For the first time in the long history of Major League Baseball, second will most likely be first. This doesn’t mean that any second-place team will have home playoff advantage over a division champion, even though there have been second-place teams in very recent history that actually won the World Series. In fact, the last two to win it all, Kansas City and San Francisco, finished second that season.
With only a few weeks remaining in the 2016 regular season, second basemen have the highest team batting average of all other positions. At no other time in over a hundred years has the right half of the middle infielders led all other position players in hitting.
Due in part to Houston’s Jose Altuve and Washington’s Daniel Murphy, second basemen are batting a collective .277 this year. Altuve leads the American League with a .344 batting average, while Murphy has been atop the Senior Circuit with a .343 average.
Right up there with Murphy is Colorado’s DJ Lemahiu, who is the second baseman for the Rockies. Behind Altuve in the youth league is perennial All-Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox, who is hitting .325.
Among the other top 10 hitters in both leagues, several more are second basemen. Jean Segura of the Arizona Diamondbacks is hitting .317 and Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners is hitting .304.
Obviously, plenty of other players are having great offensive seasons, hitting well enough to lead every other position. The only other season the No. 4 position has been at the top of the team batting average was in 2008, when they tied with right fielders in batting a team average of .276.
At the time, Pedroia was among the league leaders with a .326 average. Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers and Placido Polanco of the Detroit Tigers were two of the other second basemen who were among the league leaders in hitting that year.
The next highest team batting averages per position this season are third basemen, who are currently batting .270. Shortstops, traditionally weaker hitters than their teammates, are hitting .269. Right fielders are averaging .266, center fielders are averaging .263 and first basemen are averaging .256. Unsurprisingly, catchers have the lowest team batting average.
Much attention has been paid to young baseball stars, phenoms like Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor, Boston’s Xander Bogearts and Houston’s Carlos Correa. Meanwhile, his double play partners have been the better hitters.