Baseball's Best in September, 2023

Issue #125

The baseball regular season is a long one, essentially running for six months. Most players have good and bad months each year, and some can be extreme. But September (including any regular season games in October, which this year was just Sunday, October 1st) is particularly an interesting month to consider because doing well in September could be a sign of good things to come the following season.

This year, September saw the following statistical highs for hitters:

• Batting Average: .418, Xander Bogaerts

• HR: 11, Matt Olson and Ronald Acuna Jr.

• RBI: 29, Juan Soto

• Runs: 29, Ronald Acuna Jr.

• SB: 13, Corbin Carroll

No huge surprises there, except maybe Bogaerts to some extent. He has been a good hitter in his career, but was batting only .258 as of August 31. Batting .418 during the final month flipped those last two digits such that his 2023 season ended with a .285 average, only six points below his career norm of .291.

Some September hitters whose numbers I find more interesting are the following:

• Rockies OF Nolan Jones had a great September, slashing .349/.461/.651, with 7 HR, 3 triples, 5 doubles… and 12 SB. I emphasize that SB total because Jones ended the season with 20 SB in 106 games (and another 5 in 39 AAA games). But prior to 2023 his season high in SB was only 10, at AAA in 2021, so this is an interesting development.

• Cubs RF Seiya Suzuki hit .370 with 26 RBI, 9 doubles, 2 triples, and 7 HR. Could he finally be coming around as a major league star?

• Angels C Logan O’Hoppe only batted .258, but had 9 HR. He had 26 HR in 104 games at AA in 2022, so perhaps that power is now ready for the big leagues.

• Reds 1B/3B/DH Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit .301 with 8 HR in September, giving him 13 HR for the Reds and 20 HR in AAA this year. That followed hitting 32 HR in 122 games at A/AA in 2022. At 23 years old, he is one of several exciting young players on the Reds going into 2024.

Roster of baseball’s best for September 2023

Plenty of guys had good or great September numbers besides those mentioned above. Here is my overall roster of baseball’s best players for the month:

For starting pitchers I included the ten guys with the best ERA who started four or more games in September. Some highlights are:

• San Diego’s Blake Snell further solidified his case for the NL Cy Young Award by posting an MLB-best 0.58 ERA in 5 starts over the last month of the season. He had 41 K and only 13 hits allowed in 31 IP. He finished the season with a 14-9 record, his second ERA title with a 2.25 mark, and an impressive 234 K in 180 IP. The only knock on him is that he does walk a lot of guys, leading the NL with 99 in fact. But since he only let up 115 hits, his WHIP was still a fine 1.189.

• Similarly, the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole had a great final month with a 1.03 ERA across five starts, with 34 K and only 21 hits allowed over 35 IP. Since he led the AL in ERA with a 2.63 mark, and had 220 K while leading the AL with both a 0.981 WHIP and 209 IP, I assume he is the frontrunner for his first, somewhat elusive AL Cy Young Award (he has five times been in the top five in CYA voting).

• While his full season was much shorter and so he’s not in the running for any awards, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal had just as good of a final month as Snell and Cole. He had a 0.90 ERA in 5 starts, with 43 K and only 14 hits allowed over 30 IP.

• The others I included in the top-10 shown above all had ERAs between 1.44 and 2.02 during the final month of the season. Many others had ERAs below 2.50 in 4 or more starts, and so deserve at least honorable mention, including Bailey Ober, Kodai Senga, Adrian Houser, Grayson Rodriguez, Michael King, Braxton Garrett, Clayton Kershaw, Kevin Gausman, Nick Pivetta, and Kyle Gibson.

For relievers I listed the seven guys with five or more saves who also had an ERA below 2.00. Some highlights are:

• Pittsburgh’s David Bednar led the way, posting 10 saves with a 1.46 ERA in September, helping him to a tie with Camilo Doval for the NL lead in saves with 39 on the year.

• Tanner Scott did his part to help Miami into the playoffs, posting 9 saves with a 1.65 ERA in September.

• Oakland’s Trevor May no doubt increased his free agency value in September by recording 6 saves while not allowing any earned runs in 9.2 innings of work.

All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites.

Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.