Add The California Post on Google The most anticipated move of the San Francisco Giants’ firesafe came approximately six hours before MLB’s trade deadline.
Second baseman Luis Arraez was reportedly shipped to the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday morning with reliever Caleb Kilian in exchange for a pair of pitching prospects.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the first to report the trade, the Phillies are sending their No. 4 prospect, Ramon Marquez, and Marty Gair in exchange for Arraez and Kilian.
Arraez, 29, was one of the few bright spots in what is otherwise shaping up to be one of the most dreadful seasons in franchise history.
But, as the Giants fell further out of contention, he also became one of the most anticipated trade targets leading up to the Aug. 3 deadline.
The loss of Arraez deals a serious blow to the entertainment level of the final two months of the season, subtracting one of the most exciting and dynamic players from a team that was already too often a tough watch.
Arraez’s signing was initially met with mixed reactions but now looks like one of the shrewdest moves for Buster Posey, the Giants’ president of baseball operations. And yet, because few of his other moves panned out, his hand was forced to try to recoup some long-term value.
Casey Schmitt would have been a natural fit at second base down the stretch for San Francisco, but he tore his left meniscus and could miss the rest of the season.
Arraez will be a rental for Philadelphia, after signing a one-year, $12 million contract with the Giants — the only team to offer him the opportunity to play second base.
His defensive reputation was so poor that he had been relegated to first base and designated hitter the past two seasons and hadn’t played second base regularly since 2024.
Arraez struck up a relationship with Ron Washington in the early days of Giants spring training. He established a reputation as one of the hardest workers on the team and become an unlikely Gold Glove candidate in the process, routinely making slick plays on the right side of the diamond.
A couple down years at the plate, at least his standards as one of the game’s top contact hitters, also left Arraez with fewer options this past winter.
But he has responded with arguably the best offensive season of his career.
Bringing an exciting flair to each at-bat (and just about everything he does), Arraez has reclaimed his spot near the top of the National League leaders in batting average.
He is also the surest bet in baseball to put the ball in play, rarely striking out.
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The mid-career renaissance earned Arraez the fourth All-Star selection of his career. In Philadelphia, Arraez was asked about the possibility of playing another position. Just as he did this past winter, he said he had no desire to play anywhere but second base.
Now, he’ll get the opportunity he wasn’t offered by any other team. And whether he can keep it up without Washington, a fielding savant who Arraez said was like a “grandfather,” will be put to the test, with a potential big payday this winter as the ultimate prize on the horizon.
