Padres GM AJ Preller’s hope for a Luis Arraez reunion isn’t as far-fetched as it seems

The 2025 campaign marked the first season since 2021 that a baseball inevitability did not occur: Luis Arraez did not lead his respective league in batting average.

Winner of three consecutive batting titles from 2022-24, Arraez fell short of that goal this year, though he did lead the National League in hits for the second straight season. His contact skills are simply unmatched in the modern game, which may or not be a good thing.

Though his ability to put bat to ball is astonishing, his inability to draw walks or hit the ball hard has led to on-base percentages perpetually hovering around average and slugging percentages dangling below that threshold.

His lack of power and impact reared its ugly head in the San Diego Padres' Wild Card Round matchup against the Chicago Cubs, where Arraez notched two measly singles in 11 at-bats.

Still, running a 3.1% strikeout rate in today's game is a wildly valuable skill itself, one that every team would like to employ in some fashion or another.

Hence, it should come as no surprise that Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller made it clear that the team would like to reunite with Arraez in free agency if the price is right.

Luis Arraez could make sense for Padres if he accepts a role change

“We definitely have interest in Luis,” Preller said at the General Manager meetings in Las Vegas. “We’ll be talking to [Arraez’s agent Dan] Lozano and seeing where his head is at. I know Luis likes San Diego. He’ll be somebody we have some more conversations about.”

Again, the interest in Arraez makes sense. He might be the single best "pure hitter" in the world. But among all MLB teams in 2025, the Padres ranked 28th in home runs (152), 18th in runs scored (702), 16th in OPS (.711), 28th in ISO (.138), and 13th in wRC+ (102).

Even after the trade deadline acquisition of Ryan O'Hearn, San Diego simply wasn't getting anywhere close to enough power production from first base, a premium offensive position.

Luckily, there's a surprising number of excellent 1B/DH options on the free-agent market this winter. Is there a scenario where signing one of them to start and bringing back Arraez as a super utility bench option makes sense?

It'd be hard to pull off considering he has three batting titles to his name, but Arraez provides little defensive value beyond being simply capable of playing the right side of the infield. He could effectively platoon with a number of players on the roster if he's willing to take on a lesser role (his wRC+ versus righties is 36 points higher than versus lefties).

Bringing him back as the unquestioned starter is begging for the same kind of trouble the Padres' offense found itself far too often in 2025. But, alongside new, power-hitting additions to the roster, a reunion with Arraez could help lengthen the lineup quite a bit in San Diego.