DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) — Teams aren't rushing to copy contact, the Toronto Blue Jays' blueprint for a revival that nearly resulted in a World Series title.
Toronto had a .265 team batting average last year and nearly became the first World Series champion since the 2018 Boston Red Sox to lead the major leagues in batting.
“We train to be able to do anything in the batter’s box,” said Bo Bichette, who finished second in the major leagues in batting average,
then left Toronto as a free agent to sign with the New York Mets. “It’s not perfect all the time, but we train to be able to move a runner over, get a big hit when we need to, get the ball in the air, hit with two strikes, whatever the situation may call for. So I don’t think this is by accident. We’ve worked really hard for it.”
Toronto came within two outs of its first World Series title since 1993 before losing Game 7 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 11 innings. The Dodgers were sixth in batting average at .253 but were second in OPS at .768, trailing only the New York Yankees' .787
Four Blue Jays were among the top 25 qualified batters in average, with Bichette joined by George Springer at .309 (fourth), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at .292 (12th) and Alejandro Kirk at .282 (24th). Toronto's batting average was seven points ahead of second-best Philadelphia.
“We have always felt that contact would turn into more damage,” sad Ross Atkins, who became the Blue Jays’ general manager before the 2016 season.
Toronto also led the major leagues in hitting in 2022 and was second in 2021.
“The ability that they had to make contact and drive the baseball, really rare to be able to do that,” Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly said. “Something that I think all hitters are always working on is finding that ability to blend the hitting ability with the power.”
Toronto was tied for 11th in home runs last year but third in OPS at .761 behind the Yankees and Dodgers.
“Look, they made more contact. They also hit the crap out of the ball,” Tampa Bay Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said. “If you don’t strike out and you’re impacting the ball for extra bases the way they were, that’s a really special combination.”
John Schneider, starting his fourth full season as Blue Jays manager and 18th working for the organization, said a dual focus on contact and clobbering is the goal.
“You don’t want to just, I always call it like just playing ping-pong,” he explained during the World Series. “We say all the time: What club do you take out of your bag? I think last year we had a lot of guys just hanging out with like a 7-iron the entire time. So when to use that, when to use a driver, and knowing that they can make contact is kind of a little safety net for ’em.”
A high batting average rarely correlates with titles in 21st century baseball emphasizing power and tolerating strikeouts. Since 2002, the only World Series champions to top the majors in batting average were the 2018 Red Sox and 2017 Houston Astros.
Detroit led in batting average from 2013-15, losing in the AL Championship Series, the Division Series and then failing to reach the playoffs.
And hitting for average has become more difficult as power pitching increasingly dominates. The average four-seam fastball velocity was 94.5 mph last year, increasing for the seventh straight season and up from 91.9 mph when tracking started in 2008.
Major League Baseball's overall batting average hasn't reached .250 since 2019 and .260 since 2009.
“One of the things we talked about going into last year was reducing our chase,” Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “It's tougher and tougher to make contact all the time with the pitching that’s out there."
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