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Luis Arraez 2020 Outlook: Batting Average Stability Late In Drafts
5 years agoLuis Arraez came out of nowhere in 2019. Arraez started the season in Double-A, spent a couple of weeks in Triple-A and then took the majors by storm. Arraez is a batting-average monster. Year after year in the minors he was hitting around .340 and in his first stint in the bigs, 366 at-bats, he hit a very solid .334. Arraez does not give a ton of power as his four home runs last season was the most in any season of his career. Sure, it was only four home runs, but there may be some improvements going forward. Last season he did have a really nice wRC+ of 125 and a solid .360 wOBA. There are some really nice extra-base skills with Arraez, the ball just is not leaving the yard yet. His barrel and hard-hit rates are not great, but neither was Jeff McNeil’s in 2018 before his breakout in 2019. Arraez only struck out 7.9% of the time, puts the ball in play a lot and plays for a very explosive offense. He is currently being drafted around pick 238 and gives great late-round batting average help with major upside. A little increase in his hard-hit rate could make him a major value for 2020.
