Every MLB Batting Triple Crown Winner

We run through every player in the history of Major League Baseball to win the batting “Triple Crown.”

In baseball, the “hitting” or “batting” Triple Crown refers to a player who leads his league – American or National League - in batting average, home runs and runs batted in.

In the history of the MLB, 17 different players have won the Triple Crown, with the most recent being Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera in 2012. The last winner before that was all the way back in 1967, when Carl Yastrzemski won it while playing for the Boston Red Sox.

Winning the Triple Crown is considered a monumental individual achievement, with every all-time winner featured on an exclusive list of all-time greats.

Let’s get into a full list of past batting Triple Crown winners.

List of Batting Triple Crown Winners

Full list and stats courtesy of Baseball Reference

As shown above, the large majority of batting Triple Crown winners came in the late-19th century and early-20th century.

There has been just one winner since 1967 – Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera in 2012. Not only did Cabrera’s historic season defy the odds, as there had not been a Triple Crown winner in 45 years, but it came in a season he helped lead the Tigers to the World Series.

Four players have won at least two Triple Crowns: Ted Williams, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Rogers Hornsby.

Gibson, Charleston, and several others on the list of winners claimed the Triple Crown while playing in the Negro Leagues, whose records became recognized as official MLB stats in 2024. Prior to Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, which broke the baseball color barrier, MLB’s leagues were segregated and did not allow players of color in the American or National Leagues.

There is some debate as to who actually won the Triple Crown in the early years of stat tracking, and some lists have omitted names that others include. For example, Boston Beaneaters outfielder Hugh Duffy was removed from the list of winners after baseball historians credited a new player, Sam Thompson, with the RBI title in 1894.

David Schneidman

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