Guardians leadoff hitter Steven Kwan batted first in a game against the Mariners on Thursday afternoon (Guardians won 6-3) and hit a double, raising his batting average to .400. He walked in his final two at-bats before getting an out, and his average dropped to .396 before the game ended. Still…
That should cheer us all up, right? One player had a batting average of .400! In late June!
The major leagues haven’t had a hitter with a .400 qualifying average since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. The key word here is “qualifying.” It means a player has played in enough games to be eligible for a batting title. The rules dictate that a player gets 3.1 at-bats per team’s game. Kwan has only played in 46 games so far, having missed time with an injury earlier this season.
He also has 209 plate appearances in 72 games for the Guardians, which is 2.9 plate appearances per game, so he is not eligible. However, if he stays healthy here the next few weeks (remember, he’s a leadoff hitter), he will be eligible soon. Just keep in mind that Kwan is not yet eligible going forward.
In recent years, we’ve seen players batting above .400 for a while, then drop off. Remember Cody Bellinger in 2019? He was hitting .404 in 47 games. He eventually dropped to .305, but still did well enough throughout the year to win the National League MVP. Luis Arraez had a phenomenal year last year. As of June 24, he was hitting .401 in 78 games with the Marlins. As of August 1, he was still hitting .381.
For those interested, here are some other notable players who hit .400 and appeared in 72 team games.
Tony Gwynn batted .394 in 1994. He batted .384 in 72 games for the Padres, but remember that season was shortened by the strike and he only played 117 games. In 1997, Gwynn ended up batting .372. In 72 games for the Padres, he batted .391. George Brett batted .390 in 1980. In 72 games for the Royals (Brett played only 45 games himself), he batted .337. Ichiro batted .372 in 2004 and .323 in 72 games for the Mariners. Larry Walker batted .379 in 1999 and .382 in 72 games for the Rockies. Rod Carew batted .388 in 1977 and .408 in 72 games for the Twins.
Perhaps Kwan, like Brett and Suzuki, is on a roll. He was batting .353 when he went on the disabled list in early May. Since leaving the game in time for the May 31 game, he has recorded a 14-game hitting streak, with eight games having multiple hits and four of those games having at least three hits.
Kwan is batting .396 through June 20, and like Arraez, has the skill set to stay in the spotlight for a while. He has not struck out much this season, just 14 times in 185 at-bats, and only 75 times in 718 at-bats last season. Kwan can hit the ball in all directions, sometimes hitting it the other way and sometimes pulling it, but the majority of the balls fly to center field. Only about 20% of his hits are fly balls, the rest are line drives or grounders.
He’s batting .413 this season, which some might say is unsustainable, but he’s a speedy lefty who hits lots of grounders and liners and doesn’t strike out much — exactly the skill set that allows him to post an insane BABIP.
Essentially, Kwan is putting the ball in play a lot and giving himself a great opportunity to find a hole whenever the ball is in play, and we can only hope he continues to bat .400 for a while.
