I noticed something interesting last night after the east coast games had concluded. Adrian Gonzalez was still leading the American League with a .350 batting average. But in second, and hitting .341, was a divisional rival. It wasn’t all-world slugger Jose Bautista of Toronto. It wasn’t either of Gonzalez’s fantastic teammates in Boston, Dustin Pedroia or Jacoby Ellsbury. No, the hitter who is second in the American League in batting average is…. Casey Kotchman of the Rays. Really, that Casey Kotchman. How in the hell did THIS happen?
Looking at the batting champions over the past decade, most of the names are of the household variety. Guys like Bonds, Mauer, Jones, Suzuki… you’ve heard of all of these guys. There are some oddities, however. Freddy Sanchez of the Pirates led the NL in hitting in 2006 with a .344 mark. Sanchez had a .851 OPS in that 2006 season, and hasn’t cracked .800 since. Bill Mueller led the AL in hitting in 2003 wtih a .326 mark. Mueller was a solid hitter for the majority of his career, with a career OPS of .797. But he hadn’t hit above .300 in a full season in a year aside from 2003.
But despite the oddity of those two players, I don’t think either would be more odd than Kotchman leading the league. He was a top 25 prospect for four straight years in the minors, He hit .348 in limited time in the minors in 2003, and hit .371 in 77 games in the minors in 2004. That success never translated to the majors, He hit .296 in 2007 for the Angels, but his career started a downward spiral after being traded to Atlanta in 2008. His average dropped from .287 before the trade to .237 after the trade, but he was able to raise that mark up to .282 in the first half of 2009 with Atlanta (albeit with no power, especially for a first baseman), before he was traded to Boston. For the second straight year after a trade, Kotchman struggled. He hit .218 in 39 games with the Red Sox, mostly coming off the bench as a defensive replacement.
Boston dumped him off on the Mariners arfter the 2009 season, and his career hit rock bottom. The once steady hitting Kotchman hit .217 for the season, and was far and away the worst first baseman in the majors in 2010. After that year, it didn’t look like Kotchman would catch on again. The Rays gave him a minor league deal, and he was called up to the main roster after the first week of the season to serve as the team’s primary first baseman. He wasn’t expected to be a replacement for the power hitting Carlos Pena, but has ended up having the best year of his career. He’s hitting .341, he’s walking a decent bit, and he’s even showing some power. Last night, he hit a walk-off homer, his seventh of the season, to give the Rays a comeback win over the Royals.
Maybe Kotchman wouldn’t be the most unlikely batting champion ever. But after his season last year in Seattle, did you really think we’d be having this conversation today? Me neither.
