A Surprising Player Wins 2022 MLB Batting Title

The 2022 MLB batting title belongs to...no, not Freddie Freeman.

It's Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets.

Jeff McNeil has captured the NL batting title! @JeffMcNeil805 👑 pic.twitter.com/d7UExbWdBt
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) October 5, 2022

McNeil finished the regular season with an impressive .326 batting average. He sat out the final game of the season while Freddie Freeman made a late push to challenge McNeil, going 3-for-4 and bumping his average all the way up to .325 in Wednesday night's regular-season finale.

It's been a wild ride for McNeil to the top. He didn't play high school baseball until his senior year, setting him back a bit. He was a 12th-round (356th-overall) pick of the 2013 MLB Draft. From 2016-17, he only played 51 games in the minors, as injuries set him back. He was passed over in the Rule 5 Draft. Finally, he didn't make his MLB debut until the age of 26.

Now, the thirty-year-old has overcome all of that and is the 2022 MLB batting title champion.

McNeil finishes the regular season slashing .326/.382/.836, with nine home runs, 62 RBIs, four stolen bases and 73 runs scored over 148 games played.

McNeil finished ahead of Freddie Freeman (.325), Paul Goldschmidt (.317), Manny Machado (.298), Trea Turner (.298) and Nolan Arenado (.293). Those are all impressive names to beat.

What a year for the Flying Squirrel! 👏

Jeff McNeil becomes the second Met in franchise history to win the batting title, joining José Reyes in 2011.@Mets | #LGM pic.twitter.com/bsJElQgF9g
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 6, 2022