Another Double Play Race

Yes, I’m doing this again.

You might recall last season, when I posted several times about what appeared to be a couple of serious attempts by to break Jim Rice’s single-season record for grounding into double plays.

• The first came right around this time, May 22 to be exact, when I noted that Aaron Judge had played in only 38 games but had already grounded into 11 double plays. That put him on pace to tie Rice’s record total of 36. Then Judge played 120 more games and only grounded into 11 more double plays. His total of 22 still led the league, but never threatened Rice’s record after I wrote about it.

• About three weeks later I pointed out that his pace had dropped, but noted that four other players had since tied Judge for the most in baseball. Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. ended up with just 16 by the end of the year. Bo Bichette got hurt and hit into just 12. Josh Bell was traded at the deadline, lost playing time after the deal, and finished with 22 GIDPs. But the fourth guy, Manny Machado, made a serious run at the record after Luis Arráez arrived by trade in May.

• Alas, Machado fell short. He still let the National League with 25 GIDPs, his third time leading the league in that category, and twice (here and here) I wrote updates about his progress. He had those 25 GIDPs on August 16 with nearly 40 team games left to play, and then shockingly never grounded into another double play for the rest of the season.

As hitting styles evolve to lots of swinging and missing, and lots of fly balls, it’s going to become harder and harder for a player to compile a lot of double plays. There simply aren’t enough opportunities to hit into one, and most players just don’t hit as many ground balls as they used to. When Rice set the record in 1984, we’d see 0.76 double plays per game across the major leagues, and that rate stayed pretty consistent for the next 30 years or so.

The face of grounding into double plays for over 40 years now, Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox. (Getty Images)

• 1984: 0.76 GIDPs/G

• 1994: 0.76 GIDPs/G

• 2004: 0.78 GIDPs/G

• 2014: 0.74 GIDPs/G