Luis Arraez signs with Giants: Three-time batting champ joins San Francisco as free agent

The San Francisco Giants have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent infielder Luis Arraez, according to ESPN. Arraez is expected to make $12 million and play second base, according to El Extrabase.

Arraez, 28, is a three-time All-Star and batting title winner. Over the past three seasons, he has hit .319/.355/.416 (111 OPS+) with seven home runs and eight stolen bases on average. Last year, he hit .292/.327/.392 (99 OPS+) while striking out in a career-low 3.1% of his plate appearances.

Nonetheless, Arraez’s one-dimensional offensive game and lack of real defensive or positional value landed him at No. 44 in CBS Sports’ offseason rankings of the top 50 free agents of the winter. Here is part of what we wrote at the time:

Arraez is a one-dimensional player. He doesn’t walk or run often and he can’t play or shoot. He’s a pure singles merchant who excels at putting the pin on the cowhide, so much so that he connected on nearly 95% of his swings. It’s an incredible skill, but it’s simply no longer profitable for teams or individual players. Of course, all it takes is one club with an outdated outlook — or half an understanding of why the Blue Jays have had so much success this season — for Arraez to land a more lucrative contract than expected.

Arraez joins a Giants team that went 81-81 last season while giving at least 40 appearances at second base to Tyler Fitzgerald, Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss. Collectively, San Francisco’s second basemen hit .217/.273/.343 with 14 home runs. Arraez should be an improvement at the plate. The question then becomes how big the advantage will be when defense is factored into the equation.