So, I’ve been asking around—asking people in baseball, asking statistically-minded analysts, asking friends—a simple question: Who is the best hitter in baseball?
Before we can answer that, I suppose we have to define terms: What do we mean by “best hitter in baseball?” That used to be an easier question: The batter with the highest average was called the batting champion (and still is). Rod Carew, George Brett, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, these players had the best batting averages and, as such, were often called the best hitters in baseball.
But even when batting average was king, the batting champ was not always considered the best hitter. Bill Madlock won FOUR batting titles, and I’d wager to say that nobody thought he was the best hitter in baseball even in those seasons. He never finished Top 5 in the MVP voting.
Instead, I’d say the best hitter in baseball is a more ambiguous title. The way I have described it is like so: It’s the bottom of the ninth inning. Two outs. You’re down a run and there’s a runner on first base. Or maybe the score is tied and there’s a runner on second base. Or maybe you’re down three runs and there are two runners on. Or maybe you’re down two runs and there’s nobody on base.
And the question being asked is: Who do you want to come up in not just one of those situations but in ALL of them? In other words, who would you most bet on to give you the great at-bat, the one who is best-suited to give you a single if you need a single, a double if you need a double, a home run if you need a home run and draw a walk if you need a rally started?
Oh, also, we’re not just talking about one season. Aaron Judge was the best hitter in 2022. But is he the best hitter in baseball or did he just have one season for the ages? The one player who is not on this list, even though everybody talked about him with awe, is Fernando Tatis Jr. I just don’t think you can put him on the list after he missed the entire 2022 season.
OK, enough preamble. Who are the 10 best hitters in baseball?
Here are the results based on a few conversations.
Honorable mentions: Fernando Tatis Jr.; Vladimir Guerrero Jr.; Manny Machado; Trea Turner; Rafael Devers.
No. 10 - Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals
I don’t know why, but for some reason in the late 2010s, I kind of thought Goldschmidt was declining. As I look over his career, I wonder why I thought that. I guess his batting average and overall effectiveness dropped a bit in 2019, his first year with the Cardinals.
But you look over his career—he has been good every single year since 2013. Every one. He hits .300, he hits 30 homers, he drives in 100 runs, he scores 100 runs, he walks a lot, he plays excellent first base defense, he runs the bases aggressively and well, all of it. Paul Goldschmidt is going into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Goldschmidt seemed on his way to a Triple Crown in 2022, but he had a bit of a nasty slump in the final two weeks of the season. Throughout his career, he’s had sluggish Septembers, probably because he plays so hard and plays every day and his body wears down.
Composite comment*: He does have quite a bit of swing-and-miss in his game, which might move him down on your list, but few batters in baseball control the strike zone the way he does. He rarely goes chasing out of the zone. You can usually count on him to give you a good at-bat; that’s why he has been so incredibly consistent over his career.
*After each player, I’ll put together a composite comment that reflects the array of comments I heard from people.
Mark Blinch//Getty ImagesShohei Ohtani has been intentionally walked more times than any other hitter in the AL over the past three years.
No. 9 - Shohei Ohtani, Angels
Over the last three seasons, Shohei Ohtani has been intentionally walked 34 times, most in the American League. That tells you two things. One, it tells you that the Angels have done a pretty terrible job of putting a good hitter behind him. Here is a full list of the batters who came up after Ohtani intentional walks the last three years:
- Phil Gosselin, 10 times
- Taylor Ward, 7 times
- Anthony Rendon, 6 times
- Luis Rengifo, 3 times
- David Fletcher, 2
- Jo Adell
- Mark Canha
- Brandon Marsh
- Justin Upton
- Tyler Wade
- Jared Walsh
Rendon is the hugely disappointing one: The Angels believed they were getting one of the best hitters in baseball when they signed him, and it hasn’t worked out that way.
Anyway, that’s the first reason Ohtani has been intentionally walked so much.
But the second reason is that he puts together great at-bats. Ohtani does strike out a ton, so his batting average will not leave you overly impressed. But he walks a lot, and hits the ball hard into gaps; it’s telling that Ohtani led the league in triples in 2021 in addition to his 46 home runs.
Composite comment: It’s easy to miss just how good a hitter Ohtani has become because of the hype that always surrounds him. He’s an aggressive hitter who swings and misses a lot, but he really knows how to work an at-bat, and he hits the ball hard all the time. He’s also one of those guys who could see his numbers jump when baseball eliminates the shift.
Rob Leiter//Getty ImagesMookie Betts set a career high with 35 home runs in 2022.
No. 8 - Mookie Betts, Dodgers
Something weird has happened with Betts since he got to Los Angeles — his batting average on balls in play has tumbled. BABIP can be unpredictable, but in his six seasons with the Red Sox, his was .314. In his MVP season of 2018, it was .368, third-highest in baseball. A lot of hits dropped for Mookie.
It hasn’t been as true in Los Angeles. With the Dodgers, his BABIP is .277 — and that is reflected in his diminishing batting average. He was a lifetime .301 hitter with the Red Sox. He’s hitting .271 with the Dodgers. Some of it, certainly, is leaving Fenway Park. But it’s also true that he’s simply not hitting the ball as hard as often.
But he’s obviously still one of the game’s elite hitters. He led the National League in runs in 2022. He set a career-high with 35 home runs. He doesn’t chase bad pitches, he’s one of the harder hitters to strike out (even though he did strike out 100 times in 2022) and he hits balls into gaps (he was one of only four players in baseball to have 40 doubles and 30 homers this year).
Composite comment: Mookie does seem a bit streaky to me — he can look pretty bad one week and look like the best hitter in baseball the next — but at the end of every season, you look up and see him with elite numbers. You wonder what sort of adjustments he will make now that he’s 30 years old and probably doesn’t have quite the elite speed he once had. He’s such a great hitter, though, I suspect he’ll just ramp up the power.
No. 7 - José Ramírez, Guardians
Ramírez has put up five MVP-caliber seasons in the last six years, and I suspect there are casual baseball fans who still have never heard of him. It’s simply his fate to be overlooked. He doesn’t seem to mind.
What makes him such a great hitter? He doesn’t miss pitches in the strike zone. His contact percentage on balls in the zone is among the best in baseball, and unlike some of the other hitters who make a lot of contact, he drives the ball into gaps. He led the league in doubles for the second time in 2022.
Composite comment: I think people overlook Ramírez because if you saw him walking down the street, you would never think he’s a ballplayer. He’s short and kind of round, sort of Kirby Puckett-shaped. He doesn’t impress you with his exit velocity — other guys on your list certainly hit the ball harder — but nobody in the game gets more extra-base hits.
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No. 6 - Freddie Freeman, Dodgers
Well, what do you know: Another MVP-type season from Freddie Freeman. He led the league in runs scored for the third season in a row. He led the league in doubles for the third time. He led the league on-base percentage for the first time.
And if you look over his career — he just gets better and better. He’s cut down his swings and misses to the point where he’s now one of the tougher hitters in the league to strike out. He just makes so much more contact than he did before, and it’s hard contact. And because of his great approach at the plate, he’s become a guy that teams are reluctant to shift against.
Composite comment: Freddie is not a technical guy; he’s all about seeing the ball and hitting the ball. What I’ve seen with him over the last few years is how much confidence he’s gained. He doesn’t mind having two strikes on him. He’s not one of those hitters who barely misses a good pitch and then thinks to himself, ‘Oh, man, I missed my chance.’ He’s sure that he’ll just hit the next one.
No. 5 - Juan Soto, Padres
I’d say Soto inspired more conflicting comments than anyone else in the Top 10. Some love him. Others think he’s a bit overhyped. He had a weird 2022 season; he came into the season a .301/.432/.550 hitter. But first playing with a going-nowhere Nationals team and then getting dealt midseason to the Padres, he never got his batting average going at all. His hard-hit percentage dropped. He ended up hitting just .242 and slugging just .452. After he got to San Diego, he hit ground balls — lots and lots and lots of ground balls. There were some comments about that.
Of course, Soto is still a unicorn. He walks so much more than he strikes out. He still has elite power. And he’s only 24 years old (his birthday was on Tuesday). I’d lock him up if I were the Padres.
Composite comment: Soto is the best young hitter in the game. … He took a step backward this year. … I think once he settles in with the Padres, he’s going to be the National League MVP in 2023. … I think all the Ted Williams talk has not done Juan much good. He’s always going to walk a lot because of his incredible plate discipline, but he looked a lot less aggressive to me this year. And he started hitting a lot of ground balls. That’s something he will have to deal with because of his swing and approach. I saw it happen to Christian Yelich; he just stopped putting the ball in the air. Soto’s a great hitter for sure, and he should only get better, but for the first time there were a couple of danger signs.
Michael Reaves//Getty ImagesBryce Harper’s two-run home run in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series helped propel the Phillies into the World Series.
No. 4 - Bryce Harper, Phillies
This year was hampered by injury, but once the playoffs began suddenly Harper was Harper again. I don’t like to give myself too much credit — mainly because I almost never deserve it — but there was an at-bat in the Cardinals’ wild-card series when Harper fouled a ball straight back and I thought; “Uh-oh, Bryce is back.” There was just something about the way he attacked the pitch that suggested he was feeling healthy again and he was about to blow up. Which he did.
It’s been a wild career already for Harper. He had a season for the ages in 2015. He had seasons when pitchers simply threw fastballs right by him. His batting average has fluctuated from .243 to .330. his slugging percentage has fluctuated from .423 to .649. For a long time, you simply didn’t know what you were going to get.
But now, as he enters his 30s, you get the sense that he’s figured it all out. He’s No. 4 on this list, but in two years he might just be No. 1.
Composite comment: He’s probably my favorite hitter in baseball to watch right now because he’s just so smart about hitting. You’re just not going to fool him much. That home run he hit against San Diego is a perfect example. [Robert] Suarez challenged him and mixed speeds and Bryce fouled off pitches until he saw the one he wanted. And then he drove the pitch the other way for a home run. It was a masterclass.
No. 3 - Aaron Judge, Yankees
I mean, what more is there to say about Judge? He led the league in runs, homers, RBIs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in 2022. He also hit .300 for the first time in his career. It was one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history.
So why is he not No. 1? The people I talked with, pretty much unanimously, think this was a once-in-a-lifetime season for Judge, and while he will continue to be great, he will not be THIS great. I don’t know if they’re right, it might be the case that Judge is healthy and has figured it all out.
Composite comment: The thing that impresses me most about Judge is how much more contact he makes now. He used to chase a lot; pitchers would count on getting ahead of him in the count and getting him to swing at a pitch out of the zone. He pretty much stopped doing that in 2021 and 2022. He was so locked in this year; it was really fun to watch. But it will be interesting to see how he ages; he’s such an unusual talent because of his size and strength that it’s tough to project what he will be like at age 35.
Bob Levey//Getty ImagesPeople around the game speak about the ability of Yordan Alvarez, 25, in hushed tones.
No. 2 - Yordan Alvarez, Astros
If there has been a surprise in my conversations, it’s how much people in and around the game are in awe of Yordan Alvarez. I mean, yes, he’s obviously a terrific hitter, but he’s only 25, and he’s never led the league in any category, and he only played in his first All-Star Game this season.
Still, people talk about him in hushed tones.
Composite comment: I don’t think people who don’t follow the Astros fully understand just how good Yordan is. Maybe they figured out some of it when he hit that home run to beat the Mariners, but I think he might be the toughest guy in baseball to face. When he’s right, there’s no way to get him out. You can’t throw it by him. You can’t get him to chase sliders. He loves off-speed stuff. He doesn’t swing and miss. He keeps his bat in the zone for such a long time. He’s the guy I’d want at the plate.
No. 1 - Mike Trout, Angels
The once and future king.
Composite comment: I don’t know how healthy he is or how healthy he is going to be. But Mike Trout is the best hitter I’ve ever seen. As good as you think he is, he’s actually better than that.
Joe Posnanski has been called "contemporary sports writing's biggest star." For more stories from Joe, subscribe to his Joe Blogs Substack newsletter at joeposnanski.com, where he writes about sports, pop culture, life, and all manner of nonsense.
Joe Posnanski has been named the best sportswriter in America by five different organizations, including the Sports Media Hall of Fame and the Associated Press Sports Editors. He has also won two Sports Emmy Awards. He is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of six books, and he co-hosts the PosCast with television writer and creator Michael Schur.
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