Miami Marlins' Luis Arraez Making History with New Team
New Miami Marlins infielder Luis Arraez is making some history with his new team.
Per OptaSTATS on Twitter;
"Luis Arraez is batting 23-for-46 (.500) with the Marlins, which is the highest average for a hitter with that many at-bats through his first 13 games with a club since Wes Schulmerich (.510) with the Phillies in 1933."
Anytime in baseball you can do something that hasn't been done in 90 years, that's pretty impressive. For Arraez, what he's done has been even more impressive given that he's transitioned to a new league entirely after being traded from the Minnesota Twins this offseason. He also missed a good portion of spring training with the Marlins after playing for a highly-talented Venezuela team in the World Baseball Classic.
Arraez currently has one home run and five RBI to go along with his pristine batting average. He has an overall OPS of 1.254.
For his career, he's hitting .320 lifetime in the regular season with 15 home runs and 137 RBI. He is in his fifth year in the big leagues, the previous four coming with the Minnesota Twins.
He won the batting title in the American League last year, hitting .316. Minnesota traded him to the Marlins this offseason for starting pitcher Pablo Lopez.
The Marlins open up a series on Friday with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arraez is getting the day off in Game 1 of the series. The Marlins enter play at 6-7 while the Diamondbacks are a surprising 8-5 and in first place in the National League West.