Luis Arraez is chasing .400 as the surging Marlins continue their hot start

MIAMI — When Luis Arraez steps up to the plate, Miami Marlins fans are already on their feet expecting a hit. More often than any one in years, Arraez will deliver.

Traded from Minnesota to Miami in January, the modestly built left-handed hitter is putting together one of the greatest stretches of pure hitting in decades. After going 5 for 5 against Toronto on Monday night, Arraez's batting average reached .400 in Miami's 73rd game of the season — matching Chipper Jones in 2008 for the furthest into a season a player has been at .400 since Nomar Garciaparra's 91 games in 2000.

Already, Arraez is in a realm few players have touched since Hall of Famer Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.

“I believe in myself. I trust myself. I just come here and play hard," Arraez said.

Arraez leads baseball in batting average (.397), hits (106), on-base percentage (.447), and in April became the first Marlin to ever hit for the cycle.

More importantly to him, Arraez has the Marlins surging. Miami (43-33) is 10 games over .500 and second in the NL East behind the 48-26 Braves. It's Miami's best start to a season through the first 75 games since the club's 1997 World Series team.

The Marlins are finally finding success, a year after finishing with their 11th losing record in 12 seasons (they were 31-29 during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season) and four years after losing 105 games.

“This is my family. My team, we play like a team," Arraez said. “We just do the little things. We play defense. We’ve got really good relievers. We’ve got really good starting. We’ve got everything. Now everybody trusts this team. And I trust this team.”

After winning the AL batting title in 2022, Arraez became the first reigning batting champion to be traded the following offseason since Rod Carew after the 1978 season. The Twins shipped Arraez to Miami for a package featuring starting pitcher Pablo López, who has looked like a potential All-Star for Minnesota.

Arraez had a breakout season for Minnesota last year, making his first All-Star team while batting a league-best .316.

He leads NL second basemen in All-Star voting with 1,464,802 votes after the first phase of voting.

In an era in which power is an increasingly popular metric by which hitters are judged, the 5-foot-10 Arraez is an outlier. He's not a power hitter — he has two home runs this season — but he hits just about everything.

The 26-year-old is hitting .396 against four-seam fastballs, .333 against sinkers, .360 against cutters, .438 against sliders and .450 against changeups.

When Williams hit .400, the league-wide average was .261, and four other players hit .340 or better. The league-wide average this season is .247, and Arraez is the only qualified player batting better than .330.

“He’s really unique," said Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “He does something with the barrel of the bat that very few people can do in the game and that’s why he has the batting average he has. The thing that’s most impressive is he doesn’t run great. It’s not like he’s getting a ton of infield hits. He’s truly getting hits.”

Shelton was a bench coach with the Twins when Arraez was called up to the majors in 2019 and said he's happy for his success.

“It’s great for the game. I don’t know for how long he’ll be able to sustain it, but if he sustains it into August or September, that’s awesome," Shelton said. “That’ll be fun to watch.”

Arraez, who has a club-record three five-hit games this season — all this month — has had help in powering the Marlins to their best start in years despite an uncharacteristically slow start to the season by Miami's ace and reigning Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara, who is 2-6 with a 5.08 ERA.

Designated hitter Jorge Soler is tied for third in MLB with 21 home runs, trailing only Shohei Ohtani (24) and Pete Alonso (23). Ten of Soler's homers have given the Marlins a lead.

And 20-year-old right-hander Eury Perez has been stellar to start his major league career after he was called up in May. His 1.54 ERA through his first eight career starts is the third-lowest for a pitcher his age or younger since 1913, when ERA became an official MLB statistic, according to Elias Sports Bureau as reported by the Marlins.

"There's a lot of prospects that are hyped and never really pan out at the big-league level," Miami manager Skip Schumaker said after Perez tossed six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts against Toronto. “This kid is the real deal.”

The Marlins, for right now, sit atop the NL wild-card race with the All-Star break coming in July, and could reach the playoffs for the first time since 2020.