Inspired by late SABR founder Bob Davids’s “Baseball Briefs,” since the 1980s I have put together an annual compendium of oddball stats and feats from the previous baseball season, many of which wind up in the March/April Baseball Digest. Here is the 2023 version:
- In the first 103 years that runs batted in were recorded as an official statistic, only two batters had managed to record 100+ RBI in a season from the leadoff spot of the batting order. In 2023, no fewer than three more were added to that list, including a new record-holder, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts with 107 (just edging the Braves’ Ronald Acuña’s 106). Betts also matched the previous record of 39 home runs by a leadoff batter – but Acuña topped it with 41! Following are the all-time leaders in both categories, including the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber (34 homers) and the Rangers’ Marcus Semien (100 RBI):
MOST HOME RUNS BY A LEADOFF BATTER, SEASON, 1876-2023
Player, CLUB (LEA.) YEAR G HR
Ronald Acuña, ATL (NL) 2023 159 41
George Springer, HOU (AL) 2019 119 39
Alfonso Soriano, WAS (NL) 2006 131 39
Mookie Betts, LA (NL) 2023 151 39
Alfonso Soriano, NY (AL) 2002 150 38
Kyle Schwarber, PHI (NL) 2022 123 38
Charlie Blackmon, COL (NL) 2017 156 37
Francisco Lindor, CLE (AL) 2018 153 37
Bobby Bonds, SF (NL) 1973 139 35
Brady Anderson, BAL (AL) 1996 102 35
Alfonso Soriano, NY (AL) 2003 142 35
Mookie Betts, LA (N) 2022 138 35
Brian Dozier, MIN (AL) 2017 151 34
George Springer, HOU (AL) 2017 137 34
Ronald Acuña, ATL (NL) 2019 118 34
Kyle Schwarber, PHI (NL) 2023 108 34
Note: G and HR figures are as a leadoff batter only.
MOST RBI BY A LEADOFF BATTER, SEASON, 1920-2023
Player, CLUB (LEA.) YEAR G RBI
Mookie Betts, LA (NL) 2023 151 107
Ronald Acuña, ATL (NL) 2023 159 106
Charlie Blackmon, COL (NL) 2017 156 103
Darin Erstad, ANA (AL) 2000 156 100
Marcus Semien, TEX (AL) 2023 161 100
Alfonso Soriano, NY (AL) 2002 150 99
Nomar Garciaparra, BOS (AL) 1997 152 98
Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS (AL) 2011 144 97
George Springer, HOU (AL) 2019 119 96
Brian Dozier, MIN (AL) 2017 151 93
DJ LeMahieu, NY (AL) 2019 126 92
Johnny Damon, BOS (AL) 2004 143 91
Grady Sizemore, CLE (AL) 2008 157 90
Francisco Lindor, CLE (AL) 2018 153 90
Note: G and RBI figures are as a leadoff batter only.
- San Diego’s Blake Snell posted a major league-leading 2.25 ERA, 2.13 runs better than the National League’s 4.38 mark. With Tampa Bay in 2018, Snell’s 1.89 ERA was 2.38 runs better than the American League’s 4.27. Since ERA became an official statistic in 1913, just 20 qualifiers have exceeded their league ERA by two runs or more in a season, 11 have done it twice or more, and six have done it in each league. Snell joined Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Zack Greinke, and Trevor Bauer on the latter list.
- Fifty-seven years after Frank Robinson became the first man to win the MVP Award in both leagues, nobody has matched the feat. Mookie Betts has come the closest, winning in the AL with the Red Sox in 2018, and finishing second in the NL with the Dodgers in both 2020 and ’23. Betts has now moved into 19th place all-time in MVP Award Shares, in which a unanimous selection equals one share. With 3.80 shares in his career, Betts knocked Pete Rose (3.68) out of the top 20. Teammate Freddie Freeman (3.45) could join the list in ’24, as could the Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt (3.28):
ALL-TIME MVP AWARD SHARES LEADERS, 1911-2023
9.29 Barry Bonds 5.25 Alex Rodriguez
6.97 Stan Musial 4.97 Mike Schmidt
6.92 Albert Pujols 4.83 Frank Robinson
6.53 Mike Trout 4.79 Frank Thomas
6.43 Ted Williams 4.67 Miguel Cabrera
5.95 Willie Mays 4.20 Jimmie Foxx
5.77 Mickey Mantle 3.98 Yogi Berra
5.45 Hank Aaron 3.86 Eddie Collins
5.44 Joe DiMaggio 3.80 Mookie Betts
5.43 Lou Gehrig 3.69 Hank Greenberg
- Houston’s Kyle Tucker led the AL with 112 runs batted in. Following are the top ten:
AL RBI Leaders, 2023
Kyle Tucker, HOU 112
Adolis Garcia, TEX 107
Julio Rodriguez, SEA 103
Rafael Devers, BOS 100
Marcus Semien, TEX 100
Alex Bregman, HOU 98
Isaac Paredes, TB 98
Yordan Alvarez, HOU 97
Josh Naylor, CLE 97
4 with 96
However, 16 other players had at least 95 RBI apiece, and many of them missed considerable playing time. For examples, Alvarez’s 97 RBI came in just 114 games, Naylor’s 97 in 121, and Corey Seager’s 96 in 119. Here’s how the RBI leaders list might look if all of the contenders played in 157 games, as Tucker did, and maintained their same RBI:game ratio:
AL Projected RBI Leaders, 2023
Yordan Alvarez, HOU 134
Corey Seager, TEX 127
Josh Naylor, CLE 126
Jonah Heim, TEX 114
Adolis Garcia, TEX 114
Kyle Tucker, HOU 112
Shohei Ohtani, LA 110
Isaac Paredes, TB 108
Julio Rodriguez, SEA 104
Justin Turner, BOS 103
Interestingly, the Elias Sports Bureau listed Seager as the league leader in fewest at bats per RBI at 5.0, based on his 96 ribbies in 477 at bats. Alvarez is not listed among the leaders because he fell six plate appearances short of qualifying. Yet Alvarez drove in more runs in far fewer at bats! His 97 RBI in 410 AB averages out to just 4.2 at bats per RBI.
- On June 28, the Yankees’ Domingo Germán hurled a perfect game against Oakland – still the only complete game of his career! Germán joined three previous Yankees who hurled perfectos: Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, David Wells in 1998, and David Cone in 1999. Or more simply, Don, David, David, and Domingo!
- On May 18, the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman hit a grand slam vs. St. Louis for his 300th career home run. By the end of the season, in which he batted .331, Freeman had boosted his career average from .298 to .301. Freeman thus joined the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera and the Angels’ Mike Trout in the exclusive “300/.300 Club”:
300 HOMERS & .300 AVERAGE, 1876-2023
Player HR AVG
Hank Aaron 755 .305
Babe Ruth 714 .342
Willie Mays 660 .302
Manny Ramirez 555 .312
Jimmie Foxx 534 .325
Ted Williams 521 .344
Frank Thomas 521 .301
Mel Ott 511 .304
Miguel Cabrera 511 .306
Lou Gehrig 493 .340
Stan Musial 475 .331
Chipper Jones 468 .303
Vlad. Guerrero 449 .318
Mike Piazza 427 .308
Larry Walker 383 .313
Todd Helton 369 .316
Mike Trout 368 .301
Joe DiMaggio 361 .325
Johnny Mize 359 .312
Robinson Cano 335 .301
Moises Alou 332 .304
Hank Greenberg 331 .313
Freddie Freeman 321 .301
George Brett 317 .305
Edgar Martinez 309 .312
Al Simmons 307 .334
Rogers Hornsby 301 .358
Chuck Klein 300 .320
- Max Scherzer went 9-4 for the 75-87 Mets and 4-2 for the 90-72 Rangers in 2023, thus exceeding the winning percentage for each team. That marked the 15th straight season Scherzer topped his team’s win percentage, tying him with Hall of Famer Grover Alexander for second place on the all-time list. In 2024, Scherzer could match the mark of 16, set by Zack Greinke, 2006-21. Following are the seven pitchers to do this more than a dozen years in a row:
Pitcher Years Total
Zack Greinke 2006-21 16
Grover Alexander 1911-25 15
Max Scherzer 2009-23 15
Lefty Grove 1927-40 14
Walter Johnson 1907-19 13
Randy Johnson 1990-2002 13
Pedro Martinez 1993-2005 13
- For the first time in history, none of the four teams to reach the League Championship Series had more than 90 regular-season wins. In the NL, the Arizona Diamondbacks (84 wins) beat the Philadelphia Phillies (90), while in the AL, the Texas Rangers (90) topped the Houston Astros (90). The Atlanta Braves (104), Baltimore Orioles (101), Los Angeles Dodgers (100), Tampa Bay Rays (99), and Milwaukee Brewers (92) had been eliminated in the earlier rounds. In 2014, only one of the four semi-finalists – the Orioles (96) – surpassed 90 wins.
- With the Rangers battling for a playoff berth, Corey Seager was forced to continue playing despite a painful hit-by-pitch to the hand/wrist area on September 26, and managed only a few scattered singles the rest of the way. It cost Seager not only the AL batting title, but the record for highest slugging percentage ever by a shortstop, held by Alex Rodriguez (.631 in 1996). Seager entered the final week at .645, but slipped to .623, still the third-best ever. Here are the ten .600 seasons by shortstops:
HIGHEST SLUGGING PCT., SEASON, SHORTSTOP (Min. 100 G at SS, 1876-2023)
SLG. Player YEAR G @ SS HR RBI AVG
.631 Alex Rodriguez 1996 146 36 123 .358
.623 Alex Rodriguez 2002 162 57 142 .300
.623 Corey Seager 2023 112 33 96 .327
.622 Alex Rodriguez 2001 161 52 135 .318
.614 Ernie Banks 1958 154 47 129 .313
.611 Fernando Tatis, Jr. 2021 102 42 97 .282
.607 Arky Vaughan 1935 137 19 99 .385
.606 Alex Rodriguez 2000 148 41 132 .316
.603 Nomar Garciaparra 1999 134 27 104 .357
.600 Alex Rodriguez 2003 158 47 118 .298
- Justin Verlander’s career pattern continues to mirror that of a pitcher from the previous generation.
Roger Clemens, a 6-4, 230-pound right-hander, debuted a few months before his 22nd birthday in 1984. Justin Verlander, a 6-5, 225-pound right-hander, debuted a few months after his 22nd birthday in 2005.
In the past half-century, only two starting pitchers have won AL MVP Awards: Roger Clemens and Justin Verlander. Clemens won in 1986, when he went 24-4 with a league-leading 2.48 ERA. Verlander won in 2011, when he went 24-5 with a league-leading 2.40 ERA. Clemens was kicking off a string of outstanding seasons; Verlander was in the midst of a string of excellent seasons of his own.
In 1993, the season following his 30th birthday – about the same age as almost all pre-1980s pitchers started downhill – Clemens finally began to look like a mere mortal. He went a modest 40-39 over the next four seasons. In 2013, the season following his 30th birthday, Verlander also finally began to look like a mere mortal. He went a modest 33-32 over the next three seasons.
Then, Clemens made a remarkable comeback, regaining his status as one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. At age 35 in 1997, he set a career high with 292 strikeouts. Likewise, Verlander regained his status as one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. At age 35 in 2018, he set a career high with 290 strikeouts, and he topped that with 300 in 2019.
Most thought Clemens’s career was over, when he announced his retirement following the 2003 season. But then he came back to win the 2004 Cy Young Award with an 18-4 record for Houston, and followed it with a 13-8 log in 2005. Many thought Verlander’s career was over, after he missed two years of action and had major surgery in his late 30s. But then he came back to win the 2022 Cy Young Award with an 18-4 record for Houston, and followed it with a 13-8 log in 2023.
- The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani easily won the AL home run title with 44, even though he hit his last one on August 23. This recalled a case from a half-century earlier. In 1974, the White Sox’ Dick Allen hit his 32nd and final homer of the year on August 16, yet wound up leading the American League.
- Angels’ pitcher José Soriano is still awaiting his first successful fielding chance. The rookie worked 38 games and 42 innings, and had no putouts or assists, but two throwing errors: June 25 vs. Colorado (an errant pickoff attempt), and September 3 vs. Oakland.
- The American League used pinch-hitters on more than 1,800 occasions, with an aggregate batting average of just .217 – and this was one of the league’s highest marks in the past 15 years! In the seasons since 2008, AL pinch-swingers have hit .208, .206, .216, .207, .208, .208, .215, .196, .210, .208, .220, .205, .220, .218, and .217, respectively. NL substitute batsmen were not much better in 2023, limping in at .219. Which raises my annual questions: Since pitchers no longer bat in either league, whom are these guys hitting for, which makes this such a brilliant strategy? And whose analytics are responsible for it?
- Current pitchers continue to dominate the list of best career strikeout-to-walk ratios. In reaching 2000 K’s, the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole (4.57) joined the list in the #2 spot and knocked the Astros’ Justin Verlander (3.61) out of the top ten:
PITCHERS WITH BEST STRIKEOUT:WALK RATIOS, 1876-2023 (Min. 2000 SO)
Pitcher SO BB RATIO
Chris Sale 2189 416 5.26
Gerrit Cole 2152 471 4.57
Max Scherzer 3367 746 4.51
Clayton Kershaw 2944 669 4.40
Curt Schilling 3116 711 4.38
Pedro Martinez 3154 760 4.15
Dan Haren 2013 500 4.03
Zack Greinke 2979 762 3.91
Madison Bumgarner 2070 544 3.81
David Price 2076 562 3.69
- Four players homered in their final at bats of 2022, but did not play in the majors in ’23: the Mets’ Khalil Lee, Houston’s Jason Castro, Cincinnati’s Chuckie Robinson, and Oakland’s Stephen Vogt. That makes 70 players in history who have gone out with a bang (though Robinson played 101 games in AAA in ’23 and may eventually return to the bigs). However, two players lost their similar claims to trivia immortality. Ben Rortvedt, who had homered in his last at bat for Minnesota in 2021, and not played in the majors in ’22, returned with 68 at bats for the Yankees in ’23. Likewise, Andrew Stevenson, who had connected in his last trip for Washington in 2021, and played in the minors in ’22, resurfaced with 37 at bats for the Twins in ’23.
- Max Scherzer posted a 13-6 won-loss record with the Mets and Rangers, raising his career log to 214-108. He thus became just the 24th pitcher to have 100 more wins than losses at the current pitching distance, joining former teammates Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander and 21 other all-time greats:
PITCHERS WITH 100 MORE WINS THAN LOSSES, 1893-2023
Pitcher W L DIFF.
Christy Mathewson 373 188 185
Roger Clemens 354 184 170
Grover Alexander 373 208 165
Cy Young 439 275 164
Lefty Grove 300 141 159
Walter Johnson 416 279 137
Randy Johnson 303 166 137
Eddie Plank 327 193 134
Whitey Ford 236 106 130
Greg Maddux 355 227 128
Pedro Martinez 219 100 119
Warren Spahn 363 245 118
Clayton Kershaw 210 92 118
Mike Mussina 270 153 117
Jim Palmer 268 152 116
Justin Verlander 257 141 116
Kid Nichols 269 156 113
Tom Seaver 311 205 106
Max Scherzer 214 108 106
Bob Feller 266 162 104
Andy Pettitte 256 153 103
Joe McGinnity 247 144 103
Tom Glavine 305 203 102
Juan Marichal 243 142 101
Note: Young was 72-41 and Nichols was 92-52 before 1893.
- The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani went 29-for-78 at the bat in games he pitched, with 18 runs, three doubles, two triples, seven homers, 14 RBI, and 18 walks, for a .372/.490/.731 slash line in those games. He was, of course, by far the best-hitting pitcher in the majors in 2023; other hurlers went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. The only ones to put a ball in play were the Dodgers’ Shelby Miller and the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright, and neither left the infield. Miller grounded into a force-out at third base on May 1, and Wainwright grounded out, second to first, on September 29.
- Much was made about Kyle Schwarber’s paltry .197 batting average, but the Phillies’ slugger made up for it with patience and power, putting him well above-average in more-important measures. Schwarber’s .343 on-base percentage ranked 29th of 72 NL qualifiers, and his .474 slugging percentage was 20th, higher than that the likes of NL batting champ Luis Arraez, who hit .354 and slugged .469.
- The ugliest pitching line of 2023 belonged to San Diego’s José Castillo. Castillo’s only pitching appearance of the season was on July 4, and he allowed the Angels to put on a fireworks show. He started the ninth inning with an 8-1 lead and faced six batters, giving up a single, triple, hit batsman, and two walks; the only out he recorded was on a sacrifice fly. Charged with four earned runs, Castillo finished his season with a 108.00 ERA. In the misery-loves-company category, two other NL pitchers finished with the same ERA: the Braves’ Taylor Hearn, and the Cubs’ Miles Mastrobuoni. But Mastrobuoni was normally a third baseman, making his big league pitching debut to save the staff in a 16-3 loss to the Twins on May 14. And Hearn also pitched for the Royals, dropping his overall ERA to 11.40 (Hearn had posted a 108.00 ERA for Texas in 2019, too). The three pitchers’ 2023 NL stats add up to one inning pitched, eight hits (two homers) allowed, four walks, a hit batsman, and a wild pitch, good (or bad) for 12 earned runs.
- Despite batting a modest .276, the Rangers’ Marcus Semien led the American League with 185 hits. This was reminiscent of Oakland’s Bert Campaneris in the Year of the Pitcher. In 1968, Campy topped the AL with 177 hits while also batting .276.
- Seattle’s George Kirby had 172 strikeouts and just 19 walks in 190 innings, giving him one of the best single-season strikeout-to-walk ratios (9.05) of all time. Tampa Bay’s Zach Eflin (7.75) also ranks among the leaders:
BEST STRIKEOUT:WALK RATIO, SEASON (Min. 150 SO), 1893-2023
Pitcher, CLUB (LG) YEAR SO BB SO:BB
Clayton Kershaw, LA (N) 2016 172 11 15.64
Phil Hughes, MIN (A) 2014 186 16 11.63
Cliff Lee, SEA-TEX (A) 2010 185 18 10.28
Curt Schilling, ARI (N) 2002 316 33 9.58
George Kirby, SEA (A) 2023 172 19 9.05
Pedro Martinez, BOS (A) 2000 284 32 8.88
Greg Maddux, ATL (N) 1997 177 20 8.85
Pedro Martinez, BOS (A) 1999 313 37 8.46
Ben Sheets, MIL (N) 2004 264 32 8.25
Max Scherzer, WAS (N) 2015 276 34 8.12
Aaron Nola, PHI (N) 2022 235 29 8.10
Greg Maddux, ATL (N) 1995 181 23 7.87
Justin Verlander, HOU (A) 2018 290 37 7.84
Zach Eflin, TB (A) 2023 186 24 7.75
Clayton Kershaw, LA (N) 2014 239 31 7.71
Curt Schilling, ARI (N) 2001 293 39 7.51
- The Rangers’ Corey Seager won his second World Series MVP Award in 2023, adding it to the one he earned with the Dodgers in 2020. Seager joined Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax (1963 & ’65 Dodgers), Bob Gibson (1964 & ’67 Cardinals), and Reggie Jackson (1973 A’s, ’77 Yankees) as the only two-time winners, and became the first to win it in each league.
- Most teams would love to have someone with the following batting stat line in their lineup:
AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG
622 105 171 33 3 34 102 .276 .344 .501
Who is this? It’s everybody in the Braves’ lineup: their 2023 team totals divided by the nine spots in the batting order. The Braves tied the major league record of 307 homers and became the first team ever to compile a .500+ slugging percentage
- On May 7, Kansas City’s Ryan Yarbrough was struck in the face by a 106-mph line drive off the bat of Oakland’s Ryan Noda, suffering “multiple non-displaced fractures” of the skull. But just nine weeks later, on July 9, Yarbrough returned to pitch six strong innings against Cleveland; he later joined the Dodgers, and finished the year with an 8-7, 4.52 record, numbers in line with his recent seasons. Yarbrough’s injury came 66 years to the day after a similar incident involving Cleveland star Herb Score. Unfortunately, Score’s story (told in my 2021 book, Baseball’s Who’s Who of What Ifs) didn’t turn out as well. Seemingly on a Hall of Fame track at age 23, Score didn’t return until a year later, and won only 17 more games the rest of his career.
- On January 24, the Baseball Writers’ Association elected Scott Rolen into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The BBWAA has long been entrusted with making selections for the Hall and other major awards, because they share the stadiums with the players day-in and day-out, year after year. The theory is that they are best equipped to evaluate a player’s contribution to his team, statistical and otherwise.
During his 1996-2012, career, Rolen was regarded as a good, solid player, but certainly not an all-time great. He won the Rookie of the Year Award and eight Gold Gloves at third base, but he never led the league in any offensive category, and only once finished in the top ten in MVP voting. He wound up with 2077 hits, 316 home runs, and a .281 average. According to Bill James’s “similarity scores,” the players with the most comparable career batting stats are Matt Holliday, Paul O’Neill, Shawn Green, Bobby Bonilla, Reggie Smith, and Aramis Ramirez, none of whom has been confused for a serious Hall of Fame candidate. When Rolen first went on the Hall ballot in 2018, he got just 10% of the vote, with 75% required for election. In 2019, he edged up to 17%.
Then, something remarkable happened. Rolen soared in the balloting over the next four years, doubling his support to 35% of the vote in 2020, then leaping to 53% in ’21, 63% in ’22, and 76% in ’23. Even though he hadn’t swung a bat or fielded a grounder in a decade, he seemed to be getting better every year. The same writers who 15 years ago considered Rolen nothing more than a good, solid player, have now voted him in alongside the greats.
How to explain this? Three letters: WAR. Modern metrics, particularly Wins Above Replacement, indicate that Rolen was much better than people thought. The baseball media, which used to ignore or reject such metrics, have now embraced them like a long-lost child. Instead of believing their own eyes, they make their selections based on what a data-base tells them.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t pay attention to modern metrics (though I have a lot of doubt about WAR), nor that Rolen didn’t deserve consideration for the Hall. I was touting and contributing to Sabermetrics decades before the media discovered them. But I have a big problem with the disconnect between the way a player was perceived during his career, to his suddenly becoming considered an immortal after the fact. The same is happening with Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran, a rookie on the ’23 ballot. WAR has increasingly dictated MVP and Cy Young Award selections as well.
If writers are going to evaluate players almost solely based on Sabermetrics, why have voters at all?
- At the All-Star break, Miami’s Luis Arraez led the majors with a blistering .383 batting average, 52 points above any other NL player. That’s the highest average at the All-Star break by any qualifier in the 21st century (and since PED-testing began); the last players to top that were Nomar Garciaparra (.389) and Darin Erstad (.384) in 2000.
- Only 19 major league pitchers had at least 20 decisions, with a higher winning percentage than that of their team. Three of them were on the 88-74 Seattle Mariners: Luis Castillo (14-9), Logan Gilbert (13-7), and George Kirby (13-10).
- Not surprisingly, the Angels Shohei Ohtani led American League designated hitters with 44 home runs. What may be surprising is how far he was ahead of everyone else in that role. No other AL player hit even half as many homers while in the DH spot; Houston’s Yordan Alvarez ranked second with 19.
- The Mets’ David Peterson, the Marlins’ Ryan Weathers, and the Royals’ Taylor Clarke were not too good at keeping batters off base, but they were the best in the majors at stopping them in their tracks. Peterson and Weathers tied for second in the bigs with six pickoffs, just one behind the Nationals’ Patrick Corbin – but Corbin required more innings than the other two combined, and allowed 28 stolen bases on his watch. Base-stealers were just 4-for-9 in steal attempts with Peterson on the mound (111 innings), and 2-for-7 with Weathers pitching (57.2 IP). And they were 0-for-3 with Clarke on the bump; Clarke also had four pickoffs in just 59 innings,
- Two Dodgers’ stars each earned monthly awards for the first time in seven years. Clayton Kershaw was NL Pitcher of the Month for April, his seventh such award, but the first since May, 2016. Mookie Betts was NL Player of the Month for August, repeating the honor he won in July, 2016 for the Red Sox. Betts became the 44th player to win a Player or Pitcher of the Month in both leagues; San Diego’s Blake Snell had become the 43rd two months earlier. Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña won the NL Award for each of the 30-month days, April, June, and September, making him one of the few to earn three in one season. Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow was AL Pitcher of the Month for July, his second (April, 2019), though he’s pitched just 127 games in his career; meanwhile, Hall of Famers Phil Niekro, Bert Blyleven, and Dennis Eckersley never won the award.
- Although he played in just 58 games with 217 at bats, Minnesota rookie Royce Lewis led the major leagues in grand slams. Four of Lewis’s 15 homers were hit with the bases loaded. Overall, Lewis batted .545 and slugged 1.636 with the sacks full, knocking in 20 runs in 11 at bats. He had also homered in his only bases-loaded at bat in 2022.
- Despite a 6-17 record and 6.28 ERA, Kansas City’s Jordan Lyles tied for the MLB lead with three complete games in 2023. Ironically, all three were losses, against the White Sox (May 9), Red Sox (August 9), and Cubs (August 20).
- Arguably the two best pinch-hitters in 2023 were the Twins’ Ryan Jeffers and the Mets’ Eduardo Escobar. Jeffers had just eight plate appearances in that role, but collected two singles, a double, two home runs, a walk, a hit batsman, and a stolen base, giving him an .833/.875/2.000 slash line. Escobar batted just three times in the pinch, but had two homers and a single; in other action, he was just 23-for-107 (.215) with two homers. No other major leaguer had more than two pinch-homers in 2023.
- The Astros won the AL West title despite having the majors’ worst record in extra-inning games. Houston was 90-72 overall, but just 1-8 in overtime contests.
- The Reds’ TJ Friedl tied a major league record by not grounding into a double play all season. Friedl had 556 plate appearances and 488 at bats.
Dizzy Deane 