From the start of the offseason, it was clear that the New York Yankees had no intention of retaining their free agent second baseman Gleyber Torres. According to Torres himself, they never even made him a new contract offer. Sure enough, just two days after Christmas, the 28-year-old Venezuelan signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Detroit Tigers.
But even though they knew they were not keeping Torres on the team, one thing the Yankees did not do is make any plan to replace him. Now, a full week into the New Year, there is still a hole at second base in the Yankees lineup. The team has reportedly kicked the tires on several different middle infielders but have yet to strike any deal, either via trade or free agent signing.
On Monday, however, ESPN baseball insider Jeff Passan, whose area of specialty is staying ahead of the Major League Baseball transaction wire, reported that the Yankees were holding discussions with the San Diego Padres about three-time All-Star second-bagger Luis Arráez, who also hails from Venezuela.
Arráez Has Thoughts About Third Trade in Three Years
Arráez spent the first four seasons of his career with the Minnesota Twins who signed him as an international free agent in 2013. Despite placing sixth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2019, and earning his first All-Star selection as well as the first of two Silver Slugger awards in 2022, Minnesota traded him to the Miami Marlins, who held on to him until the trade deadline in 2024, when Miami flipped him to the Padres for a package of four minor league prospects.
The 27-year-old infielder agreed to a one-year, $13.7 million contract with San Diego for 2025, but now finds himself faced with the possibility that it may be the Yankees, not the Padres who retain his services for next season.
The trade talk that would ship Arráez to the Bronx heated up to such a degree that the X (formerly Twitter) account Jomboy, which boasts more than a half-million followers, reposted an Instagram video of a fan making the case for the Bronx bombers to trade for the Padres star. And apparently Arráez himself saw the post, because he posted his own comment, albeit a non-verbal one, on the video post.
The entire Arráez comment consisted of a smiley-face emoji — and an upside-down smiley face emoji.
What did he mean by that? Arráez did not elaborate or comment further. The smiley face appeared to indicate that he liked the idea of being traded to the 2024 American League champions. But the upside-down smiley face could mean — who knows? Perhaps it meant that Arráez feels conflicted about the idea of being traded for a third time in three years and playing for his fourth Major League club in his short, seven year career.
Hitting Style May Not be Good Fit for Yankee Stadium
Because Arráez will be a free agent after the 2025 season, he could be looking to change teams once again a year from now, a seemingly daunting prospect.
In a statistical study for The Athletic, writer Chris Kirschner found that playing 81 games in Yankee Stadium may not be ideal for Arráez, anyway.
“Because Arraez is mostly a singles hitter, he may not be the best fit for someone playing half of his games at Yankee Stadium. According to Statcast, Yankee Stadium is the worst park in MLB for left-handed hitters to hit singles because there’s not much grass with the friendly home run dimensions in right field,” Kirschner wrote. “Arraez could see a small spike in power, but he’s not a slugger. He hunts for singles and doubles.”
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin
