“If I had known hitting .400 would be such a big deal, I would have done it again,”
-Ted Williams
It has been 33 years since Teddy Ballgame spoke those words and 83 years since a player in Major League Baseball finished the season with a batting average above .400.
Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez was batting .402 through the first 60 games of the 2023 season.
We are in the midst of (knock on wood) one of the greatest seasons for an individual batter in MLB history. Arraez would finish with the second-best batting average since 1941 if the season ended today.
The Venezuelan ended the 2022 season top five in batting average and top 10 in hits as a member of the Minnesota Twins. They repaid him by trading him to Miami to let him shine as one of the most consistent hitters in baseball.
Arraez has 29 multi-hit games through 61 games in 2023. He has only struck out 13 times. He is in the 100th percentile for strikeout percentage (K%) and Whiff %. His xBA (expected batting average) is up to .403. Baseball Savant expects Arraez to finish the season above .400.
Only 10 players since Ted Williams has gone this deep into the season with a batting average above .400. No one since 36-year-old Chipper Jones went 73 games batting four for 10 in 2008.
In 1980 Kansas City Royals third basemen George Brett had the best 60-game stretch in MLB history. From May 30th to August 29th, Brett was batting .469 had a .712 slugging percentage, and a 1.282 OPS. This culminated in 6.5 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) the most in a 60-game span in MLB history. He finished the season batting .390.
The late great Tony Gwynn had a very promising run at the title during the 1994 season, which was heart-wrenchingly canceled on August 12th when the Players Union went on strike. So many stories went unfinished but most importantly, Gwynn didn’t get a chance to finish the race. He finished the season first in the league in batting average, on-base percentage, and hits. .394, .454, and 117 respectively.
Arraez’s batting average dipped below .400 on his 61st game of the season after going 1-5 on Sunday. As the season unravels this story could become history before our eyes.
