Luis Arraez has provided SF Giants with their biggest shock of the season so far

When Luis Arraez signed with the SF Giants in February, many people around baseball scoffed at their announcement that he was signed to play second base. While it was a position of need for the team, Arraez had, to that point in his career, been rated as a poor second base defender by almost every available metric. His previous employer, the San Diego Padres, agreed with this assessment so much that they stuck him at first base for most of his time in San Diego, allowing him just 14 games at second in 2025.

There was some hope in the form of a pair of coaching moves, as the Giants hired Ron Washington and brought three-time World Series Champion Ron Wotus back to a more active role with the team. This gave them two of the most well-reputed infield coaches in the game, but it was still a stretch to think Arraez could become anything more than an average defender.

Luis Arraez has been a revelation on defense for SF Giants

When the season began, the Giants' defensive lineup raised some eyebrows, as Casey Schmitt – a highly regarded infield defender – was positioned at first base while Arraez manned the keystone. Quickly, though, Arraez began to show signs of improvement at second, suggesting that his work in the offseason and spring training may have paid off.

Now, a little more than a month into the season, the numbers tell an even more surprising story. Arraez has not merely been serviceable as a second baseman – he seems to have transformed into one of the best defenders at the position, and perhaps at any position, in all of MLB.

What the numbers say

There are numerous ways to measure a player's defensive ability, and at times popular defensive metrics will contradict each other. This has never been the case for Arraez, though, who has always been rated as a below-average defender by virtually every measure. And while statistics in early May are still firmly in small sample territory, the numbers across the board agree that he has been somewhere between good and elite so far in 2026.

The most shocking example is the Statcast-measured Outs Above Average, which aims to calculate how many more outs a defender has made than an average player at his position would have. Prior to the Giants' May 5th game, Arraez sat atop the leaderboard for players at all positions with eight OAA, just ahead of reigning Gold Glovers Pete Crow-Armstrong, Bobby Witt Jr., and Nico Hoerner.

This places Arraez in elite company among some of the game's best defensive players, an outcome even the most optimistic fans could not have seen coming. His OAA at second base had been zero or below every year prior, and totaled -36 for his career before the season began. An improvement of this magnitude is nearly unprecedented for a player in his age-29 season, and is doubly impressive given that Arraez was primarily a first baseman last year and changed to a more difficult defensive position.

If that's not enough for you, there are plenty more stats demonstrating that the Arraez turnaround is real. According to FanGraphs, he has produced four Defensive Runs Saved (14th in MLB) and a Fielding Run Value of six (second). In just 82 innings at second base in 2025, those numbers were a miserable -2 and -1 (his contributions as a first baseman were more respectable, but he was nowhere near the top of any leaderboards). FanGraphs rates him as the sixth-best defender in baseball overall, and best second baseman.

For less analytically-inclined fans, there are more traditional metrics by which Arraez has performed equally well. He has played error-free defense despite his improved range, maintaining a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage while tallying the third-most assists and second-most double plays turned of any second baseman. And, of course, he has passed the all-important eye test with flying colors.

And it couldn't have come at a better time

Arraez's defensive turnaround has come at a time when the rest of the Giants' position player group has underwhelmed both at the plate and in the field. On that OAA leaderboard, third baseman Matt Chapman is the only other Giant in the top 100, checking in at 39th. While a number of new concerns have been raised in the early part of the season, at least one of the biggest offseason questions – whether Arraez was a viable option at second base – has been answered with a resounding "yes."

The biggest beneficiary will likely be Arraez himself, who took a one-year deal with San Francisco and wagered that he could take advantage of the opportunity to prove himself as a second baseman. So far, he has done that better than anyone could have imagined, and if he keeps up his defensive performance – in which case he will likely wind up a Gold Glove finalist, if not winner – he will be in a prime position to cash in next offseason.

The Giants will need more than just great defense from their second baseman if they want to turn things around after a terrible start to the season. But if their offense can figure out how to score just enough runs, they have the makings of a truly elite run prevention apparatus with Arraez at second, three other former Gold Glove winners, and a bullpen that performed surprisingly well in April. And if the rest of Arraez's teammates continue to flounder, he will at the very least be a useful trade chip at this year's deadline.

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