Advertisement

.400 is the big milestone, but Marlins’ Luis Arraez could break other records along the way

Rhona Wise/USA TODAY Sports

From now until possibly the end of the season, all eyes from the baseball world will be on the Miami MarlinsLuis Arraez.

That’s what happens when you do what Arraez is doing right now.

In a day and age where power and home runs reign supreme, the 26-year-old Arraez is bringing back an old-school, hit-collecting mentality that has him in the conversation to accomplish something that hasn’t been done in MLB in more than 80 years.

After getting two more hits in the Marlins’ 6-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday — his fifth consecutive multi-hit game, for that matter — Arraez is now hitting a staggering .403 on the season. The second highest batting average in the league through Wednesday’s games is is the Toronto Blue JaysBo Bichette ... at .331.

And this isn’t some elevated batting average early in the season. The Marlins are into the third month of the season. Arraez has already played in 58 games and still getting hits on average in two out of every five of his at-bats. This is the farthest into a season a player has had a .400 batting average while qualifying for the batting title since Chipper Jones in 2008.

There is still a lot of season left to play, of course, but Arraez has the baseball world wondering: Could he become the first player since Ted Williams in 1941 to finish a season with a batting average over .400?

Whether Arraez sustains this pace over the course of another 100 games will be documented as the rest of the season unfolds, but Marlins manager Skip Schumaker certainly didn’t think that feat would ever be accomplished again.

“I used to think [it would be impossible] until we got this kid,” Schumaker said. “I don’t even know what to say really anymore. It’s almost the middle of June and he still keeps getting two or three hits every day. Left [handed pitching], right [handed pitching], good competition, good pitchers, spin, high velo. It doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s pretty fun to watch.”

While the .400 batting average mark is certainly the stat of utmost attention when it comes to Arraez, he has the chance to set his share of other Marlins franchise and MLB records this season if he can continue producing at the plate. He has already hit for the first cycle in Marlins history and got to 500 career hits, so why not add some more accolades to his name?

A few that could become reality:

The second player in the modern era (since 1900) to win a batting title in both leagues: DJ LeMahieu was the first to accomplish this feat, winning the National League batting title in 2016 with the Colorado Rockies and the American League batting title in 2020 with the New York Yankees. Arraez won the AL title last season with the Minnesota Twins, so if he wins the NL batting title this year, he will be the first to win batting titles in consecutive years but in different leagues.

The last player to win consecutive batting titles in either league was former Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich in 2018 and 2019 for the Milwaukee Brewers

Marlins records for single-season batting average and hits: Hanley Ramirez currently holds the Marlins’ record for highest single-season batting average, hitting .342 in 2009.

Meanwhile, Juan Pierre has the club record for hits, with 221 in the 2004 season. Arraez is at 87 hits so far this season and would need to average about 1.4 hits per game the rest of the way (assuming he plays all 99 games Miami has left) to top Pierre.

Marlins record for multi-hit games: Arraez already has 27 multi-hit games through his first 58 games. Juan Pierre holds the Marlins’ single-season record for most multi-hit games, with 70 such instances in 2004. The rest of the top five: Miguel Cabrera in 2006 (63), Ramirez in 2007 (62), Pierre in 2003 (60) and Marcell Ozuna in 2017 (60).

Arraez would need multiple hits in 33 of Miami’s final 99 games — averaging one every three games — to get into the top five and 43 over that span to match Pierre’s record.

Longest hit streak in Marlins history: Arraez’s longest hit streak of the season is only 12 games, far behind the franchise record of 35 set by Luis Castillo from May 8-June 21, 2002. However, nothing seems out of reach with Arraez, especially when he gets hot.

Another record that he could feasibly hit — and potentially match this weekend: Most consecutive games with multiple hits. Arraez has done that in five consecutive games, dating back to Saturday when he had his first-ever five-hit game. The franchise record is eight games, set by Chris Coghlan from Aug. 1-9, 2009.