When baseball fans think of the best hitting catchers of all-time, they might think of Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench or Mike Piazza. Gabriel Moreno just did something they never did.
Moreno won the National League batting title — highest batting average in the league — with a .311 average as the regular season wrapped up on Sunday. He became not only the first Diamondback player to win the honor but only the fifth catcher in MLB history to ever win it.
“It’s something that you dream when you’re playing baseball since you’re 3 years old, 4 years old,” Moreno told The Associated Press about winning the batting title.
The D-backs missed out on the postseason, however, being eliminated on the final day of the regular season on Sunday. It is the second time in the last three seasons they’ve been the top National League team to miss the playoffs.
Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno chases down a pitch that gets away from him during the ninth inning of a game against the New York Yankees, Friday, Sept. 18 at Chase Field in Phoenix.
(The Associated Press/Ross D. Franklin)
Place in catcher history
Moreno joins Eugene “Bubbles” Hargrave (1926), Ernie Lombardi (1938, 1942), Joe Mauer (2006, 2008, 2009) and Buster Posey (2012) as the only catchers with the accomplishment. Lombardi and Mauer are in the Hall of Fame. Posey is sure to join them when he becomes eligible next year.
For seasoned baseball fans, a .311 average may not feel worth of a batting crown. It is the second-lowest average to earn a batting title since 1968, after Philadelphia's Trea Turner’s .304 average to win the NL title last year.
That’s less of a reflection on Moreno and more of a reflection on trends in Major League Baseball as a whole. Regardless of the differences in eras, most baseball analysts agree players should be judged in relation to the players within their own era. That puts Moreno in rare company as a batting champion catcher.
There is another staggering stat that shows how good Moreno has been in his first five major league seasons. Moreno has the highest wins above replacement per 162 games of any National or American League catcher since 1898.
Moreno’s WAR/162 is 5.7, topped only by two catchers from the 1800s — Buck Ewing and Charlie Bennett, both at 5.9 — and Josh Gibson with an astronomical 11.1 WAR/162 in the Negro Leagues.
Moreno has been a star on both offense and defense, earning a Gold Glove in 2023. He'll likely be at least a finalist for the award this year as well. While he’s been great over a short period, he still has a long way to go to be ranked among the all-time greats. The Venezuelan-born catcher has missed a lot of time early in his career. This is the first season he’s played enough to qualify for a batting title.
At 26, Moreno has played only about a fifth of the career games of the next catcher on the WAR/162 list, Johnny Bench: 446 versus 2,158. Even comparing to a catcher with a shorter career, Moreno has only about a third of the career games as Buster Posey’s 1,371 games.
San Francisco Giants' Bryce Eldridge, left, is tagged out at home by Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno during the fourth inning of the first game of a doubleheader, Saturday, Aug. 29 in San Francisco.
(The Associated Press/Jeff Chiu)
Place in D-backs history
Moreno is the first Diamondback in the team’s 29-year history to earn a batting title, though his teammate Ketel Marte came within spitting distance of it once.
In 2019, Marte and Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich both had a .329 average to top the National League. However, Yelich had a narrow lead over Marte: .3292 versus .3286. One more hit would have put Marte over the top.
Moreno is also only the second Diamondback to lead the National League in any of the three triple-crown categories. In 2013, Paul Goldschmidt led the league with 125 RBIs and tied with Pittsburgh’s Pedro Alvarez for the league lead with 36 home runs.
Plenty of other Snakes have topped Moreno's .311 average, however. Moreno’s 2026 mark is tied for the eighth best average in a season in league history with Luis Gonzalez’s 2000 season. Gonzo also has the team record, with a .336 average in 1999.
If Moreno leads the team in batting average again next year, he will join Gonzalez as the only D-backs to do so in back-to-back seasons. Gonzalez led the team from 1999 to 2001, as well as in 2003.
Why are batting averages down?
From 1973-2012, the lowest the MLB-wide batting average ever dropped was .254 in a season. In the 14 seasons since, it has been at or below that number in all but two seasons, with the two exceptions being just a point higher at .255. In 2026, the league-wide average was .244.
This can be mostly attributed to a change in approach: the “three true outcomes.” In short, most players started trying to swing for the fences instead of trying to slap singles.
The last time batting averages and on-base percentages were this consistently this low, the MLB made significant rule changes meant to benefit hitters. In 1969, MLB lowered the pitching mound and shrunk the strike zone. Offensive numbers rebounded pretty quickly. In 1973, the American League added the designated hitter to help produce offense. However, the league-average slugging percentage today is much higher than it was then.
MLB banning the shift ahead of the 2023 season was meant to incentivize hitting for average. It’s still early, but it doesn’t seem to have changed the landscape much. It saw a five-point jump in MLB-wide average from 2022 to 2023 (.243 to .248), but the average dropped back down to .243, .245 and .244 in the subsequent years. The National League also added the designated hitter ahead of the 2022 season.
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Mark Carlisle joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, covering Glendale. He has since moved to the Daily Independent team, primarily covering the city of Phoenix along with other topics affecting the Valley at-large.
Community: Mark enjoys taking his two young sons to parks, the Phoenix Zoo, the Phoenix Public Library and other fun events around the Valley. He also participates in a local book club.
Education: Chapman University with a BA in English Journalism and one in Screenwriting.
Random Fact: Mark worked at a tuxedo shop in college. Just don’t ask him to tie a bowtie.
Hobbies: Spending time with his wife, sons and dog, watching sports and TV shows, listening to audiobooks and occasionally writing fiction or designing a board game.
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