More evidence Padres won the Luis Arraez trade with latest contract update

A fire sale felt inevitable for the Miami Marlins thanks to their atrocious 9-25 start, the only question was when it would start. Well, President of Baseball Operations Peter Bendix answered that question emphatically on Friday by sending their best hitter, Luis Arraez, to the San Diego Padres.

The deal isn't too surprising considering Arraez was linked to the Padres over the offseason and Miami has gotten off to such a poor start, but it's still strange to see such a deal go down in the beginning of May, especially without such a huge return.

The Padres were able to get the two-time batting champion without giving up any of their high-end prospects, and this latest contract update shows that the Padres won the deal even more than expected.

Padres won Luis Arraez trade by more than expected with latest contract update

Not only did the Marlins trade Arraez to the Padres for a package that could've been better, but they wound up paying his $10.6 million contract down to the league minimum according to ESPN's Alden Gonzalez.

Let's get this all straight. The Marlins traded away their best hitter who happens to have another full year of team control. In return, they did not land a single Top 100 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. To put the cherry on top, Miami is paying just about all of Arraez's 2024 salary to play against them. Seems like a very strange deal.

Trading Arraez makes a lot of sense for Miami. He's far from a perfect player with his lack of power, speed, and defensive ability, and he clearly wasn't a guy they were interested in extending past the 2025 campaign. Still, they had to do better than this, especially if they were moving him in early May.

The best prospect Miami got in return, Dillon Head, is their No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. That being the most valuable asset they got back for a player who has won two straight batting titles is concerning considering just how bad Miami's farm system is. No. 5 in their system is a lot lower in many other organizations. That, in addition to the fact that they didn't have to move him now and they had to eat nearly a full year of his contract is a major Padres win.