Padres hand Luis Arraez brutal farewell before Giants trade him to Phillies

Luis Arraez’s final plate appearance with the Giants ended at Petco Park, against one of his former Padres teammates, and with the Friars celebrating another win. Arraez hit a pop fly against Adrian Morejon to finish an afternoon where he went 0-for-5 in a 5-4 loss. The Friars won the final three games of the four-game set, improving to 58-54 while dropping the Giants to 47-65. On Aug. 3, the Giants shipped Arraez and reliever Caleb Kilian to the Phillies for pitching prospects Ramon Marquez and Marty Gair.

That is the NL West hierarchy right now. The Padres are scratching and clawing their way back into the postseason race. While the Giants are packing up one of their better players and looking to next season.

Padres put the finishing touch on Giants’ failed NL West chase

The Giants signed Arraez to a one-year, $12 million contract because they thought he could help reload the team and close the gap in a loaded NL West. Honestly, he did his part. He left San Francisco batting .324 after earning another All-Star selection and producing a surprising defensive turnaround at second base. The Padres had primarily used him at first base and DH, but he wanted to play at the keystone, and the Giants gave him that opportunity. He responded by ranking in the 96th percentile with 9 Outs Above Average through 105 games.

The problem was everything else going on around him. Arraez’s profile is strange. He doesn’t hit for a ton of pop, but it’s a team sport. He could help chase the Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks. But not when the other stars aren’t pulling their weight. Now, instead of adding talent around him, he’s going off to help the Phillies contend. 

We can acknowledge that the Padres have their own uncomfortable place in this story. They allowed Arraez to enter free agency without extending him a qualifying offer. So they received no draft-pick compensation when he left. The Giants at least turned him into two young pitchers.

Moving Arraez out of the NL West helps San Diego over the final two months, but placing his contact skills near the top of Philadelphia’s lineup could make the wild-card race even harder.

The Giants can call this a reset or smart deadline business. But we all know what this looks like. They tried to catch the NL West’s contenders, failed miserably, and now they’re trying to dump salaries and reset. The Padres get a little laugh for helping the sendoff.

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