Padres acquire Luis Arraez from Miami for Four Prospects

According to multiple reports, the Padres made their second significant trade in seven weeks, acquiring All-Star infielder Luis Arraez from the Miami Marlins, in exchange for right-handed reliever Woo-Suk Go, first baseman Nathan Martorella, and outfielders Jakob Marsee and Dillon Head. 

The move comes as the Padres sit at 17-18, 4.5 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West and a half-game out of a wild-card spot in the National League. The move was first reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN on X (formerly Twitter). 

The acquisition gives the Padres a two-time batting champion who makes consistent contact, but not much home run power. The two-time All-Star hit a career-high 10 homers last year for the Marlins. 

What the Padres are getting 

Arraez, 27, had a career-best season in 2023, flirting with a .400 average early in the season. He finished the 2023 campaign hitting .354/.393/.469, with 30 doubles, three triples, and the 10 homers, en route to his second consecutive batting title. He also earned a Silver Slugger award for his efforts. This season, Arraez has shaken off a slow start and was hitting .299/.347/.372 – good for a 105 OPS+. 

He makes frequent contact and is nearly impossible to strike out. Last season, he struck out in just 5.5% of his plate appearances. This season, that number has risen just slightly to 7.4% but is still the lowest mark in all of baseball. He doesn’t walk much (his walk rate has hovered around 5% the last two seasons) but he has a career .324/.377/.423 so he can fit at the top of any order. He figures to hit leadoff for the Padres, lengthening a lineup that ranks ninth in baseball with a wRC+ of 109 and is third in baseball with 163 runs scored. 

Arraez is under team control through 2025 and is eligible for arbitration one more time. He is making $10.5 million this year and will be due a raise on that amount going into next season. Prior to this trade, the Padres had a payroll of $165 million, including a CBT number of nearly $227 million per Cot’s Contracts. The CBT threshold is $237 million, so the Padres may not be able to make additional moves without shedding salary, although they did make a small move in that regard today as well (more on that later). 

NOTE: After publishing, Alden Gonzalez of ESPN reported that the Marlins are paying Arraez’s salary down to the minimum in the deal.

What the Padres are trading

In terms of finances, the most significant player going back to Miami is Go, the former KBO reliever who failed to throw a pitch for the Padres despite getting a multi-year deal over the winter. San Diego signed the Korean import to a two-year, $4.5 million contract, but he agreed to be optioned to Double-A San Antonio before the opener in Korea. In 10 games for the Missions this season, Go posted an 0-2 record with a 4.38 ERA in 12.1 innings. He walked four and struck out 15. For CBT purposes, Go’s salary is $2.25 million. His salary will help offset the prorated $10.5 million salary for Arraez. 

In terms of prospect capital and draft position, the headliner of the deal is Dillon Head, who was the Padres’ first-round pick last July out of high school in Chicago. Head came into the season the Padres’ number 12 prospect. Last season, he hit .294/.413/.471 in his pro debut in the Arizona Complex League before finishing the season with a .645 OPS in 61 plate appearances at Lake Elsinore.

This season, Head was hitting .237/.317/.366 with a homer and nine RBI. His overall offensive production was 15 percent below the league average. 

Head projects to be a top-of-the-order hitter who is capable of playing in center field who has already added significant strength to his frame. 

“Every aspect of his game has developed,” said Storm manager Lukas Ray shortly before the beginning of the 2024 season. “It is phenomenal to watch him play, it’s phenomenal to watch him work and he’s a phenomenal person and that just kind of helps everything else.” 

“He’s fantastic. From an athleticism standpoint, from speed, hitting, the range in the outfield, the throwing. You’re going to see a lot of spectacular stuff.” 

Marsee, 22, was drafted in the sixth round in the 2022 draft out of Central Michigan. The club’s eighth-ranked prospect at the start of the season, the lefthanded outfielder enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2023 in Fort Wayne. In his time with the TinCaps, Marsee hit .273/.413/.425 with 13 homers, 41 stolen bases, and a fantastic 17.4% walk rate. He was promoted to Double-A San Antonio late in the season and continued to hit, posting a .858 OPS that was a tick higher than the .838 mark he posted in the Midwest League. 

Marsee was invited to big league camp, where he was viewed as a dark-horse candidate to win a big league job. Ultimately, he was assigned to San Antonio to begin 2024. Out of the gate, Marsee struggled but has looked much better recently. Overall, he was hitting .185/.337/.333 with the Missions – offensive production four percent below league average.

“One of the things that Marsee has been working on is impacting the ball to the pull side,” said Jonathan Mathews, the current Padres hitting coordinator in a 2023 interview while he managed the Fort Wayne TinCaps. “Pull power is one of the last things that comes to a young player. So if he is managing the strike zone – which he is very well – getting on – which he does very well – the power will come.” 

“He’s a big, strong kid with bat speed, so it will eventually come. It’s just about him maturing as a hitter and recognizing the balls he can pull and put in the air.” 

In our preseason write-up for San Antonio, we wrote that Marsee could use more reps against left-handed pitching but his overall package of strong center field defense, developing power, and his ability to get on base made for an interesting package. Including 2024, Marsee has played in just 38 games above A-ball. 

The final player going to Miami is first baseman Nathan Martorella, who has been a solid performer throughout his tenure in the Padres’ system. The former Cal Bear was drafted in 2022 as well, one round before Marsee. The 23-year-old has shown some lefthanded power with a very good strikeout rate. We had him ranked as the Padres’ #19 prospect coming into 2024. 

Last season, the Salinas, California native broke out in Fort Wayne, hitting .259/.371/.450 with 16 homers and 71 RBI. He added three more in a late-season promotion to the Missions. This season, Martorella opened the campaign with the Missions, and was the team’s best hitter. In 23 games, Martorella hit .294/.392/.435, striking out in only 16% of his plate appearances to go with a walk rate of around 15 percent.

“The more reps he gets, the more comfortable he feels,” said Matthews. “He’s a better runner than people give him credit for, and he might sneak some stolen bases in. He’s a valuable player for what he brings to this team with his bat and his versatility in the field.” 

The impact on the farm system

The Padres came into the season with a talented crop of players and a farm system that most in the industry ranked in the top 10 in all of baseball. With the acquisition of Arraez and Dylan Cease, the Padres have traded six players that ranked in our top 20. When you factor in the fact that Jackson Merrill and Eguy Rosario are on the verge of losing prospect status, the overall depth has taken a hit.

However, the Padres have added two talented players they can control through 2025, to go with the core of players who are signed to long-term contracts. In addition, Merrill has transitioned to center field seamlessly and Rosario has performed capability as a reserve. The good news is all of the players above will impact the big league roster now and in the future. 

The Padres have the 25th overall draft pick in July’s draft. Because they were a repeat Competitive Balance Tax payer, their draft position has bumped down 10 spots. The club has two additional fourth-round picks by virtue of the organization making qualifying offers to Blake Snell and Josh Hader that the players rejected and they signed with other organizations. 

Impressively, the Padres obtained a two-time Silver Slugger in Arraez and the 2022 Cy Young runner up in Cease without giving up any of the top five prospects in the system. While the very top of the system still includes Ethan Salas, Leo De Vries, Dylan Lesko, Robby Snelling, and Adam Mazur, the trades and graduations will leave the back half of our upcoming Top 20 revision as thin as it has been in a very long time.