Luis Arraez finished first in the American League in batting average and 40th in slugging percentage.
In a sport obsessed with power, Twins' Luis Arraez is a valuable anomaly
The Twins left-handed hitter is a throwback of sorts, and every lineup should have someone like him.
October 7, 2022 at 12:24AM
Of the eight players in the American League who hit at least .300, Arraez was the only one with more walks (50) than strikeouts (43).
Aaron Judge, who finished as the runner-up to Arraez (.316) with a .311 average, struck out a whopping 175 times. He also led the league in homers (62) and RBI (131), so there's no argument here about which player had the better season.
In a perfect world, you get the whole package like Judge's 2022 season: power and average. But in a baseball world obsessed with the former at the expense of the latter, let us take a moment to appreciate Arraez and what he brings to a lineup — as I did on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.
A lineup filled only with "three true outcome" players — a walk, a strikeout or a hard hit ball that might leave the yard — is vulnerable to slumps and good pitching.
Power is valuable, but a player like Arraez adds texture and depth to a lineup. Even thinking back to his rookie season in 2019 (when Arraez hit .334 with four homers in 366 plate appearances), the player you wanted at the plate in a meaningful situation was often the rookie who was going to put the ball in play and not one of the mashers who contributed mightily to the record-breaking 307 home runs hit that season.
This year? Arraez hit .366 with runners in scoring position and .374 in 195 at bats with runners on base.
This one might be my favorite: In 18 plate appearances with a runner on third base and less than two outs — a situation where getting a runner home is often imperative, particularly in a tight game, and can swing momentum one way or the other — Arraez collected 10 hits in 14 official at bats for a .714 avearge. Three other at bats ended with sacrifice flies. He walked once. He did not strike out.
A hitter who puts the ball in play, often with soft-to-medium opposite field contact, is a throwback to a different era. Lineups used to be filled with guys like that.
They're a scarcity now, but the Twins should consider themselves lucky to have one of the best around — and another batting champ to add to their storied history.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
