Henry Roldán
The Major Leagues’ second half of the season begins on Thursday, and Las Vegas is already releasing their picks for various accolades, including MLB Batting Leader.
At the moment, Luis Arráez is first in the category with a .338 average, but there are several names on the following list that may catch up with the Minnesota Twins utility player.
2022 MLB 2022 RBI Leader Favorites Heading into Second Half
Josh Bell (100-1)
While his home run and RBI share are down, Josh Bell has impressed everyone this season with a significant improvement in his hitting. The Nationals first baseman is far from the lead at .311, but his considerable drop in strikeouts makes him one of the candidates for the category.
Ty France (100-1)
The Mariners’ first baseman is far from Arráez, but since he was in the top ten of the first half in the Major Leagues, it wouldn’t have been fair to leave him out. Ty France has been one of the league’s best hitters with men on base and overall left a .308 average despite being out of action for several weeks. Although the batting lead appears to be far away, it is expected that he can continue to place more hits in the second half.
Alejandro Kirk (80-1)
The Toronto Blue Jays catcher has been a significant surprise for the Canadian team, as while his offense was expected to improve from his first full season in the Major Leagues last season, the improvement was not expected to be so radical. Alejandro Kirk finished the first half seventh in the majors in batting average at .315 with 84 hits in 267 at-bats.
Andrew Benintendi (70-1)
This season, Andrew Benintendi is being the hitter everyone expected back when he debuted in 2016 with the Red Sox. Now with the Royals, the outfielder finished the first half in fifth placec in the category by hitting .317. This is an interesting number that puts him on track to fight for the MLB batting lead, even though he has never managed to finish above .300 in a season.
Tim Anderson (50-1)
Injuries affected a large part of Tim Anderson’s first half of the season. However, the White Sox shortstop is back in action and is one of the favorites to take the batting leader title, an accolade he already earned in 2019 with a .335 average. With 85 hits in 274 at-bats, Anderson will start the second half at .310, and while he is far behind Arráez for now, having finished the last three seasons above the .300 mark puts him in the running for a possible comeback.
Xander Bogaerts (40-1)
Xander Bogaerts has been one of baseball’s most consistent hitters in recent seasons, and this season his .316 average was sixth best in the majors. The Boston Red Sox shortstop has 104 hits in 329 at-bats and Las Vegas expects him to keep up his offensive pace in the second half, the same one that has seen him hit over .290 in five of his first nine seasons.
Rafael Devers (35-1)
If it weren’t for Arráez, Dominican Rafael Devers would currently be leading the American League in batting with a .324 average. The Red Sox player finished the first half as the junior circuit’s leader in hits with 114 in 346 at-bats and is undoubtedly a real threat to the Venezuelan’s aspirations to finish as the Major League batting leader.
Freddie Freeman (25-1)
While Freddie Freeman has finished above.300 six times, including a.341 in the short 2020 season, the Dodgers first baseman has yet to be named a major league hitting champion. In terms of this season, the starter finished the first half of the season leading the National League in hits with 114 and fourth in batting average with.321; this is an average that could rise if we consider that with such a complete Dodgers lineup, pitchers must face him, unlike previous years when they preferred to face the next in the Braves order.
Paul Goldschmidt (15-1)
Right now, the biggest threat to Arráez is the experienced Paul Goldschmidt, who leads the National League with .330 and is the leading candidate for MVP of the senior circuit. The St. Louis Cardinals first baseman is in the midst of a spectacular season, as he leads the circuit in average, OBP, SLG and OPS. He also had 112 hits in the first half, and it doesn’t appear that his performance will drop, especially given that pitchers must face him in order to avoid confronting Nolan Arenado later on.
Luis Arráez (10-1)
Luis Arráez is proving this season that having finished above 300 batting points in two of his first three seasons in the majors was no accident. The Twins’ utility leads all Major Leaguers in batting at .338 and it doesn’t look like that output is about to drop. He hit above .315 in each month of the 2022 regular round, and being Minnesota’s #1 bat will allow him to see many more at-bats and opportunity to make Venezuelan baseball history.
