The Rangers have a hole at second base and they could be looking to fill that with a free agent. Arraez presents an option for the Rangers.

He is known for his high batting average and ability to make contact. However, he is also known for his lack of power. I am going to dive into the pros and cons of him.

Pros of trading for him

Arraez had a .294 batting average with eight home runs and 61 RBIs. He walked more than he struck out with 34 walks compared to 21 strikeouts. He could be the perfect leadoff hitter for the Rangers as he can set the table for Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford behind him.

He had a higher batting average than anyone on the Rangers last year. Looking into his advanced stats will paint a better picture of what he does well.

He has some advanced stats that really stick out above the rest of the league. He doesn’t really strike out and he doesn’t whiff much. That is something that could really help the Rangers as they struck out a lot and when they went through their rough stretches they struggled to make contact.

His expected batting average is also near the top of the league with .287 compared to his actual batting average which is .292. So he was getting a bit lucky, but there isn’t a big difference between the two that shows that Arraez still had bat to ball skills.

The last stat that stands out is his squared up percentage which shows that he has good control of his bat and makes solid contact despite the fact that his bat speed is around the worst in the league along with his hard hit rate.

Cons

For the reasons that the Rangers shouldn’t go after Arraez is due to his projected AAV which is $14.1 million according to Spotrac.

The Rangers are looking to cut payroll, so it doesn’t make much sense for them to bring in Arraez at this price. They could easily look to Josh Smith and Cody Freeman to play off each other and fill the hole that they have at second base with Marcus Semien gone.

Looking back at his advanced stats, there are few stats that rank near the bottom of the league that could be concerning. His expected extra velocity, barrel rate, hard hit rate, and bat speed are all near the bottom.

He is not swinging the bat quickly which leads to him not being able to hit the ball very hard. This means he only has a small chance that he will actually generate extra base hits. This really limits the damage that he can do and shows that even when he is making contact, it is not very hard.

This will lead to a bunch of weak outs which may be worst than someone who doesn’t make as much contact, but is actually able to hit the ball hard.

His chase rate and walk rate are both near the bottom too. You would think that Arraez would be someone that is selective and doesn’t chase and walks a lot and gets on base due to the advanced stats that stand out.

However, the fact that he chases a lot and doesn’t whiff shows that he will chase out of the zone and will still make contact. That means he will roll over a lot or just make easy outs for the other team when he makes contact on a pitch out of the zone.

He doesn’t walk much, so pitchers don’t have to be selective with him as they know that he will chase at pitches outside of the zone. So these stats do reveal things you may not have thought about him as you would think that he gets on base at a high clip.

Verdict

Overall, I think that it would be better if the Rangers choose to stay away from Arraez. He will come with a moderate cap hit and while he goes excel at making contact and finding the sweet spot, I just don’t like what the other metrics say.

He will chase pitches, barely walk and won’t hit the ball too hard. Those are just things you don’t want to see from a guy that you will pay $14 million a year. I would rather go into next year with Josh Smith and Cody Freeman. They are expected to make $3.3 million combined compared to Arraez.

I think that the Rangers should put the money to good use in other places rather than spend it on Arraez. Let me know what you guys think and what player I should look at next.