Major League Baseball has had only one Triple Crown winner since 1967, Miguel Cabrera in 2012.
In the National League, no one has achieved it since Joe “Ducky” Medwick in 1937 with a .374 average, 31 homers, and 154 RBIs. Could Shohei Ohtani end this long drought? He’s close enough at the halfway point to make it interesting.
Let’s dive into the numbers and see how he’s doing so far.
NL Batting Average Leaders:
1. Ohtani: .322
2. Jurickson Profar: .316
3. Luis Arráez: .310
4. Bryce Harper: .305
Marcell Ozuna: .305
Christian Yelich is hitting .325 but hasn’t qualified for the batting title yet due to fewer plate appearances. If he stays healthy, he’ll soon be another contender for Ohtani to watch out for.
NL Home Run Leaders:
1. Ohtani: 25
2. Ozuna: 21
3. Harper: 20
4. Teoscar Hernández: 18
5. Christian Walker: 17
Kyle Schwarber: 17
Fans might think it’s exciting to see such tight competition among these power hitters.
NL RBI Leaders:
1. Ozuna: 64
Alec Bohm: 64
3. Ohtani: 61
4. Harper: 57
5. Profar and Hernández tied at 55
Triple Crown stats aren’t everything, but they’ve been celebrated for over a century, making Cabrera’s win in 2012 memorable and fun to watch.
If Ohtani wins, he’d be the first Dodgers player ever to do so and the first National League player in nearly nine decades! The last ones were Medwick (Cardinals), Rogers Hornsby (twice with Cardinals), Heinie Zimmerman (Cubs), and Paul Hines (Providence Greys). The American League has seen ten winners including Ted Williams twice, while the Negro Leagues had eleven winners like Oscar Charleston three times and Josh Gibson twice.
What do you think? Can Ohtani pull it off?
