The Miami Marlins needed offense in the offseason, so they went out and brought in former Minnesota Twins infielder Luis Arraez to help solve their issues.
One man can only do so much, but it’s safe to say the acquisition of Arraez has been a great one.
He doesn’t have a whole lot of power, but he sure can put the bat on the ball.
In 227 plate appearances, Arraez is hitting an extraordinary .392/.445/.485 with one home run, but 14 doubles and a triple.
That batting average comfortably leads the majors and is closing in on historical relevance.
It’s the highest average in the first 60 team games since the 2000 campaign.
In addition to that, it’s getting Arraez closer to achieving something that only the great Tony Gwynn did.
“MLB players in the last 30 regular seasons to have at least 7 times more base hits than strikeouts: Tony Gwynn, 1994; Tony Gwynn, 1995; Tony Gwynn, 1996; Tony Gwynn, 1997; Tony Gwynn, 1998; Tony Gwynn, 1999; Luis Arráez, 2023. So far Arráez has 80 base hits and 11 strikeouts,” Codify Baseball tweeted.
MLB players in the last 30 regular seasons to have at least 7 times more base hits than strikeouts:
Tony Gwynn, 1994
Tony Gwynn, 1995
Tony Gwynn, 1996
Tony Gwynn, 1997
Tony Gwynn, 1998
Tony Gwynn, 1999
Luis Arráez, 2023 so farArráez has 80 base hits and 11 strikeouts. 😮
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) June 5, 2023
Nowadays, it’s common for MLB hitters to have more strikeouts than hits.
Usually, the totals stand relatively close to each other.
But not for Gwynn and Arraez.
In fact, the Marlins infielder has 80 hits already, and just 11 strikeouts.
He is incredibly tough to strike out and still managed to inflict damage even though he doesn’t have too much home run power.
He is a unicorn, a special hitter in an environment dominated by power hitting.
Will he finish with seven times more hits than Ks?
It will be fascinating to follow his performance throughout the rest of the season.
NEXT: Luis Arraez Finds Himself Leading In An Elite Category
