Per reports (MLB, NBC) three time batting champ, Luis Arraez, has signed with the Giants for one year at $12M. He will start at second base.
ogc thoughts
The Giants finally land a new starting second baseman by signing left handed hitter Luis Arraez. They have been rumored in pursuit of a number of second basemen (Brandon Donovan of the Cards, Nico Hoerner of the Cubs, CJ Abrams of the Nationals, and possibly others), but apparently those teams wanted more than the Giants were willing to give up. The smoke to find a better starting second baseman was real, as shown by this signing.
He is an extreme contact hitter, rarely strikes out, so if he and Lee are atop the lineup, there will be a lot of balls in play and a lot of runners to drive in for the middle lineup guys. But another LHH means that Arraez, Lee and Devers probably can’t bat atop the lineup, because few teams bat three lefties in a row. And Devers normally bat 2-3-4 and he’s their best and most consistent hitter, and most modern teams would bat him second. So where he hits in the lineup is a big question.
Arraez appears to have chosen the Giants because they were willing to make him their starting second baseman. The Padres had moved him to 1B/DH, because he has been horrible defensively at 2B, and I guess other teams also wanted him to move, so that’s how he ended up with the Giants now, just before spring training starts. Apparently he passed up multi-year deals with other teams for the Giants.
I think the Giants are going to handle him like Pat Burrell: after 3-4 AB, and depending on the game situation, replace him mid game with a good defensive player, like Koss (or perhaps Fitzgerald, depending on who wins the second utility infielder role, after Schmitt). They are probably hoping that Ron Washington can work his defensive coaching magic with him, as well.
I would assume Arraez would like to be better at second too, as his free agent value goes up a lot if he is a starting second baseman instead of a 1B/DH, where he’s not as valuable. He’s likely hoping to figure out how to get his performance back closer to his peak seasons, a few years ago.
The exciting part is he’s a hitter’s hitter, leading the majors or league in hits and batting average multiple times. He hits them where they ain’t. Unfortunately, he has no power or speed, and is bad on defense. That’s likely why he was moved to DH by the Padres. When it gets this late in the offseason, you take what you can get when you are filling spots (vs signing or trading for the best players available).
He balances off what the Giants get from Bader, who provides great defense, power and speed, but has not been a good hitter in recent years.
2026 Giants Lineup
The Giants starting lineup is now mostly set up, with the DH role open for competition:
- C: Patrick Bailey
- 1B: Rafael Devers
- 2B: Luis Arraez
- 3B: Matt Chapman
- SS: Willy Adames
- LF: Heliot Ramos
- CF: Harrison Bader
- RF: Jung Hoo Lee
The exact batting order is not clear, but it is pretty clear that the last two in the batting order is currently Bailey and Bader: They are average or worse hitters, based on recent seasons. Bader has speed and steals bases, so he can operate as a secondary leadoff hitter batting 9th. Bailey has been mostly below average so he gets 8th.
Jung Hoo Lee should be the leadoff hitter, if he’s hitting consistently like he was in the second half of 2025: .298/.348/.425/.773 from July 1st to the end of the season. He should be able to be more aggressive in stealing bases, he had 4 in the second half, and Vitello seems like he would be an aggressive user of stolen bases. That should get him into the teens, and perhaps more, if Randy Winn can give tips on how he stole many bases without being caught. In any case, there’s no one in the lineup who has the potential for high OBP who has speed to steal bases and score from second, other than Lee, he’s the leadoff hitter by default, for the most part.
Luis Arraez is likely batting second, based on his career, where he has had a high OBP and a high contact rate. However, he didn’t hit well last season, and if he repeats, he could fall to the 6/7 position. In addition, both he and Lee are LHH, so the case could be made that Willy Adames should bat second, to split Lee and Arraez, who would then bat third. And old school managers prefer to put the power bat third, which would flip those two, with Arraez leading off. But he also has no speed, so leadoff seems unlikely. And if he can get back to his career highs in OBP, Arraez would lead off, so as to take more advantage of Jung Hoo advantage in power generated.
Devers, Chapman and Ramos should then bat 4-5-6, leaving whoever is the DH batting 7th.
The competition for DH is now likely to be, after Arraez is signed, between Encarnacion, Schmitt and Eldridge, with Parks Harbor as a dark horse possibility.
Bench Composition
There will be five additional position players after the eight starters. Schmitt is definitely on the roster, and likely to be the infield utility player now, capable of playing any position on the infield, plus DH. Daniel Susac will battle with Jesus Rodriguez for the backup catcher’s role. Rodriguez also might be battling with Christian Koss and Tyler Fitzgerald for an infield backup role, as well, though it’s more likely that a true MI will win this other roster spot. That’s three.
There could be two backup outfielders, though one could be mostly DH, like Jerar Encarnacion. Luis Matos, Drew Gilbert, Grant McCray and Encarnacion are the main competitors for these two spots, though I expect some players to come in on minor league deals to battle for these spots as well.
If Eldridge wins the DH role, he likely is playing full time, playing the occasional first base. He would take one of the OF spots, and might lead to Fitzgerald over Koss, since he has more experience playing the OF and can fill in there as necessary.
The SJ Mercury noted this about Arraez, making him good batting second behind Lee: “Arraez also has a knack for delivering timely hits, boasting a career .349 batting average and .837 OPS with runners in scoring position. That ability to hit in big moments is significant for the Giants, which finished 17th in on-base percentage and 19th in batting average with runners in scoring position last season.”
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It also noted that the right side will be weak fielding since they have Devers too. I have seen that and there are things I would add.
DeleteOne, Devers won’t necessarily be bad, even if he’s new. 1B is easier than 3B, and with experience he will understand the nuances of the position. He had +2 DRS, which prorated out to a 9 DRS season, which is very good. All SSS, though , of course. Hopefully he has been practicing and he will get more reps in spring.
Second, vast majority of hitters are RH and pull hitters, so there will be less ground balls going to second base to handle, so any poor fielding will be masked, much like how the worse outfielders end up in LF.