New York Yankees: How realistic is LeMahieu’s drive for .400?

New York Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu is on pace to achieve that milestone.

It’s 2020 so it should be no surprise that we enter September with a serious candidate to bat .400. New York Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu collected two more hits against Tampa Bay Tuesday night – both home runs, by the way – to run his batting average to .402. He has eight hits in his last five games and 14 in his last eight.

No player has carried a .400 average this late into the year – recognizing the substantial asterisk attached to LeMahieu’s average in this pandemic-shortened season – since George Brett did so in 1980. Brett woke up the morning of Sept. 3 that season batting .402. He finished at .390.

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Only 23 games into his season, LeMahieu obviously has nowhere near the number of plate appearances that Brett accrued in establishing that average in 1980. The record book, however, is indifferent to that reality. All it knows is that LeMahieu is just 26 games and roughly 40 hits short of reaching a plateau that hasn’t been achieved since Ted Williams batted .406 for the Red Sox in 1941.

Since LeMahieu is approximately halfway through his personal season – the New York Yankees have played 34 games but LeMahieu has only appeared in 24 of them – he basically needs to replicate his performance to date over the final four weeks in order to finish at .400.

To date, LeMahieu has 37 hits in 92 official at-bats. Assuming he gets another 100 official at-bats in New York’s final 26 games, he would need to add 40 more base hits to reach .401 for the season.

That works out to about 1.53 hits per game, a number that may sound formidable to maintain over a 26-game span. It is. But consider that LeMahieu has averaged 1.54 hits per game this year, it’s plausible.

Obviously, if he misses more games over the final month, those numbers and requirements are subject to change.

As consistent a hitter as LeMahieu has been, 40 hits in a 100 at-bat stretch is asking a lot. Still, for those wishing to see a .400 hitter – even a compromised one -, there’s reason for hope.

Between June 18 and July 23 last season – a 110-at bat span – he banged out 44 hits, exactly a .400 average. And back in 2016, LeMahieu topped .400 for nine consecutive 100-at bat stretches between July 26-Aug. 4 and Aug. 22-Sept. 4, topping out at .437 (45 for 103) between Aug. 3 and Sept. 3.

LeMahieu won the batting title that season at .348.