Miami Marlins trade Pablo Lopez, prospects to Minnesota Twins for Luis Arraez

It took a little while for Luis Arraez to find out on Friday that he was being traded to the Miami Marlins.

Minnesota Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey tried calling Arraez, the reigning American League batting champion, multiple times to inform him of the move to no avail.

The reason?

”I was sleeping when he called me,” Arraez said a few hours later. “He called me like 18 times and I didn’t answer the phone. I worked out in the morning and I needed to take a nap because I was super tired. I called him back and he said ‘We traded you.’ I said, ‘Oh, really?’”

The full deal, finalized late Friday afternoon: Arraez to the Marlins in exchange for right-handed pitcher Pablo Lopez, infielder prospect Jose Salas and outfielder prospect Byron Chourio.

Arraez, who turns 26 in April and is under team control for three more seasons, said he plans to arrive in Miami early next week ahead of spring training, which begins in mid-February. He has already talked with general manager Kim Ng and manager Skip Schumaker.

“They’re waiting for me to get to the stadium,” Arraez said. “I want to see that new uniform.”

The Marlins acquiring Arraez is the highlight of a flurry of moves Miami has made over the past two-and-a-half weeks. Prior to the trade, they also signed infielder Jean Segura and right-handed pitcher Johnny Cueto to deals and traded shortstop Miguel Rojas to the Los Angeles Dodgers for infielder prospect Jacob Amaya.

“This offseason definitely felt a little bit like ‘The Little Engine That Could,’” Ng said. “It was a slow build, but we finally got to a better place.”

Ng said Arraez will primarily play second base but will also provide needed depth at first base. Before the trade, Garrett Cooper was the only first baseman on Miami’s 40-man roster and the team was toying with the idea of either catcher Nick Fortes (who hasn’t played first base regularly since college) or outfielder Jerar Encarnacion (who has been getting some reps at first base in the minors and in winter ball) being their backup.

With Arraez at second base, Ng said Jazz Chisholm Jr. will move to center field for the 2023 season. As the roster stands, Joey Wendle and Segura will get the bulk of the run on the left side of the infield, with Jon Berti and likely one of Jordan Groshans, Xavier Edwards or Amaya serving as backups.

As for his offense, he is also a consistent hitter for a lineup that ranked among the bottom 10 in just about every major category last season.

Arraez is coming off a season in which he won the AL batting title with a .316 average to go along with a .795 OPS, 49 RBI, 31 doubles, eight home runs and 88 runs scored over 144 games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Arraez is the first batting title winner to be traded the following offseason.

For his career, Arraez has a .314 batting average with a .784 OPS, 77 doubles, 14 home runs, 132 RBI and 216 runs scored in 389 games over four seasons.

He is known for his knack to make contact more so than the ability to hit for power.

He has struck out in just 8.3 percent of his career plate appearances and, according to Statcast, has made contact on 93.3 percent of balls he swings at inside the strike zone (league average is 82 percent) and 85 percent of balls he swings at outside the strike zone (league average is 58.3 percent).

Lopez, who turns 27 in March and is under team control for two more seasons, is coming off a breakout 2022 season in which he made all 32 of his scheduled starts for the first time in his MLB career. He finished with a 3.75 ERA over 180 innings with 174 strikeouts against 53 walks, a .234 batting average against and a 1.17 walks and hits per inning pitched mark — the latter two marks both below his career averages (.242 average, 1.19 WHIP).

“At the end of the day, I think this was a very good baseball trade for both clubs,” Ng said.

Falvey added: “They were zeroing in on on Luis really from the get-go and we had always been zeroed in on Pablo. It just made sense.”

Lopez, who made his MLB debut with the Marlins in 2018 and spent the last five seasons in their rotation, called the trade “bittersweet” but also understood the business side of the situation.

Lopez became expendable when the Marlins signed veteran Cueto to a one-year deal, an agreement that became official on Thursday.

Miami still has six viable candidates for its starting rotation in Sandy Alcantara, Cueto, Jesus Luzardo, Edward Cabrera, Trevor Rogers and Braxton Garrett with prospects Eury Perez, Sixto Sanchez (health permitting), Jake Eder, Max Meyer (out in 2023 due to Tommy John surgery) and Dax Fulton on the rise or waiting in the wings.

“I was able to develop a lot of good relationships within the Marlins organization,” Lopez said. “At the end of the day, a lot of times we get too caught up in getting pitcher and pitching every five days and when we leave the stadium, we’re dealing with a lot of other stuff. A lot of the guys in that clubhouse really had my back when it comes to Pablo the person. Those relationships are relationships I’m going to cherish forever.”

Ng said trading Lopez “makes it a lot tougher” for the Marlins to trade another big-league starting pitcher or top pitching prospect heading into the season to make another deal happen if they try to make another addition.

“Pitching is our strength and our foundation,” Ng said. “We added Johnny Cueto to give us more depth, but I would say at this point, it would be tough for us to make that type of deal.”