Luis Arráez secures batting title, blocks Ohtani's Triple Crown bid

Luis Arráez clinched the National League batting title with a .314 average, thwarting Shohei Ohtani's Triple Crown pursuit. Arráez becomes the first player since the 1800s to win batting titles with three different teams, adding to his 2022 American League title with Minnesota and 2023 with Miami.

Arráez achieves historic feat, winning batting titles with three different teams, blocking Ohtani's Triple Crown.

Arráez's performance halts Ohtani's historic bid, marking the first time in over a century a player secures batting titles with three teams.

Luis Arráez, Shohei Ohtani, batting title, MLB, Triple Crown, baseball history

Venezuelan Luis Arráez held off Shohei Ohtani’s attempt to win the Triple Crown in the National League and is now on the verge of becoming the first player since the 1800s to capture batting titles with three different teams.

In the American League, Kansas City Royals' young star Bobby Witt Jr. won his first batting title, leading the majors with a .332 average.

Arráez went 1-for-3 on Sunday, finishing the year with a .314 average with San Diego. This is the lowest for a National League champion since Tony Gwynn's .312 in 1988. After striking out and hitting a flyout in his first two at-bats, Arráez hit a double in the sixth inning to reach 200 hits for the second consecutive season. He was then substituted for defense in the bottom half of the inning.

Arráez won the American League title in 2022 by hitting .316 with Minnesota and then again in 2023 with a .354 average for Miami before being traded to the Padres in May. He is the first National League player with 200 hits in back-to-back seasons since Juan Pierre in 2003 and 2004.

"This was tough. I couldn’t sleep last night,” Arráez admitted, adding pressure after his strikeout—the 29th of the season and only his third since August 10. "I'm not perfect. I tell myself, you have to do something,” he recalled. “It had never happened before! But I'm not perfect."

Dan Brouthers won five batting titles with four different teams between 1882 and 1892.

Ohtani, who went 1-for-4 with a single in the eighth inning, finished second in the National League with a .310 average. In his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Japanese star led the league with 64 home runs and 130 RBIs. He also stole his 59th base on Sunday, capping off a historic season as the first player in MLB history with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single campaign. He was unable to pitch this season after undergoing elbow surgery in September 2023.

"I wasn’t thinking about the Triple Crown or how close I was today," Ohtani said through an interpreter. "Today, I just focused on quality at-bats."

The last National League player to win the Triple Crown was Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937. The most recent player in either league to achieve the feat was Venezuela’s Miguel Cabrera for Detroit in 2012, breaking a 45-year drought.

Dominican Marcell Ozuna ranks third in the National League with a .304 average and would need to go 9-for-9 in the doubleheader that his Atlanta Braves will play on Monday against the New York Mets to surpass Arráez.