There are 400 reasons to pay close attention to every Luis Arraez at-bat.
With the calendar having flipped to June, and more than one third of the Major League Baseball season now complete, the Miami Marlins second baseman is hitting over .400.
With a 2-for-4 performance in the Marlins’ 6-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday, Arraez pushed his average to .401.
The last time a player in the American League or National League hit .400 or better in a season was in 1941 when Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams finished with a .406 batting average.
Baseball considers hitting .300 a success and .400 a near impossibility.
While many of baseball’s most hallowed numbers, like 755 and 61, have been toppled in recent years, .400 has maintained its reverence. The prospect of a player reaching the number has become more unlikely in the modern era as the sport shifted away from small ball and contact rate and put a premium on power hitting and exit velocity. That meant more home runs and lower batting averages, making Williams’ .406 average the Mount Everest of baseball milestones.
Until a throwback player like the 26-year-old Arraez came along, giving the league an exceptional contact hitter who has minimal power and rarely strikes out.
Last season with the Minnesota Twins, Arraez won the American League batting title with a .316 batting average. He is well on his way to winning this season’s National League batting title, with Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman a distant second at .331.
Barring injury or an extremely prolonged slump, Arraez will become the first player since 1900 to win the AL and NL batting titles in consecutive seasons. He’d become just the second player overall in the modern era to win the batting title in each league, joining New York Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu (.348 with the Colorado Rockies in 2016, .364 with the Yankees in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season).
The Marlins acquired Arraez in a January trade with the Twins for right-handed pitcher Pablo Lopez, acquiring a player with a .314 average over the first four seasons of his career.
Arraez has just one home run this season, coming on April 11 when he became the first Marlin in franchise history to hit for the cycle. He has 26 multi-hit games, including a 5-for-5 performance on June 3. He has struck out just 11 times in 235 plate appearances this season for a strikeout percentage of 4.8 percent, well below the league average of 22.9 percent.
Impressive as those numerals may be, none carry the rounded mythical status of .400. Many have given chase, flirting with a .400 average through the summer months, but few have come close as regression inevitably set in. Tony Gwynn hit .394 during the strike-shortened season in 1994, George Brett finished at .390 in 1980, Williams hit .388 in 1957 at the age of 38.
“If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again,” Williams famously said.
It’s become an even bigger deal to those who haven’t seen it done in their lifetime.
And that’s why there are 400 reasons to pay close attention to every Luis Arraez at-bat.
Here’s everything to know about Arraez and his pursuit of one of baseball’s most hallowed milestones: a .400 batting average.
When was Luiz Arraez born?
Arraez was born on April 9, 1997. He is 26 years old.
Where is Luiz Arraez from?
Arraez was born in San Felipe, Venezuela.
Where did Luiz Arraez play before MLB?
Arraez signed with the Twins as an international free agent in 2013. He debuted with the Dominican Summer League Twins, hitting .348 in 31 games. He bounced around the minor leagues over the next few years, hitting a combined .331 over 369 games.
When did Luiz Arraez make his MLB debut?
Arraez made his major league debut on May 18, 2019, against the Seattle Mariners, going 1-for-2 with a double. Over 92 games played that season, he hit .334, his highest average over a full season so far.
When was Luiz Arraez traded to the Marlins?
Arraez was dealt from the Twins to the Marlins on Jan. 20, 2023, for Lopez, who is 3-3 with a 4.54 ERA this season, and minor leaguer Byron Chourio and Jose Salas.
What MLB player hit .400?
Eight different players have hit .400 or better a total of 13 times between the start of baseball’s modern era in 1900 and Williams’s 1941 season, according to ESPN. Here is the list:
1. Nap Lajoie, Philadelphia Athletics (1901) – .426
2. Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals (1924) – .424
T-3. Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers (1911) – .420
T-3. George Sisler, St. Louis Browns (1922) – .420
5. Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers (1912) – .409
6. Joe Jackson, Cleveland Cubs (1911) – .408
7. George Sisler, St. Louis Browns (1920) – .407
8. Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox (1941) – .406
T-9. Harry Heilmann, Detroit Tigers (1923) – .403
T-9. Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals (1925) – .403
T-11. Bill Terry, New York Giants (1930) – .401
T-11. Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers (1922) – .401
T-11. Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals (1922) – .401
What MLB player has come closest to hitting .400?
Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres hit .394 through 110 games in 1994 before the season ended in mid-August due to a player strike.
George Brett of the Kansas City Royals held a .400 average through 134 of his team’s games during the 1980 season before finishing at .390, according to MLB.com.
1. Tony Gwynn, San Diego Padres (1994) – .394
2. George Brett, Kansas City Royals (1980) – .390
T-3. Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox (1957) – .388
T-3. Rod Carew, Minnesota Twins (1977) – .388
5. Larry Walker, Colorado Rockies (1999) – .379