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The San Diego Padres have a variety of hitters in their squad. While the likes of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado provide the necessary pop in the lineup, three-time batting champion Luis Arraez makes sure to put the ball in play better than most in the entire MLB.
Arraez is once again leading the Padres as the club with the best contact rate in all of baseball. The Padres' 18.5% offensive contact rate leads the majors in 2025. Last year as well, their 17.6% offensive contact rate was the best mark in the majors. As such, the team is doubling down on an old-school offensive strategy: elite contact hitting.
On "MLB Now," Padres assistant GM Josh Stein explained how Petco Park’s spacious dimensions and the league-wide rise in strikeouts have pushed the Padres toward a contact-centric approach.
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"Yeah, I'd say it is a philosophy. I mean, I think we talk a lot about Petco Park hitting and the style of offense that’s going to play best — not just in this ballpark, but across baseball," Stein said.
"And certainly with the amount of strikeouts that have been building in Major League Baseball over the years, we're thinking about how to combat that.
"So yeah, Arraez is probably the biggest example, but you've got players like Machado, players like Bogaerts. Tatis has cut his strikeout rates. So I do think it's really an overarching kind of team philosophy that we're buying into up and down," he added.
Padres assistant GM shares massive praise for Luis Arraez
Continuing with the discussion of the importance of contact hitting in baseball, Josh Stein spoke about how putting the ball in play — consistently — can still win games.
According to Stein, putting the ball in play and having a batting-average-driven on-base percentage is something that every team is looking for, and Luis Arraez is arguably the poster boy for that.
"Luis Arraez really has, I think, become the poster child for that," Stein said. "And I think it does rub off on a lineup. There's certainly no one you'd want up in a big spot against tough pitching more than Luis Arraez."
Arraez is once again hovering around the .300 mark (.298) to start the 2025 season. He also has three home runs, two stolen bases and nine RBIs after 24 games.
