Friar Faithful would welcome reunion with Luis Arraez

With Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai signing his deal with the Houston Astros, one of the two free agent plugs clogging up the offseason has been removed. The second and hopefully final move to make before the “free agent frenzy” can begin is Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto. His deadline to come to terms and sign a deal with an MLB team is Sunday at 2 p.m. PST. If Okamoto does not sign, he returns to his team in Japan. The belief is that with Imai and Okamoto off the board, teams which had been pursuing them and waiting to see if they landed either of them will begin signing the glut of remaining free agents.

Is one of the teams waiting on Okamoto to make his decision the San Diego Padres? If you believe various reports and social media posts the answer is, yes. Whether he signs with the Padres could determine the rest of their offseason, but at this point, no one knows what the odds are of San Diego acquiring the Japanese star.

The assumption is that if the Padres were to sign Okamoto he would fill their vacancy at first base and see time as the designated hitter as well. If Okamoto does not sign with San Diego, president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller will have options on the free agent market, or he could potentially look to add a first baseman via trade.

Several free agent first baseman remain with the top name at the position being Cody Bellinger, who can also play multiple positions in the outfield. The majority of baseball prognosticators believe Bellinger will end up with a large market team – the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets or San Francisco Giants. The Padres are not likely to spend on those levels. Rhys Hoskins, Paul Goldschmidt, Nathaniel Lowe and Justin Turner are the top five remaining free agent first basemen according to Spotrac.

San Diego will have to look elsewhere and that could result in a reunion with Luis Arraez. Gaslamp Ball asked the Friar Faithful if they would like to see a reunion with the three-time batting champion and the majority of those who took part in the Padres Reacts Survey want to see Arraez back with the team. Of course, money and the length of the contract will have to be considered, but Preller has shown an ability to be creative when needed.

If there was a reunion between the Padres and Arraez, he would be playing for new manager Craig Stammen. That could be a benefit to Arraez and San Diego as a whole.