DUNEDIN, Fla. — Other major league teams aren’t rushing to copy contact hitting, 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 Major League Baseball in that statistic.
“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.”
American League champion 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 National League’s Dodgers were sixth in the majors in batting average at .253 but were second in on-base plus slugging percentage at .768, trailing only the AL’s New York Yankees’ .787
Four players for Toronto were among MLB’s 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 the Philadelphia Phillies, who were second.