Why every team in the MLB can use Luis Arraez

Luis Arraez signed as an international free agent with the Minnesota Twins in 2013. After spending years in the minor leagues, he finally made his MLB debut on May 18th, 2019. Luis is not the traditional "modern-day" MLB player. In 2,813 at-bats in the major and minor leagues, Arraez only has 13 home runs. In baseball today many players are taught to swing for home runs and try to draw walks since that is the most valuable plate approach. Most MLB analytics departments would agree this is the approach they are looking for and they want players who succeed in this way. While doing this MLB teams tend to be too one-dimensional and forget about the other aspects of winning baseball. Luis Arraez despite having no power exceeds in every other statistical category. Luis Arraez does certain things on the baseball field that teams are forgetting how valuable they are. 

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Louis Arraez's this year in his age 25 season leads all of baseball with a .429 on-base percentage. MLB teams look at on-base percentage as one of the key stats to determining success. The more a player gets on base the more chances they have to score. Nobody can dispute that Arraez is great at getting on base. Although he provides more than that offensively. Luis is one of the best in baseball in putting the ball in play. So far this season he has an 8.5% strikeout percentage. This is the third-lowest in all of baseball. Arraez is rarely striking out at the plate and by always making contact he is advancing runners, driving in runs, creating opportunities for errors, and more. This is perfect for the Twins lineup as they have many sluggers who have high isolated power numbers but strike out at least once a game. When building an ideal lineup it is great to have the players with high isolated power. Although, it is also valuable to mix in contact hitters. Luis Arraez is not just a player who puts the ball in play and has no success. In fact, Luis Arraez this year is 7th in the MLB with a .340 batting average and also has a .372 batting average on balls in play. Many people will argue batting average is not a valuable statistic since it does not show the quality of hits. When looking at Luis Arraez though he gets on base so much that it does not matter the quality of hits. Luis with only 1 home run in 2022 is still top 30 in OPS and top 20 in WOBA. This is super impressive since both statistics weight the quality of hits in them by making home runs more valuable than walks and singles. Luis Arraez's overall offensive production correlates with winning baseball. He has the 25th best offensive wins above replacement at 9.1. He also is 17th in the MLB in WRC+ which is runs created adjusted to account for external factors. As stated earlier you win by producing runs and Luis is a machine at creating runs for the Twins. Having a guy like Luis who always gets on base, makes contact, and scores set the table for the star players. He is a perfect complement to pair with All-Star sluggers Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton. 

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Luis Arraez also provides value in areas that do not show up in the box score. First, Arraez sees the 9th most pitches per at-bat in the MLB. By doing this he wastes opposing pitchers' energy and helps to get them out of the game sooner. Arraez is also the ultimate utility man. In his 4 seasons in the MLB Arraez has played 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, and DH. Having a player on a team who can play multiple positions gives a manager lineup flexibility. This year the twins have suffered injuries to Miguel Sano and Carlos Correa. Arraez has had to adapt and play first base during this time since other than Sano they had no first baseman on the roster. Arraez seems to be just an average defender. Having someone who can play anywhere is just as valuable to a team with injuries as a lockdown defender who can only play one position. This makes Arraez an amazing asset to have as now the Twins can carry an extra bullpen arm knowing that they need fewer men on the bench since Arraez can fill in anywhere. Say the Twins are fully healthy now. Arraez in this situation may not always have a steady starting spot. Arraez has built himself to be one of the best platoon options in all of baseball. Against righty's Luis has a .468 OBP. Today, many teams try and create builds where they are maximizing their players worth by playing them in situations where they are best. Arraez is one of the most productive hitters against right-handed pitching in all of baseball. At the very least a team could use Arraez only against righties and then have him sit the bench vs lefties and be the backup for every position. Whether he is used in that role or as a full-time starter Arraez will be a valuable asset. Every team in baseball is trying to put together a lineup that scores the most runs. Having a player like Luis Arraez who scores runs and can be put anywhere in the lineup is the dream player to completing a winning roster.

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