A few weeks back I was on holiday in Tokyo. On a bright and sunny day I went through the garden to the terrace of the city-state, looking down upon the city. As I left the garden, I passed the resident tourist office, where people lined up in front of a sign labeled “health insurance forms.” For a while I thought about how much I wished I was there, how nice it would be to set up a new life in Tokyo, surrounded by lovely bullet trains. kissaten cafes, bright lights and billboards.
Then I realized that I was delusional about my health insurance policy.
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The transaction was notified as such. You can be starry eyed, imagining what the future could be, how the new part could be the piece, slotting in perfectly. You don’t think much about the vanities, the disappointments, the inconvenient vices. But then the trades are made, and a new player arrives, and the games are played, and you have no choice but to really see what the new person brings to the table. Luis Arraez brought great spirit and challenging old style to Philadelphia, bringing an end to the Phillies offense that wasn’t quite what was expected.
2026 stats (after trade): 191 PA, .278/.309/.369, 2 HR, 21 RBI, 4.7 BB%, 3.7 K%, 82 wRC+, 0.3 fWAR
As for the right
Arraez is not like a nest box: you know exactly what you are going to do. Super average batsman, not a lot of power, very few walks, very few strikeouts. He is a true unicorn in a crazy world; no one else does what he does. San Francisco’s season had gone badly by the time the deadline arrived, but Arraez had been a bright spot: slashing .324/.360/.440, with a wRC+ of 121, stealing ten bases and providing surprisingly solid defense at the key, he would lead the Giants with 3.8 fWAR at the midpoint. The Phillies, dead last in OBP to fatal high-average machines like Arraez, promised not only an additional part, but a piece that could play a completely different game, offering relief from the roller, which is three true events: whether the Phillies’ great criminals are in a hot streak or slipping into a slump, Arraez would faithfully do his thing. And with just three of the Phillies’ regulars (Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Bryson Stott) rated as above bats by wRC+ in the trade, the addition of another bat is just what the doctor ordered.
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At first, Arraez’ tenure looked very similar to what the conservatives expected: seven hits in the first five games in the Red Phillies. He posted the second-best batting average on the team during his tenure. But that said…
What went wrong
.278 is not a bad sample in a vacuum, but it is bad for Arraez. With the Giants, he hit .324. Arraez’s overall game is high-average, low-power; that average takes something away, and every approach works. Arraez never really hit, as he averaged a batting average BABIP: .327 with the Giants, .273 with the Phillies. By wRC+ (82) he was a well below average hitter with the Phillies. With his power remaining small and his batting average taking a heavy hit, he had little impact on a Phillies offense that could really use a boost. How much of that performance in Philadelphia was down to bad BABIP luck, and how much was something more? While that question is relevant to the decision of whether or not to resign, it doesn’t matter much to evaluate how much he has contributed to the 2026 Phillies.
These additions required the Phillies to relocate their defense, with Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, and Bryce Harper all moving to less familiar positions (or, in Harper’s case, familiar ones from earlier days). Having struggled mightily for the defense of the previous changes, the Phillies were unable to make any headway from the position change; The foul ball that flew over Harper’s head in game two of the Wild Card series was a reminder of the price that had to be paid to incorporate Arraez into the lineup.
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Although it was without fault, his absence, brought about by this, marked the most bitter end of the season.
Final grade: C
I really wanted to work on Arraez. I’m probably ignorant of the descent into his potential, because the batting titles on the cards don’t contribute nearly as much to scoring as you’d think to a batting champion, which is a good reason to go from team to team. But I loved him for his unusual, old-school approach, and even more so given that he was a much-needed relief from all the swagger-and-want that we’ve seen from Phillies standbys all season. I loved him more when I saw his bright spirit and cheerfulness. But the reality is that his 2026 in Philadelphia was not a success: he traded the Phillies prospect and the night the defense pushed back on a hitter who delivered below-average results. You still want to work for him. It’s a world in which the Phillies retire him, and in which the average batsman has progressed to the middle, and gives the team more than he did in 2026. I hope the world is going to be seen.