Luis Arraez

BIOGRAPHY

Luis Sangel Arráez was born on April 9, 1997, in San Felipe, Venezuela. He is a second baseman in the MLB.

Arráez signed with the Minnesota Twins as an international free agent in November 2013. He made his professional debut in 2014 with the Dominican Summer League Twins, hitting .348/.433/.400/.833 with 15 RBI. He played for the GCL Twins in 2015, hitting .306/.377/.388/.765 with 19 RBI. In 2016, he played for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, hitting .347/.386/.444/.830 with 3 home runs and 66 RBI.

Arráez played in only three games for the Fort Myers Miracle in 2017 due to a torn ACL. He returned from the injury in 2018, playing for Fort Myers and the Chattanooga Lookouts, hitting a combined .310/.361/.397/.758 with 3 home runs and 36 RBI. The Twins added him to their 40-man roster after the 2018 season.

Arráez opened the 2019 season with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, hitting .342/.415/.397/.812 with 14 RBI in 38 games. He was promoted to the Rochester Red Wings on May 14. On May 17, he was called up to the major leagues for the first time. He made his major league debut on May 18 versus the Seattle Mariners, and got a double, which was his first career hit, off Mariners pitcher Cory Gearrin. Arraez hit his first major league home run on May 21, 2019 against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In 2020, Arráez hit .321 with 13 RBI over 32 games.

Arráez reached base five times on June 5, 2022, including four hits and one walk, in an 8–6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. On June 11, 2022, Arráez connected for his first major league grand slam, versus Shane Baz of the Tampa Bay Rays.

On July 10th, 2022, Arráez was elected to his first career MLB All-Star Game as a reserve for the American League.

In 2022, he batted .316(leading the American League)/.375(7th)/.420 with 50 walks and 43 strikeouts in 547 at bats, leading the AL in at bats per strikeout (12.7). He struck out in 7.1% of his plate appearances, the lowest percentage of all major league batters in 2022. He had the highest contact percentage with all pitches thrown to him of any major leaguer at 94.1%, when swinging at pitches outside the strike zone he made contact 91.1% of the time, tops in the major leagues, and with pitchers in the strike zone he made contact with 96.0% of all pitches he swung at, again tops in the majors. He played 65 games at first base, 41 at second base, 38 at DH, and 7 at third base. Arráez was named winner of the Luis Aparicio Award for the first time in his career, along with José Altuve of the Houston Astros, as the year's best Venezuelan players in Major League Baseball.

On January 20, 2023, the Twins traded Arráez to the Miami Marlins for Pablo López, José Salas, and Byron Chourio. Arráez's $6.1 million salary for the 2023 season was set by the arbitration process.

On April 11, 2023, Arráez became the first player in Marlins history to hit for the cycle in an 8–4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies (at the time the Marlins were the only team to have never had a player hit for the cycle). Later that season, on June 6, Arráez went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, becoming the first player since Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves to bat over .400 at least 62 team games into the season. However, that run only lasted four days, when on June 11, he went 1-for-5 bringing his average down to .397 and subsequently going 0-for-4 and 0-for-5 in the next two games. After going 5-5 on June 19, he raised his average over .400 once again. Arráez's three 5-hit games in June, a Miami Marlins record over a single season, tied a mark set by Ty Cobb, George Sisler, and Dave Winfield for the most five-hit games in a single month. At the midseason, Arráez was voted as the starting second baseman for the National League in the 2023 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.