The art of contact hitting is all but dead, but it’s still a beautiful thing when it happens, and some baseball players are running away with their second consecutive batting title.
He has also gone down in history.
Luis Araez last year batted .316 with the Minnesota Twins, snatched the Triple Crown from Aaron Judge, and won the American League hitter’s title.
Nonetheless, the Twins released him to the Miami Marlins and his average skyrocketed.
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On June 6, 2023, Louis Araez of the Miami Marlins reacted after hitting a RBI in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Lawn Depot Park in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
After going 2-for-4 on Tuesday night, Araez is now batting .401 through 57 games.
Yes, it’s only June. But Araez became the first player to hit .400 in June since Hall of Famer Chipper Jones did it in 2008.
Charlie Blackmon was batting over .400 in August 2020, but that was just 29 games out as the coronavirus pandemic that began in late July cut the season short.
Araez’s current average is the latest to threaten Ted Williams since Jones.
Luis Araez of the Miami Marlins reacts after hitting a double in the first inning of a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on April 11, 2023. (Tim Nuwachuk/Getty Images)
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400 batting threat continued into the 73rd game of the season. In June he was hitting .421 at one point. He finished the season with a major-leading .364 batting average.
No player has batted .400 since Williams hit .406 in 1941.
Tony Gwynn had perhaps the most serious performance in 1994, batting .400. 394 batting average by the time a player strike ended the season.
The single-season batting average in Marlins history is Hanley Ramirez’s .342 in 2009.
Luis Araez of the Miami Marlins hits in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Lawn Depot Park in Miami, Fla., June 6, 2023. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
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500 RBI for the first time in a 162-game season since winning the World Series in 2003, while Araez is making history. With 34 wins and 28 losses, it is just two and a half games behind the Atlanta Braves, who are ranked first in the National League East.