List of Major League Baseball batting champions

In baseball, batting average is a measure of a batter's success rate in achieving a hit during an at bat. In Major League Baseball, it is calculated by dividing a player's hits by his at bats. In MLB, a player in each league wins the "batting title" each season for having the highest batting average that year. The American League winner is known as the "Rod Carew American League Batting Champion", while the National League leader is designated the "Tony Gwynn National League Batting Champion". Under current rules, a player must have 3.1 plate appearances per team game to qualify for the batting title. However, if a player's lead in AVG is sufficiently large that enough hitless at bats can be added to reach this requirement and the player still would have the highest batting average, he wins the title. Tony Gwynn, for example, had 159 hits in 451 ABs in 1996 but only 498 PAs. Gwynn's batting average would have dropped to.349 with four hitless ABs added to reach the 502 PA requirement, but this would still have been higher than the next-highest eligible player, so he was awarded the 1996 NL batting title.
The first batting average champion in the NL was Ross Barnes; in the league's inaugural 1876 season, Barnes batted.429 for the Chicago White Stockings. The AL was established in 1901, and Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie led that league with a.426 average for the Philadelphia Athletics. Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers, who also holds the highest career batting average of.366, led the AL in average in 11 seasons. Honus Wagner and Gwynn are tied for the second-most titles, with eight apiece in the NL. It is unclear whether Lajoie or Cobb won the 1910 AL title, with some sources attributing the title to each man. If Cobb is credited with the 1910 title, he won 9 consecutive titles from 1907 to 1915 and 12 total titles for his career. Otherwise, Rogers Hornsby won the most consecutive titles, with six from 1920 to 1925. Without the 1910 title, Cobb still led the league in five consecutive seasons from 1911 to 1915. Cobb holds the record for highest average in two and three consecutive seasons, but Hornsby holds the record for four and five consecutive seasons. Wagner, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, and Gwynn have each won four consecutive titles. Lajoie also had a streak of four league-leading seasons from 1901 to 1904 if he is credited with the contested AL title in 1902. At the 2016 MLB All-Star Game in San Diego, MLB announced that the AL and NL batting champions would henceforth be named in honor of Carew and Gwynn, respectively. Gwynn won all eight titles in the NL with the San Diego Padres, while Carew was a seven-time AL batting champion.
Barnes' initial NL-leading average of.4286 in 1876 set the single-season record which stood for a decade. Tip O'Neill topped this total with a.4352 average in 1887, and Hugh Duffy set the current record mark in 1894 by posting a.4397 batting average. Under the current 3.1 PA qualification, players have posted a.400 batting average for a season 28 times. Ted Williams'.4057 in 1941 is the most recent such season, one of 13 to occur since 1900. George Brett in 1980 is the only player to maintain a.400 average into September since 1941. Additionally, only Brett and John Olerud in 1993 maintained such an average into August. With the modern scarcity of.400 hitters, recent players who have been above.400 early in the season, such as Chipper Jones in 2008, have drawn significant attention in the media. Brett's.390 in 1980 and Gwynn's.394 in 1994 are the only seasons in which a player reached.390 since 1941. Carl Yastrzemski's.301 in the 1968 American League was the lowest batting average ever to lead a league. Willie Keeler's 1897 and Zack Wheat's 1918 are the only two title seasons in which the winner hit no home runs. Joe Mauer's 2006 title made him the first catcher to ever win an AL batting title, and his third title in 2009 surpassed Ernie Lombardi's previous record of two titles for a catcher in any league.
The closest finish in a batting race came in 1945 when Snuffy Stirnweiss batted.309, topping Tony Cuccinello's.308 average for the American League title by.00008. George Kell beat out Williams in 1949 by.00015. The closest race in the National League came in 2003 when Albert Pujols held off Todd Helton on the last day of the season by.00022. The closest National League race before that was in 1931 with Chick Hafey edging out Bill Terry by.00028. Lajoie's.426 average in 1901 was 86 points higher than runner-up Mike Donlin's.340, the largest margin of victory for a batting champion. Cap Anson's.399 in 1881 was 71 points higher than Joe Start in 1881, the widest margin in the National League. No player has definitively won batting titles in both the American and National Leagues. However, Ed Delahanty has if he is credited with the disputed 1902 American League title, as he was also the 1899 National League champion. The only other player to win titles in multiple leagues was Pete Browning, who won American Association titles in 1882 and 1885, along with the lone Players' League championship in 1890. Barnes and Deacon White each won National Association and National League titles, but the National Association is not regarded as an official league.
In 1990, Willie McGee posted a.335 average over 542 at-bats in the NL before being traded to the AL on August 29. Although McGee finished the season in the AL, he had enough PA's in the NL to qualify for the NL batting title, which he won narrowly over Eddie Murray's.330. However, McGee batted.274 that season in the AL, bringing down his overall average to.324 and allowing Murray to lead the majors in batting average.

Key

National League

Year	Winner	AVG	Team	Runner-up	2nd AVG	Ref
		.429	Chicago White Stockings		.366
	^†	.387	Boston Red Caps		.378
		.358	Providence Grays		.354
		.357	Providence Grays	^†	.348
		.360	Chicago White Stockings	^†	.337
	^†	.399	Chicago White Stockings		.338
	^†	.368	Buffalo Bisons	^†	.362
	^†	.374	Buffalo Bisons	^†	.357
	^†	.354	Chicago White Stockings	^†	.347
	^†	.371	New York Giants	^†	.359
	^†	.388	Chicago White Stockings	^†	.371
	^†	.372	Detroit Wolverines	^†	.347
	^†	.344	Chicago White Stockings		.332
	^†	.373	Boston Beaneaters		.352
		.336	New York Giants	^†	.325
	^†	.340	Philadelphia Phillies		.319
	^†	.335	Brooklyn Grooms	^†	.330
	^†	.380	Philadelphia Phillies	^†	.370
	^†	.440	Boston Beaneaters		.418
	^†	.405	Cleveland Spiders	^†	.404
	^†	.410	Cleveland Spiders	^†	.401
	^†	.424	Baltimore Orioles	^†	.390
	^†	.385	Baltimore Orioles	^†	.369
	^†	.410	Philadelphia Phillies	^†	.396
	^†	.381	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.367
	^†	.376	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.354
		.357	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.333
	^†	.355	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.351
	^†	.349	Pittsburgh Pirates		.329
		.377	Cincinnati Reds	^†	.363
	^†	.339	Pittsburgh Pirates		.327
	^†	.350	Pittsburgh Pirates		.328
	^†	.354	Pittsburgh Pirates		.334
	^†	.339	Pittsburgh Pirates		.310
		.331	Philadelphia Phillies		.326
	^†	.334	Pittsburgh Pirates		.333
		.372	Chicago Cubs		.358
		.350	Brooklyn Superbas		.341
		.329	Brooklyn Robins		.325
		.320	New York Giants		.315
		.339	Cincinnati Reds		.316
	^†	.341	Cincinnati Reds	^†	.327
	^†	.335	Brooklyn Robins	^†	.333
	^†	.321	Cincinnati Reds	^†	.318
	^†	.370	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.351
	^†	.397	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.352
	^†	.401	St. Louis Cardinals		.354
	^†	.384	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.371
	^†	.424	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.375
	^†	.403	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.367
		.353	Cincinnati Reds		.350
	^†	.380	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.361
	^†	.387	Boston Braves	^†	.370
		.398	Philadelphia Phillies		.381
	^†	.401	New York Giants		.393
	^†	.349	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.349
		.368	Brooklyn Dodgers	^†	.350
	^†	.368	Philadelphia Phillies		.349
	^†	.362	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.354
	^†	.385	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.353
	^†	.373	Pittsburgh Pirates		.367
	^†	.374	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.364
	^†	.342	Cincinnati Reds	^†	.337
	^†	.349	St. Louis Cardinals		.332
		.355	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.319
		.343	Brooklyn Dodgers		.319
	^†	.330	Boston Braves	^†	.318
	^†	.357	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.330
		.357	Brooklyn Dodgers	^†	.347
		.355	Chicago Cubs		.352
	^†	.365	St. Louis Cardinals		.333
		.363	St. Louis Cardinals Philadelphia Phillies		.317
	^†	.376	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.333
	^†	.342	Brooklyn Dodgers	^†	.338
	^†	.346	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.328
	^†	.355	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.344
	^†	.336	St. Louis Cardinals		.325
		.344	Brooklyn Dodgers	^†	.342
	^†	.345	New York Giants		.342
	^†	.338	Philadelphia Phillies	^†	.319
	^†	.328	Milwaukee Braves		.319
	^†	.351	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.333
	^†	.350	Philadelphia Phillies	^†	.347
	^†	.355	Milwaukee Braves		.345
		.325	Pittsburgh Pirates		.323
	^†	.351	Pittsburgh Pirates		.343
		.346	Los Angeles Dodgers	^†	.342
		.326	Los Angeles Dodgers	^†	.320
	^†	.339	Pittsburgh Pirates		.330
	^†	.329	Pittsburgh Pirates	^†	.318
		.342	Pittsburgh Pirates		.327
	^†	.357	Pittsburgh Pirates		.339
		.335	Cincinnati Reds		.332
		.348	Cincinnati Reds	^†	.345
		.366	Atlanta Braves	^†	.325
	^†	.363	St. Louis Cardinals		.343
	^†	.333	Chicago Cubs		.325
		.338	Cincinnati Reds		.320
		.353	Atlanta Braves		.321
		.354	Chicago Cubs	^†	.332
		.339	Chicago Cubs		.336
		.338	Pittsburgh Pirates		.336
		.334	Pittsburgh Pirates		.316
		.344	St. Louis Cardinals		.331
		.324	Chicago Cubs		.321
		.341	Pittsburgh Pirates		.325
		.331	Montreal Expos		.319
		.323	Pittsburgh Pirates		.321
	^†	.351	San Diego Padres		.321
		.353	St. Louis Cardinals		.320
	^†	.334	Montreal Expos		.332
	^†	.370	San Diego Padres		.338
	^†	.313	San Diego Padres		.307
	^†	.336	San Diego Padres		.333
		.335	St. Louis Cardinals	^†	.330
		.319	Atlanta Braves		.318
		.330	San Diego Padres		.324
		.370	Colorado Rockies	^†	.358
	^†	.394	San Diego Padres	^†	.368
	^†	.368	San Diego Padres	^†	.346
	^†	.353	San Diego Padres		.344
	^†	.372	San Diego Padres	^†	.366
	^†	.363	Colorado Rockies		.354
	^†	.379	Colorado Rockies		.336
		.372	Colorado Rockies		.355
	^†	.350	Colorado Rockies		.336
		.370	San Francisco Giants	^†	.338
		.359	St. Louis Cardinals		.358
		.362	San Francisco Giants		.347
		.335	Chicago Cubs		.330
		.344	Pittsburgh Pirates		.339
		.340	Colorado Rockies	^†	.337
	^†	.364	Atlanta Braves		.357
		.342	Florida Marlins		.330
		.336	Colorado Rockies		.324
		.337	New York Mets		.332
		.336	San Francisco Giants		.327
		.331	Colorado Rockies		.321
		.319	Colorado Rockies		.315
		.333	Miami Marlins		.330
		.348	Colorado Rockies		.347
		.331	Colorado Rockies		.321
		.326	Milwaukee Brewers		.310
		.329	Milwaukee Brewers		.329

American League

Year	Winner	AVG	Team	Runner-up	2nd AVG	Ref
1901	^†	.426	Philadelphia Athletics		.340
1902	^†	.376	Washington Senators	^†	.361
1903	^†	.344	Cleveland Naps	^†	.335
	^†	.376	Cleveland Naps	^†	.343
	^†	.308	Cleveland Naps	^†	.302
		.358	St. Louis Browns	^†	.355
	^†	.350	Detroit Tigers	^†	.323
	^†	.324	Detroit Tigers	^†	.311
	^†	.377	Detroit Tigers	^†	.347
	^†	.385	Detroit Tigers	^†	.384
	^†	.420	Detroit Tigers		.408
	^†	.409	Detroit Tigers		.395
	^†	.390	Detroit Tigers		.373
	^†	.368	Detroit Tigers	^†	.344
	^†	.369	Detroit Tigers	^†	.332
	^†	.386	Cleveland Indians	^†	.371
	^†	.383	Detroit Tigers	^†	.353
	^†	.382	Detroit Tigers		.352
	^†	.384	Detroit Tigers		.355
	^†	.407	St. Louis Browns	^†	.388
	^†	.394	Detroit Tigers	^†	.389
	^†	.420	St. Louis Browns	^†	.401
	^†	.403	Detroit Tigers	^†	.393
	^†	.378	New York Yankees		.359
	^†	.393	Detroit Tigers	^†	.389
	^†	.378	Detroit Tigers	^†	.372
	^†	.398	Detroit Tigers	^†	.392
	^†	.379	Washington Senators	^†	.378
		.369	Cleveland Indians	^†	.365
	^†	.381	Philadelphia Athletics	^†	.379
	^†	.390	Philadelphia Athletics	^†	.373
		.367	Detroit Tigers Boston Red Sox	^†	.364
	^†	.356	Philadelphia Athletics	^†	.336
	^†	.363	New York Yankees	^†	.356
		.349	Washington Senators		.348
	^†	.388	Chicago White Sox	^†	.378
	^†	.371	Detroit Tigers	^†	.351
	^†	.349	Boston Red Sox		.343
	^†	.381	New York Yankees	^†	.360
	^†	.352	New York Yankees	^†	.348
	^†	.406	Boston Red Sox		.359
	^†	.356	Boston Red Sox		.331
	^†	.328	Chicago White Sox		.316
	^†	.327	Cleveland Indians	^†	.325
		.309	New York Yankees		.308
		.353	Washington Senators	^†	.342
	^†	.343	Boston Red Sox		.328
	^†	.369	Boston Red Sox	^†	.355
	^†	.343	Detroit Tigers	^†	.343
		.354	Boston Red Sox	^†	.340
		.344	Philadelphia Athletics		.326
		.327	Philadelphia Athletics		.323
		.337	Washington Senators		.336
		.341	Cleveland Indians	^†	.345
	^†	.340	Detroit Tigers		.319
	^†	.353	New York Yankees	^†	.345
	^†	.388	Boston Red Sox	^†	.365
	^†	.328	Boston Red Sox		.322
		.353	Detroit Tigers	^†	.327
		.320	Boston Red Sox		.315
		.361	Detroit Tigers	^†	.324
		.326	Boston Red Sox	^†	.321
	^†	.321	Boston Red Sox	^†	.312
		.323	Minnesota Twins	^†	.317
		.321	Minnesota Twins	^†	.312
	^†	.316	Baltimore Orioles		.307
	^†	.326	Boston Red Sox	^†	.311
	^†	.301	Boston Red Sox		.290
	^†	.332	Minnesota Twins		.309
		.329	California Angels	^†	.329
		.337	Minnesota Twins		.331
	^†	.318	Minnesota Twins		.312
	^†	.350	Minnesota Twins		.306
	^†	.364	Minnesota Twins		.316
	^†	.359	Minnesota Twins		.331
	^†	.333	Kansas City Royals		.332
	^†	.388	Minnesota Twins		.336
	^†	.333	Minnesota Twins		.324
		.333	Boston Red Sox	^†	.329
	^†	.390	Kansas City Royals		.352
		.336	Boston Red Sox		.326
		.332	Kansas City Royals	^†	.331
	^†	.361	Boston Red Sox	^†	.339
		.343	New York Yankees	^†	.340
	^†	.368	Boston Red Sox	^†	.335
	^†	.357	Boston Red Sox		.352
	^†	.363	Boston Red Sox	^†	.353
	^†	.366	Boston Red Sox	^†	.356
	^†	.339	Minnesota Twins		.336
	^†	.329	Kansas City Royals	^†	.325
		.341	Texas Rangers	^†	.332
	^†	.343	Seattle Mariners	^†	.329
		.363	Toronto Blue Jays	^†	.332
		.359	New York Yankees		.357
	^†	.356	Seattle Mariners		.333
		.358	Seattle Mariners	^†	.349
	^†	.347	Chicago White Sox	^†	.330
		.339	New York Yankees		.337
		.357	Boston Red Sox	^†	.349
		.372	Boston Red Sox		.355
		.350	Seattle Mariners		.342
		.349	Boston Red Sox		.340
		.326	Boston Red Sox		.325
		.372	Seattle Mariners		.340
		.331	Texas Rangers		.321
		.347	Minnesota Twins	^†	.344
		.363	Detroit Tigers		.351
		.328	Minnesota Twins		.326
		.365	Minnesota Twins		.352
		.359	Texas Rangers		.328
		.344	Detroit Tigers		.338
		.330	Detroit Tigers		.326
		.348	Detroit Tigers		.324
		.341	Houston Astros		.335
		.338	Detroit Tigers		.320
		.338	Houston Astros		.318
		.346	Houston Astros		.330
		.346	Boston Red Sox		.330
		.335	Chicago White Sox		.327

Other major leagues

Year	Winner	AVG	Team	League	Runner-up	2nd AVG	Ref
		.378	Louisville Eclipse	American Association		.342
		.357	Pittsburgh Alleghenys	American Association		.338
		.354	New York Metropolitans	American Association	^†	.339
		.412	St. Louis Maroons	Union Association		.360
		.362	Louisville Colonels	American Association		.342
		.341	Louisville Colonels	American Association		.340
		.435	St. Louis Browns	American Association		.402
		.335	St. Louis Browns	American Association		.321
		.372	Baltimore Orioles	American Association		.335
		.363	Louisville Colonels	American Association		.354
		.373	Cleveland Infants	Players' League		.371
	^†	.350	Boston Reds	American Association	^†	.326
		.370	Indianapolis Hoosiers	Federal League		.348
		.342	Brooklyn Tip-Tops	Federal League		.329

Footnotes

Recognized "major leagues" include the current American and National Leagues and several defunct leagues – the American Association, the Federal League, the Players' League, and the Union Association.
Sources differ whether Nap Lajoie or Ed Delahanty won the American League batting title in 1902 and differ slightly over Lajoie's precise statistics that season. The Hall of Fame credits Lajoie with 129 hits in 352 at bats while MLB and Baseball-Reference.com show 133 hits in 352 at bats. According to Baseball-Reference a player qualified for a batting title prior to 1920 by appearing in 60% of his team's games—82 games in the 136 game schedule in 1902—and Lajoie appeared in 87 team games. As such, Baseball-Reference credits Lajoie with the 1902 title, with Delahanty's.376 batting average placing second. MLB's historical statistics leaderboards, however, use the modern standard of 3.1 plate appearances per team game which Lajoie fell 37 short of. Thus, MLB credits Delahanty with the 1902 title with his.376 average. Similarly, the Hall of Fame lists the 1902 title on Delahanty's plaque and not Lajoie's.
Before the 1910 season, Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Automobile announced he would present a Chalmers Model 30 automobile to the player with the highest batting average at the end of the season. The 1910 race for best average in the American League was between Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers' widely disliked Cobb. On the last day of the season, Lajoie overtook Cobb's batting average with seven bunt hits in a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. Browns' manager Jack O'Connor supposedly told his third baseman Red Corriden to play back down the line all day, which allowed Lajoie easy bunt hits. Cobb complained about the move, though American League President Ban Johnson said that a recalculation showed that Cobb had won the race anyway and Chalmers ultimately awarded cars to both players.
Rules in 1954 required 2.6 at bats per team game, 400 for a 154-game schedule, to qualify for the title and hitless at bats could be added to reach this total. Ted Williams posted a.345 average in 1954 over only 386 at bats, and the required hitless at bats drop him below Avila's league-leading.341 average.
While Baseball-Reference.com lists both Yelich and Marte with a batting average of.329 in 2019, Yelich's average is higher than Marte's if extended to three decimal places.

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