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May 2026, even with the big weekend, sticks out in the 30-team era. Outside of extra innings, the league hit .238, third-lowest of any month since 1998. The other two months, though, come with very big asterisks: April of 2021 and 2022, when hitters had shortened spring trainings owing to the pandemic and the owners’ lockout, respectively. Not sure how big a deal that is? The third month on the list is July 2020, again with hitters not granted much in the way of exhibition reps. The league hit .232, .231, and .233 in those three months, and I’m comfortable calling all of them “special circumstances.”
So May 2026 is the worst month for batting average since 1998.
