Luis Arraez recorded the first cycle in Miami Marlins franchise history on Tuesday night, achieving the feat in an 8-4 win against the Philadelphia Phillies (box score). Arraez's cycle was also the first of the 2023 Major League Baseball season and the first since St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado did it last July 1 -- coincidentally, also against the Phillies.
Arraez, a 26-year-old infielder acquired in an offseason trade from the Minnesota Twins that sent right-hander Pablo López north, started his night with a double in the first inning versus Aaron Nola. He lined out in his next at-bat, in the third inning, before tripling in the sixth to get the most challenging part out of the way. Arraez then homered in the seventh against Connor Brogdon before finishing the cycle versus a different Phillies reliever, notching an eighth-inning single off Andrew Bellatti.
Take a look at the capper in the moving-picture form:
Arraez is, of course, one of the best contact hitters in the majors. But while he's been blessed with excellent bat-to-ball skills -- coming into Tuesday, his career batting average was .319 -- he's neither strong nor fast. Indeed, he'd homered and tripled a combined 22 times in his first 400 big-league games.
Arraez entered Tuesday's contest batting .500/.571/.556 (207 OPS+) with two extra-base hits (both doubles) and three more walks than strikeouts (three) in his first 11 games this season.
There were five cycles in MLB last season, four in 2021, and six in 2019. No one accomplished the trick as part of the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. In other words, Arraez may be the first, but he probably won't be the last to record a cycle between now and the end of the season.
