Talk about a rebirth. MLB is seeing its latest iteration with Luis Arraez and his new team, the San Diego Padres. When the Miami Marlins cheaply traded the defending batting average champion, one wondered whether the Padres had just hit the jackpot. Arraez proved those thoughts to be true in his first appearance and has quickly become a favorite of the Friars since then. 

The Padres have also seen a slight uptick in form since his arrival. Though the team still maintains a losing record (23-24), they’re 2nd in the NL West and could very well find themselves in the playoffs. At least that’s what the 8x All-Star and the Atlanta Braves legend John Smoltz thinks. 

During an appearance on Ben Verlander’s YouTube show, Smoltz talked about the Padres’ potential and Arraez’s role in realizing it. The legend noted that the Friars do have high potential. However, they’ve still not found a way to harness it to the fullest. “They (Padres) got to be a little bit more consistent, they win a big series, they lose a couple games,” Smoltz said. “ You know, they lose games they’re not supposed to lose that’s their ebb and flow of a season.” However, he noted how Arraez could prove to be a massive agent of change for them.

“They’ve got some guys in their lineup not living up to that potential,” Smoltz said about the Padres’ potential. “…This move (Luis Arraez) makes an absolute over-the-top difference,” predicted Smoltz. So while the 8x All-Star was confident of Arraez’s influence, he still had doubts over the Padres’ consistency. 

This isn’t anything new for the Friars, they’ve been plagued with consistency issues for a long time. Even last season, despite having one of the strongest teams on paper, they couldn’t find a way to reach the playoffs. But now in Arraez, they have a highly unusual but useful player.

The unusual but highly effective ways of Luis Arraez

According to baseball savant, Luis Arraez is the slowest swinger in 216 qualified hitters. Imagine a hitter who hits the ball only at 62.4 mph. That’s a good 10 mph less than MLB’s average. Now remember, Arraez has been the batting average champion for two consecutive seasons. Despite being below average in most things, he does one thing better than anybody else – hit. 

Since coming to the Padres, in 49 at-bats, Luis Arraez has been struck out only twice. This is a highly disciplined hitter and is almost always found standing on first base. So it isn’t surprising that he has quickly become an absolute favorite of the Padres fans. Could Arraez’s arrival help the San Diego Padres reach that elusive playoff spot? The fact that apart from the Los Angeles Dodgers, no other NL West team has a winning record certainly helps.