Luis Arraez Could Win the Weirdest Batting Title Ever

As we march on through the month of September, it’s go time for teams looking to cement their spots in the postseason. At the same time, it’s also to a lesser but just as important extent, crunch time for award races around the league.

We’ve been extensively covering the award races all year, but the coverage is starting to ramp up as some winners . The NL MVP, NL Rookie of the Year and AL Rookie of the Year races are all ones that could come down to the wire.

On the other hand, the AL MVP Award might as well already be in Aaron Judge’s trophy case. Tarik Skubal is likely going to win the AL Cy Young Award and Chris Sale is the frontrunner over in the NL to finally get his first career award for being the league’s best pitcher.

One of the less exciting ones that still deserves some love is the batting title. In the AL, Bobby Witt Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Judge are the three superstars that have separated themselves from the field. As of right now, it’s Witt’s lead to lose as he has a .339 average.

However, the NL’s leader in batting average is the pesky slap-hitter Luis Arraez, who’s hitting just .311 on the season. Should he hang on to his lead, it’d be the third straight batting title for him, and he’d also be the first player in the Modern Era to do so with three different teams.

Taking a closer look at what Arraez has going on this year leads to all sorts of confusion. Let’s dive in together and check out whatever the heck he’s got going on this year.

Luis Arraez and His Weird Chase For Another Batting Title

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Arraez, as he was traded to the San Diego Padres after appearing in just 33 games for the Marlins out of the gate. Miami knew they were going nowhere in the standings, so they sold high on him after he hit .354 the year prior and finished eighth in the NL MVP race.

Arraez has continued to hit for a high average, but that’s … pretty much it. In fact, his OPS is just .734 on the season, which is borderline below-average. His OPS+ and wRC+ are both 107, which puts him just seven percent above league-average.

He’s got no power, he doesn’t walk, he doesn’t strike out and he doesn’t steal bases. He’s had an OPS flirting with the .800 mark in the past (.861 last year, which is his career-high) but really, this seems to be standard for Arraez.

We’re not here to write a hit piece on him though. He consistently sports one of the higher averages in the league and to his credit, he’s 14th in the NL OBP leaderboards right now.

The guy finds a way to get on base, even if it’s only in the form of slap singles and the occasional double in the gap. He is second in the majors in multi-hit games to this point – doing so 55 times – trailing only Bobby Witt Jr. (57).

For lovers of fun stats that don’t mean anything to non-baseball nerds, Arraez has struck out two times since the All-Star break. The last time he was struck out was back on August 10 against the Marlins.

The biggest talking point here is the fact that there’s no real competition to dethrone him of the top spot on the AVG leaderboards.

Lack of Competition

As of right now, there are a whopping two qualified hitters in the NL with an average north of .300. Arraez is one of them and Marcell Ozuna is the other.

Over in Atlanta, Ozuna got voted into the All-Star Game for the third time in his 12-year career. His production hasn’t really dipped as he’s aged. If anything, he’s been leveling up his game as the years have gone by. Should he stay on the field, he’ll hit 40 home runs and 100 RBI for the second year in a row while posting an average north of .300 for just the third time in his career.

It’s very surprising to see that there are only two players above .300. What’s even more surprising is that there are also only six qualified hitters with an average in the .290s. Going a step further, there are only three in the .280s.

In the AL, four hitters are above .300 while six are in the .290s and one is in the .280s. That is a bit better, but there simply aren’t as many players hitting for crazy-high batting averages anymore.

Steven Kwan had us on .400 watch earlier this year, but he’s now sporting a .292 average. Oh, how quickly things can change.

Today’s game focuses so heavily on hitting for power that it almost feels like hitting for a high average and simply putting the ball in play however you can is no longer viewed with as much importance.

History in the Making

Taking a look at the record books, if the season ended today, Arraez would have the lowest batting title-winning average in National League history. Previously, Tony Gwynn Sr. finished the 1988 season with a .313 average while there were two instances of players hitting .319 to tie for the second-lowest award-winning average.

In the AL, three players have won titles with averages lower than Arraez’s. Carl Yastrzemski has the lowest in history, as he hit .301 in 1968, which was 11 points higher than the second-place finisher Danny Carter.

One of the NL players to hit .319 was Justin Morneau back in 2014 as a member of the Rockies. He’s the last player in the NL to win the title with an average below .326 (Yelich, 2018; McNeil, 2022).

Closing Thoughts

Earning a batting title is a big deal and Arraez taking home his third is a seriously impressive accomplishment. The fact that he has such a low wRC+ and OPS makes his situation all the more confusing, but intriguing.

As previously stated, he’s a part of a dying breed in modern baseball. In a game dominated by the 500-foot blasts from Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, it’s refreshing to see a player of Arraez’s ilk doing his thing on a consistent basis.

There are much worse things you could do than vote for a singles merchant whose constantly on base and playing the game with a passion like Arraez does. Let’s hope he makes it three in a row and is able to make a bit of MLB history in the process.

At 80-62, the Padres are only fives games out of first place in the NL West. They’re also three games to the good in the NL Wild Card race. Keeping Arraez and his bat in the lineup will be extremely important for them down the stretch, especially when he earns a free pass in favor of facing Fernando Tatis Jr.