Miami Marlins award winner wants an extension, time to give him one?

Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez won the National League Silver Slugger award as a second baseman. Will this lead to new PBO Peter Bendix giving him an extension? It turns out that Arraez is interested in an extension with the team... Should The Fish give him one? Or should the team just play it year to year? It's worth taking a look...

Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez wants an extension with the team.

Luis Arraez is coming off an amazing season. He batted .354/.393/.469, with 10 home runs and 69 RBI in 147 games and 574 AB. H was worth 4.9 WAR in 2023 and flirted with a .400 batting average. He wasn't able to do that at the end of the day, but earned a Silver Slugger award. He also should get some National League MVP award votes as well, though he won't win the award.

Arraez is still arbitration eligible and will hit free agency after the 2025 season. This means that the Miami Marlins have him under control for two more seasons. This is what he said in an interview today:

“They haven’t talked to me about an extension, but if they do, I’m available. I love Miami, I love my teammates. I feel at home when I play with those guys.”

Luis Arraez wants to stay and that's great news. Does it make sense to extend him? Well first of all let's see at what we have here with him... he's an elite contact hitter. He may in fact be the best pure hitter in the game. He can hit, and is amazing at it. The downside is that he's pretty average defensively, and doesn't have much power to say the least. Those are warning signs for the future, as if his contact goes then so does his value.

Arraez is only 26 years old, so a decline shouldn't be happening for quite some time. It makes perfect sense for Peter Bendix to approach him about an extension, and see what it might cost to get that done. I've seen Jeff McNeil mentioned as a comparable, but he was a few years older than Arraez when he signed his 4 year/$50 million extension. Would say 5 years and $80 million do it? Will he want more?

The Miami Marlins need to see what it would take to extend Luis Arraez for the foreseeable future.