Miami Marlins lost an arbitration case!

The blockbuster trade between the Miami Marlins and the Minnesota Twins is still fresh in our minds. It also led to a bizarre rating for The Fish by The Athletic. New second baseman Luis Arraez. The Miami Marlins filed for a $5 million salary for the reigning AL batting champion for the 2023 season, but Arraez wanted $6.1 million...and he WON! This is a bit humiliating for The Fish as the discrepancy between the offered and eventual salaries is bigger than one might have expected.

The Miami Marlins lost an arbitration case to new arrival Luis Arraez.

I should mention that it was Minnesota who filed for that number. It's perhaps not the greatest start to Luis Arraez's tenure on the Miami Marlins. For The Fish at least. It seems that the Minnesota Twins underestimated how much the reigning AL batting champion was supposed to be worth. It's not a small difference, when the team offers $5 million and the player gets $6.1 million. The $6.1 million that he filed for. Aarraez made $2.1 million in 2022, and it appeared that the arbitration panel saw him worth significantly more in a raise for the 2023 season.

Does Luis Arraez deserve such a high raise? Well... he received sporadic playing time in 2019-2020. He spent those seasons on the bench in Minnesota and batted a combined .331/.390/.429 in 124 games and 438 AB. This was pretty impressive, despite his 4 home runs and 41 RBI in both seasons combined. Arraez isn't a home run hitter and those and RBI usually bring in good money in arbitration cases.

Luis Arraez batted .294/.357/.376 in 121 games and 428 AB in 2021. He followed that up with his AL batting title winning 2022 season, when he batted .316/.375/.420 in 144 games and 547 AB. It was a phenomenal performance well deserving of a major raise. Did he perhaps get paid too much? I don't know. It can definitely be debated if he has. I think that if he repeats or comes close to his 2022 numbers in 2023, he'll be well worth the cost.