By all accounts, 2023 was a banner year for Luis Arráez. In his first season with the Miami Marlins, the 26-year-old Venezuelan became the first player in Marlins’ franchise history to hit for the cycle (a single, double, triple, and homerun in one game), the first player in Major League Baseball (MLB) to reach 100 hits for the season, and the first player in MLB history to earn consecutive batting championship titles in different leagues (in the American League for the Minnesota Twins in 2022 and in the National League for the Marlins in 2023). The second baseman also led his team to a playoff spot, snagged a Silver Slugger award, played a fair amount of Call of Duty against fans on Twitch, and welcomed his third child into the world.
“I’ve got everything,” he says, with a grin. “I am a happy father and when I go outside, I’m happy because I’ve got everything. I don’t need anything. I’ve got my family, and everyone is happy and healthy. My parents have their visas and can come to Miami and visit when they want.”
Arráez pauses and smirks. “Actually, you know what I need?” he asks with a twinkle in his eye. “I want to go to the playoffs and win the playoffs. And then I want to go to the World Series and…”
Laughing, he points to his empty right ring finger, which would be a nice spot for a championship ring. “I really want to win the World Series,” he says.
Nicknamed “La Regadera” (The Sprinkler) for the way he sprays hits all over the field, Arráez has brought fire and fun to a team that hasn’t lifted the Commissioner’s Trophy since 2003. He is the team’s spark plug, Marlins coaches say, the motivator who inspires his teammates to want what he wants just as badly as he wants it. However, there was a time when Arráez thought that maybe this journey wasn’t in the cards for him, that no matter how talented or determined he was, no matter how much he loved baseball, he was destined to be a P.E. teacher.
Arráez’s tale is a bit of a hero’s journey, a story about a humble guy who answered a calling that tested him along the way, only to emerge stronger and wiser. Born in San Felipe, Venezuela, Arráez demonstrated a gift for baseball when he was 8 years old. His father came home from working an 11-hour bus-driving shift every day to find him sitting in the yard, glove in hand, ready to practice. After getting something to eat, Arráez’s father hung a ball from a mango tree and instructed his son to hit it every time it swung back in his direction. The repetition—and the directive to bat left-handed instead of right-handed—is what unleashed the young slugger’s knack for getting on base.
“I hate striking out,” Arráez says (impishly adding that his older brother, who once played third base, used to do it a lot). “I would cry when I struck out. I asked my dad if he remembered how I used to do that, and he told me, ‘Yes, you cried a lot. But you are human.’”
Arráez strove to improve. But baseball scouts wrote him off as too slow, too skinny, and lacking in power. In today’s game, pounding the ball over the fence is seen as more of an asset to a team than the quieter (but no less impactful) talent of working a pitcher into a walk or getting a base hit. Arráez knew he was the latter type of player, and his family rallied around him and encouraged him to focus on what he does best. While Arráez’s friends were getting MLB contracts, the lone team that wanted to sign him—the Minnesota Twins—didn’t have the funds.
“I talked a lot with my mom and [older] sister,” Arráez recalls. “I told them I didn’t want to play baseball. I would be a student and try to do something different. I would be a P.E. teacher, because I love to help people and want to teach kids. My mother told me to stay positive and keep training because I can do a lot of good things.”
The Twins found $40,000, signed Arráez to a contract, and sent him to play in the Dominican Republic when he was 16 years old. He loved the game, but he missed his family and his mother’s arepas. But he says he knew that if he kept working hard, he would eventually be able to do good things for the people who believed in him when he may not have believed in himself.
When he finally came to the United States, Arráez played minor league ball in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the weather was so cold that he couldn’t feel his fingers, nose, or feet. The first time he hit the ball, he recalls that his hands were so frozen, he thought they would break. But when he got called up to play for the Minnesota Twins in May 2019, he says he was so emotional, he no longer had a sense of the frigid temperatures. In his MLB debut against the Seattle Mariners, Arráez slashed his first hit up the middle of the field.
Seeing his talent, an older teammate named Nelson Cruz encouraged him to respect the game, be a good teammate, and embrace consistent training routines like batting and lifting weights every day. Arráez admits it took some time before he adopted all of Cruz’s habits.
“I told him, ‘Viejito, I don’t like lifting. I only like to hit,’” Arráez says. “He told me to change because if I’m going to go into the All-Stars and have a better year and stay healthy, I’m going to have to work hard and go to the gym every single day.”
In 2022, Arráez won the American League batting title, proof that Cruz’s advice was worth heeding. Then, in the off-season, Minnesota traded him to Miami. Cruz told him it was a good opportunity, Arráez says. His wife, Gladys, was excited to hear they’d be living close to the beach—and that the weather would be much warmer than it was in the Midwest.
Arráez’s first game at LoanDepot Park was in the World Baseball Classic in March 2023. He played on a loaded Venezuelan squad that beat perennial powerhouse the Dominican Republic 5 to 1. Arráez went 1 for 4 that day in front of a rowdy crowd.
“That first game was amazing,” he says. “When I looked around and saw a lot of Latin people, I thought, ‘This is my house and I want to stay here.’ Here in Miami, I feel welcomed by the people. I love the Latin community, and Miami is one of the most exciting cities in the world. I can go to the beach with my wife and daughters and eat a lot of good Latin food. When I go outside, I feel like I am in Venezuela.”
Arráez describes himself as a bit of a homebody. When he wasn’t practicing in the offseason, he was driving his 6-year-old daughter, Emma, to and from school and playing with her and his 4-year-old daughter, Esther. With newborn Esthela in the mix, he and Gladys have a busy but happy household.
2023 was the year that everything came together. It was when his sister and parents, who stood by him and reminded him who he was in his hardest moments, were finally able to get the visas they needed to see him play professional baseball in person. It was the year he got his first start in the All-Star Game and went 2 for 2. And it was the year when he captured the country’s imagination as he chased a .400 season batting average, something that hasn’t been accomplished since Ted Williams did it in 1941. Arráez finished the season with a .354—the best single season batting average in Marlins history. One wonders what 2024 will bring.
“[Luis] has done so many incredible things for us, stuff that people haven’t seen here in a long time,” says Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. “And he’s never okay with where he’s at. He just wants to get better as a player and a person. We needed someone like him to show what hard work and leadership look like.”
A club’s fortunes can turn quickly with that sort of passion. Schumaker says he isn’t setting expectations for the team’s success this year; he leaves that to the media. But he is quick to note that no one thought the Marlins would make the playoffs in 2023, let alone have a more than .500 winning percentage. He and batting coach John Mabry say the Marlins will at least be vying for a playoff spot.
Meanwhile, Arráez has winning on his mind, and he wakes up every day and encourages his teammates to come hit with him.
“I want to win,” he says. “And if my teammates are practicing with me, then we can get a lot of good things.”
Like championship rings.
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