Marlins' batting champ Luis Arráez would 'play with one leg' vs. Phillies in MLB playoffs
PHILADELPHIA – A 20-year playoff drought can call for desperate measures. Just ask Luis Arráez.
He was the most dynamic player on a Miami Marlins team that qualified for the playoffs in a full season for the first time since 2003, the greatest pure hitter in the game right now driving the offense with a batting average that hovered near .400 all the way through the first half.
But Arráez, a second baseman whose .354 average led all the major leagues, had not started a game since Sept. 23 due to an ankle injury. The Marlins scratched into the playoffs anyway, and it was an open question whether Arráez might find his name in the lineup when Miami opened a best-of-three National League wild-card series Tuesday against division rival Philadelphia.
Yet when Phillies ace Zack Wheeler delivers the game’s first pitch, Arráez will dig into the batter’s box – and really, there was no question.
“If I'm here with one leg, I'll go play with one leg,” Arráez said before Game 1. “I need to be there to help my team win.”
He’s not wrong about that.
Arráez was a machine this season, notching 54 multi-hit games and 203 hits in 147 games. Acquired in a rare win-win, big leaguer-for-big leaguer deal for Minnesota Twins ace Pablo López, Arráez became the first player in major league history to win batting titles in consecutive years in both leagues.
He easily led the Marlins with 4.9 Wins Above Replacement; the next four Marlins in WAR are all pitchers.
The Marlins, 10th in the NL in both runs scored and OPS, desperately need him.
“He was sick of being on the bench and I was sick of seeing him on the bench,” says Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. “So I'm glad that he's in the lineup. He is the heartbeat of our team. He sets the tone. It was not easy not having him out there.
“We feel really good about where he's at physically. And obviously, mentally, he's ready to go.”
Arráez has had a taste of the postseason; he played in two series and five playoff games with Minnesota, though, famously, the Twins had not won a postseason game since 2004 until their Game 1 wild card tilt against Toronto on Tuesday.
The Marlins are not guaranteed a home game, needing to win two games here to ensure a trip to the NL Division Series against Atlanta. Arráez is not complaining.
And he’ll make his appointment at the top of the lineup.
“This is cool,” he says. “I don't think it's bad because we are here in Philadelphia. So we've got to win first here, go to Atlanta, and need to keep continuing to play hard.
“And get back to Miami.”`