This season, Major League Baseball saw a record-low of 26 complete games, which is four fewer than what Catfish Hunter threw in 1975. The league’s batting average also fell to .243, one of the five lowest averages since 1900.
Pitchers managed only 16 individual shutouts, matching the lowest total from 2022 in a non-shortened season since 1874. Baserunners stole 3,617 bases, the third-highest number since 1900, following 4,574 in 1914 and 4,108 in 1915.
This was an increase from 3,503 last year and 2,486 in 2022, the season before rules changed to limit pickoff attempts and enlarged the bases from 15 inches to 18 inches. The success rate for stolen bases this year was 79%, slightly down from 80.2% last year.
The complete game count was lower than the 29 recorded during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. This year featured 2,429 games, compared to 898 in 2020, when the season started on July 23.
Only Cristopher Sánchez of Philadelphia, Max Fried of Atlanta, and Kevin Gausman of Toronto had two complete games each. The complete game count fell from 35 last year and 36 in 2022. In previous years, there were 50 in 2021, 104 in 2015, 209 in 2003, and 622 in 1988.
No pitcher managed more than one shutout this season. The final batting average of .2433 was only better than .237 in 1968, .239 in 1908, .242 in 1967, and .2427 in 2022.
The average increased to .248 last year after restrictions on defensive shifts were put in place. This year’s average was affected by a .239 average through April, down from .249 last year.
There were just seven qualified hitters with a .300 average, the second-fewest after six in 1968. In 1999, there were 55. Home runs decreased to 1.12 per team per game, down from 1.21 last year but up from 1.07 in 2022. The use of humidors for storing baseballs expanded from two teams to five in 2020 and was standardized across the league in 2022.
