SAN DIEGO -- Six games remain in the regular season.
Can Marlins All-Star shortstop Otto Lopez put the cherry on top of a breakout season with one final hot stretch?
Lopez is 15 hits shy of just the seventh 200-hit campaign in franchise history and is still within striking distance of becoming the club’s fourth National League batting champion, joining Luis Arraez (2023), Dee Strange-Gordon (‘15) and Hanley Ramirez (‘09).
The 27-year-old Lopez, who leads the Majors with 185 hits, trails Phillies second baseman Arraez (.313) and D-backs catcher Gabriel Moreno (.307) in average (.305) after Sunday’s hitless performance. He entered Monday third in the NL among position players in fWAR (5.5), behind NL MVP frontrunner Pete Crow-Armstrong (10.4) and Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz (6.2).
“At this point, I just want to finish strong,” Lopez said. “All I'm thinking about is just finishing as strong as possible. If I can get to 200 or not, I'll be just happy about how this year has been. I'm not expecting anything. Right now, all expectation is to go out every day and just get a win.”
Could Lopez bat leadoff over these final six games to get more at-bats, just like he did on Saturday?
“I would love for that to happen for Otto,” manager Clayton McCullough had said of his chase for 200. “Tonight, him leading off was as much against [Casey] Mize and going with more righties toward the top and spreading out the lefties a little bit. I think there's a chance we could see Otto hitting all over the place.”
What would Lopez need to do to reach 200 hits and/or catch up to Arraez?
Lopez has 55 multihit games this season, one behind Arraez and Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson. The most hits he has collected in a six-game span in 2026 is 14 (done twice), which would put him one shy of 200 for the season.
If Lopez averaged four at-bats per game, he would need to go 13-for-24 to match Arraez’s current average (.31378) and would still fall short of 200 hits.
“I'm not putting it past him that he couldn't get really hot here down the stretch and chase 200 down,” McCullough said, “and if he's able to do that, then there's a good chance that he's able to push his average up even higher.”
Although Lopez has gone deep fewer times (11) this season compared to last year (15), he has more extra-base hits (52 vs. 36) thanks to 32 doubles (tied for eighth in the NL) and nine triples (third).
His 30 infield hits rank second behind Simpson, according to FanGraphs. Although that’s an indication of a high ground-ball rate (50% entering Sunday), it also shows that Lopez takes advantage of his above-average sprint speed (28.5 ft/sec, 81st percentile).
If not for an injury this summer, Lopez might be the one getting chased rather than in pursuit.
On July 18, Lopez led the Majors with a .335 average. But that day in Milwaukee, a grounder took a big hop and caught his right ring finger. Though X-rays came back negative, he missed the next two games with inflammation. Upon his return, it clearly affected him as his numbers dipped.
In 42 games from July 21 through Sept. 5, when Lopez’s average fell to .300 on consecutive days -- the lowest since April 4 -- he had a slash line of .220/.270/.286.
“I think the slump came because of the injury on the hand,” hitting coach Pedro Guerrero said. “Being afraid of getting jammed after your hand hurts -- it's kind of inevitable. Your body's just going to try to protect. Then, when it wasn't hurting anymore, now the patterns that he created, trying to protect the hand, it was really hard to get out of that mindset or feel. So, that was a little bit of a challenge, but something for me to grow and learn from it, and trying to get him back a little bit quicker.”
Added Lopez: “It was a little hard in those moments, but right now, I feel great, and just trying to finish the season strong.”