. That assumption would be correct as in 247 high leverage plate appearances, Arraez has a .347 batting average and a 133 wRC+.
This type of situational hitting is a dream come true for any manager, but for Aaron Boone and the Yankees this means even more. With the bright lights of New York City, a consistent productive hitter in all situations is huge when it comes to meeting the expectations of the fans and media.
While Arraez doesn’t have the intriguing pop of a home run hitter, his bat-to-ball skills still make him one of the most fun hitters to watch in the entire league. His ability to hit the ball to all sides of the field is incredible, especially against both left and right handed pitching.
Against right handed pitching, Arraez on balls put in play, pulls the ball just under 30% of the time, takes the ball to center just over 38% of the time, and takes the ball to the opposite field exactly 32% of the time. Against left handed pitching, on balls put in play here are the same splits: Pull%: 32.6%, Cent%: 35.1%, Oppo%: 32.3% (FanGraphs).
For what he lacks in sheer power at the plate Arraez has shown to make up for it in pure contact hitting abilities. Instead of killing teams with the long ball, he’ll kill you by being able to take the ball to literally anywhere on the field. In the gaps, down the lines, and up the middle Arraez is able to do it all, and that’s such an under-appreciated aspect of his game.
One thing that should be made very clear is that Arraez is certainly not known for his glove. However, he provides slightly more versatility defensively than the average first baseman in the league. Arraez in the past has played at second and third base as well as the outfield earlier on in his career. This gives Aaron Boone some options in the field.
Boone would be able to re-tool his infield how he pleases, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. or Arraez sliding into the third base spot. While Arraez hasn’t played there since the 2022 season, he has 79 games of experience at the hot corner. On the other hand with Chisholm, his 45 games of experience at third base should be a building block for this season if he’s needed at that spot again.
While as previously mentioned Arraez has had games in the outfield or at shortstop, it’s obviously very unlikely that he’d ever be thought of in those areas. Not known for the glove, Arraez still gives Aaron Boone and the Yankees slightly more to work with than Gleyber Torres defensively last season. The best spot for him with the Yankees would be to return to his second base position.
(Video via MLB Film Room)
With no rumors of serious trade talks between the two clubs it’s still unknown whether or not this is even in the realm of possibilities for the Yankees. Regardless of if it’s come up in the front office, there’s no arguing that Arraez would complete this lineup perfectly. It gives the Yankees a great pure-contact situational hitter who while can’t give you the best defense available, will be a bat you can rely on to step up in every type of game environment.