SIX MLB players who could hit .400 in 2020

The odds of batting .400 are always imposing, but perhaps a bit less so in a truncated season. here are six MLB players who can do it in 2020.

Batting .400 is almost impossibly hard, and shortening the schedule by one-half doesn’t make it appreciably easier.

In this century, the highest batting average ever recorded by any player coming into the All-Star break – roughly the seasons’ halfway point – is only .389. Nomar Garciaparra did that for the Boston Red Sox in 68 games in 2000.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

The Cubs’ Derek Lee and the Twins’ Joe Mauer both hit .378 at the break in 2005 and 2006 respectively, doing so in 84 and 76 games.

Beginning with Garciaparra in 2000, the average best batting average by a major league entering the All-Star break is .364…a full 36 points short of .400. Since 2010, the comparable figure is .355.

To find a player who was actually batting .400 at about the 81-game mark you have to reach back into the 1990s…and no, it wasn’t Tony Gwynn in the 1994 strike season. That June 30, 79 games into his aborted season, Gwynn was only batting .391.

But one season earlier, on June 30, 1993, Andres Galarraga of the expansion Colorado Rockies provided a sample of what life could be like for hitters at altitude. On June 30, 76 games into that season, Galarraga’s average sat at .404. He would remain above .400 until July 5, his 81st game,  eventually settling at a majors’ best .370.

The leader at the approximate midway point one season ago was Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets. But don’t get too worked up about that, Mets fans; McNeil was nowhere near .400, hitting .349 through his first 76 games.

Still, even if it’s not easy to bat .400 over the course of what is expected to be a 2020 half-season, it is inarguably easier. So it’s worth wondering which players might be best-equipped to at least make a run at recording the game’s first .400 ‘season’ since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.

Several candidates for that distinction come to mind. Here’s a look at some of them.