Padres make trade for Marlins 2B Luis Arraez

The San Diego Padres have acquired second baseman Luis Arraez in a commerce with the Miami Marlins for reliever Woo-Suk Go and prospects Dillon Head, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella, the groups introduced Saturday.

The Padres additionally acquired almost $7.9 million in money concerns, leaving them accountable just for the main league minimal wage for Arraez.

The transaction represents the primary important transfer for the Marlins since Peter Bendix took over because the workforce’s president of baseball operations in November after Kim Ng departed. It marks the start of the Marlins’ teardown of an underachieving roster that has produced the third-worst file within the majors at 9-25 with a minus-61 run differential after reaching the postseason in 2023.

On the opposite facet, it is one other aggressive deal for A.J. Preller, the chief of the Padres’ entrance workplace since 2014. Arraez, one of many sport’s finest contact hitters, will give the Padres a wanted left-handed-hitting weapon after Juan Soto was despatched to the New York Yankees in December. San Diego is 17-18 with a plus-6 run differential.

“It is actually superb — that man is a baller,” Fernando Tatis Jr. mentioned about Arraez after the Padres’ win Friday evening. “He is in all probability the closest to Tony Gwynn proper now, so wanting ahead to seeing him in our lineup. … The man’s a pure hitter, and I can not watch for him to assist us.”

Miami is paying San Diego $7,898,602 of the $8,491,398 remaining for the ultimate 149 days of Arraez’s $10.6 million wage. That left his value to the Padres at $592,796 — precisely a prorated share of the $740,000 minimal.

Arraez, 27, was the Marlins’ finest participant, an All-Star and batting champion every of the previous two seasons. This season, he’s batting .299 with a .719 OPS in 33 video games, all began at second base. He additionally has intensive expertise at first base.

“When a man like that’s taken out of the lineup or probably traded, you’re feeling it, as a result of he is such a very good child and one of many leaders in that clubhouse,” Marlins supervisor Skip Schumaker mentioned, “so there’s positively a shock worth.”

Arraez is predicted to start out video games because the Padres’ designated hitter, however the membership plans to cycle via the DH spot. Jake Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado might additionally get at-bats there. Bogaerts has been the membership’s beginning second baseman.

Go spent seven seasons within the Korean Baseball Group earlier than signing a two-year cope with a mutual possibility price $4.5 million assured through the offseason. The 25-year-old right-hander appeared in 10 video games for Double-A San Antonio, posting a 4.38 ERA throughout 12⅓ innings after failing to make the Padres’ bullpen out of spring coaching.

Head was the Padres’ first-round decide (twenty fifth total) final yr out of highschool. The 19-year-old heart fielder is batting .237 with a .683 OPS and three stolen bases in 21 video games in low-Class A.

Martorella is batting .294 with an .820 OPS in 23 video games in San Antonio. The Padres chosen the 23-year-old first baseman within the fifth spherical of the 2022 draft. Marsee, a 22-year-old outfielder, has spent the season in San Antonio batting .185 with two residence runs. He was a sixth-round decide in 2022 out of Central Michigan.

The Related Press contributed to this report.