History watch: Diamondbacks’ Gabriel Moreno bearing down on batting title

SAN DIEGO — Arizona Diamondbacks star Gabriel Moreno is on pace to become the first catcher to win a batting title in more than a decade.

Moreno went 2-for-3 on Friday to leap ahead of Philadelphia’s Luis Arraez in the race to lead the National League in batting average, .311 to .310.

No Diamondbacks player has ever won the NL batting title. Luis Gonzalez owns the franchise record batting average at .336 in 1999, but he finished second to Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies, who hit .379 — it was a different era.

The last catcher in MLB to win it was Buster Posey for the 2012 San Francisco Giants.

Moreno has two games left to make it happen.

“I don’t try to think about it,” Moreno said on Friday. “I know we are, as a team, we are in a really good spot, so we just gotta win. We gotta try to find a way to keep winning and I’m gonna do what is possible to be out there and keep doing my job.”

The Diamondbacks entered Saturday one game back of the Phillies for the third NL Wild Card spot, and Moreno has been Arizona’s most consistently excellent player all season to help the club reach this point. Moreno entered Saturday on a six-game hitting streak.

General manager Mike Hazen called him the best catcher in baseball.

“The sky’s the limit for the guy,” Hazen said. “I mean, his challenge is now going to be: how do I stay in this spot? He’s clearly proven he’s the best catcher in baseball.”

The stats back that sentiment up, as Moreno leads all catchers with 5.3 wins above replacement (FanGraphs), an .874 OPS and 141 wRC+ (100 is average). On defense, Moreno is third with 11 defensive runs saved. He should finish at least in the top 10 of the NL MVP voting, and winning a batting title could help his publicity.

There is a catch for this batting title race: Moreno and Arraez are ailing.

Will the hamstring issue hold Gabriel Moreno back?

Arraez suffered a sprained ankle on Thursday, did not play on Friday and was out of the lineup on Saturday. His status for the rest of the regular season is uncertain.

Moreno has a “tender left hamstring” that popped up on Friday, and while he returned to the lineup on Saturday, he did so as a designated hitter who is not expected to sprint on the base paths.

“He had a similar situation early in the year, we gave him the right to just cruise a little bit on the bases,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “In a situation where late in the game we need to run, I’ll probably pitch run for him, but we love the bat and we love having him in the lineup.”

Moreno said his current hamstring issue mirrors what he dealt with back in June. Him being able to play through that issue and continue producing was important for the club, and Hazen felt important for the player.

“I know he was only running 50% at times, and there were times where none of us were overly comfortable with that,” Hazen said. “But I think it showed us a lot, the way he went out there. … That position’s tough. Those guys are injured all the time. And we can’t play through every injury, obviously, but in doing what he did showed me a lot. I think he benefited from it as a player because he stayed in rhythm in the middle of the season.”

Gabriel Moreno putting up rare stats

Moreno has always possessed strong bat-to-ball skills going back to his time as a top prospect for Toronto.

He entered this season as a career .281 hitter, and despite injury issues dogging him during his first three seasons in Arizona, his bat had been trending in the right direction.

He started slowly this year, suffering an oblique strain in April and hitting .203 with a .593 OPS on May 12 as he struggled to find a rhythm after coming back.

From that point on, Moreno has hit .329 with a .922 OPS across 107 games, and he is not just stacking singles. Moreno has set career highs with 16 home runs and 33 doubles.

No catcher in Arizona’s franchise history had racked up 140 hits before Moreno this season (146).

He is the first Diamondbacks catcher to hit 15 home runs and 33 doubles in the same campaign since Miguel Montero in an All-Star 2011 campaign.

Zooming out, the last MLB player to hit at least 16 home runs, finish better than a .300 hitter and an .850 OPS while playing most of his games at catcher was Posey for the 2014 Giants.

Moreno is only 26 years old and has two more arbitration-eligible seasons under team control before free agency.

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