Luis Arraez injured his left thumb sliding into third base during a game on June 25. The ongoing discomfort was enough for Arraez to skip the All-Star Game to give his thumb a full four days of rest over the break. Arraez revealed more specifics about the injury Friday, telling Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase and other reporters that he has a torn ligament in his thumb.
The Athletic’s Dennis Lin sheds more light on the situation, saying that Arraez was given the okay to keep playing after receiving a fuller medical exam during the All-Star break. As Arraez described things last month, he feels discomfort while swinging and fielding, but if the injury is all about pain tolerance, he wants to stay on the field if at all physically possible.
The results have been mixed since June 25, when Arraez hit only .280/.302/.352 in 130 plate appearances. This is a noticeable step back from the .310/.345/.384 slash line he delivered in his first 360 PA of the season. His overall .302/.334/.375 slash line represents the lowest slugging percentage and OBP of Arraez’s six Major League seasons, as well as the second-lowest batting average.
Arraez’s 103 wRC+ is still above the league average, if well below the 132 wRC+ he posted in 2022-23 while winning consecutive batting titles in both the AL (with the Twins in 2022) and NL (with the Marlins last year). Naturally Arraez would prefer to be hitting closer to his usual standard, yet he likely feels that as long as he is still productive at the plate, he’ll continue to try and grind it out. San Diego’s playoff chase is another factor — the Padres enter Saturday’s action holding the top wild-card spot in the National League, and they sit only 2.5 games behind the Dodgers for first place in the NL West.
The Friars have achieved this success despite missing several key players for big chunks of the season. It remains unclear when Fernando Tatis Jr. (femoral stress reaction) and Yu Darvish (restricted list due to a personal matter) will return to the active roster. However, Joe Musgrove is expected to return from the 60-day injured list on Monday to start against the Pirates. Arraez’s nagging thumb problem adds to the Padres’ list of concerns, though obviously, the team is trying to manage the injury as best as possible. Arraez is getting a good chunk of time as a designated hitter.