Can Diamondbacks Jake McCarthy, Ketel Marte qualify for NL batting title?

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Jake McCarthy has a path to earning the first National League batting title in franchise history, but he will have to rack up the plate appearances down the stretch.

McCarthy is not currently a qualified hitter for rate stats. In order to qualify for leadership in batting average, on-base percentage or slugging percentage, major leaguers need at least 3.1 plate appearances per game their team played. McCarthy must get to the 502-plate appearance threshold by season’s end.

The outfielder entered Wednesday with 378 plate appearances and a .298 batting average. He trailed NL leader Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves at .308, a margin that can flip pretty quickly.

To reach the minimum, McCarthy needs 4.13 plate appearances per game over Arizona’s final 30 contests.

That has become quite doable, as McCarthy is now an everyday player against both righties and lefties and batting near the top of the order. He is hitting .330 left-on-left this season.

McCarthy has started 26 of the Diamondbacks’ last 28 games and has averaged 4.25 plate appearances in that stretch.

It helps that Arizona has the No. 1 scoring offense in baseball that can turn the lineup over as many times as it does. This is now a potential team award pursuit to put McCarthy in the batter’s box as many times as he needs to become the club’s first batting champ.

Over this 28-game stretch, since July 27, McCarthy is batting .358. That leads the NL, although he has cooled off some over the past 10 days.

Jake McCarthy has a @SlangsOnSports note. @Dbacks pic.twitter.com/oNgFBqa625

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) August 14, 2024

Can Ketel Marte win the batting title?

Second baseman Ketel Marte is also firmly in the mix for a batting title at .298. That ranked fourth in the National League among qualified hitters entering Tuesday, as Philadelphia’s Trea Turner came into the day at .305 and San Diego’s Luis Arraez at .305.

Marte is on the 10-day injured list with an ankle sprain and has started to take swings again. He has 500 plate appearances, so qualifying should be no issue as long as he suffers no setbacks.

Over Marte’s previous 41 games before initially hurting his ankle on Aug. 10, he hit .343 with a .693 slugging percentage and 15 home runs.

The last time a player won the NL batting title while hitting below .315 was 1988 when Tony Gwynn led the league at .313.

Arizona’s single-season record is .336 by Luis Gonzalez in 1999, but the NL batting champ was Colorado’s Larry Walker at .379.

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