Harold Ramírez closed the 2026 LMB Banorte season as the league’s hits leader with 140 — becoming the first player in 50 years to top the league in that category in back-to-back seasons. The year before, he’d done it with the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos (142 hits, the first Colombian ever to lead the LMB in hits). This time he repeated the feat in a different uniform. The Cartagena de Indias native doesn’t just get hits — he does it with a consistency Mexican baseball hadn’t seen in half a century.
From the Tecos to the Sultanes: How the 140 Hits Came Together
Ramírez picked up in 2026 right where 2025 left off: in Dos Laredos, hitting like the ball had his name on it. With the Tecos he piled up 96 hits in 66 games, batting .350 with an .841 OPS — a contact-plus-pop combination that made him the hardest out in the league.
On July 7, the Tecos traded him to the Sultanes de Monterrey. The Tecos were 26-40 and sitting ninth in the South; the Sultanes were 35-30 and fighting for second in the North. The move said everything: Dos Laredos was shutting down its competitive window, and Ramírez deserved a bigger stage.
His Monterrey debut came with a home run, 2 RBI, and a 7-3 win over the Charros de Jalisco. He never slowed down — he was the first hitter in the league to reach 100 hits on the season and finished the regular season at 140, the last number he needed to make history.
Why a 50-Year Record Matters
The LMB Banorte is one of the oldest professional baseball leagues in Latin America. Leading the circuit in hits for a single season is already hard. Doing it twice in a row hadn’t been recorded since the mid-1970s. The exact name of the last player to accomplish it is still pending official confirmation from the LMB or Baseball-Reference, but the rarity of the feat is beyond dispute.
In 2025, Ramírez had put together 142 hits (108 singles, 21 doubles, 3 triples, 9 home runs), 90 runs scored and 53 RBI in 93 games with the Tecos — also making him the first Colombian to lead the department and the first Teco to do it in 67 years.
Across both seasons he totals 282 hits in 159 games — nearly two hits per game. His combined Mexican output of 237 hits was one of the figures the Sultanes highlighted when they announced his arrival in July.
The Ex-MLB Hitter Who Found His Best Baseball in Mexico
Ramírez came to the LMB after six seasons in the majors: 536 games, 517 hits, 38 home runs and 247 RBI with the Marlins, Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Washington. His best MLB year was 2023 with the Rays: .313 AVG, 12 home runs and 68 RBI in 122 games.
His 2024 Statcast numbers — an average exit velocity of 87 mph and a 33.9% Hard Hit rate — painted the picture of a hitter who doesn’t beat the ball into submission but puts it in play at a rate pitchers can’t stand. That is exactly what he’s doing in Mexico.
Two hits titles. Two different seasons. Two different uniforms. One 50-year record. Harold Ramírez is 31 years old and just wrote the most consistent chapter of his professional career.
