Six games left in the 2026 regular season, and Pete Alonso is on the edge of something that has never happened in 150 years of professional baseball: leading both the National League and the American League in RBIs. He did it first in 2022 with the Mets — 131 RBIs, tops in the NL. Right now in 2026, he leads the AL with 108 RBIs in 157 games. If that holds, he writes himself into a record that simply does not exist yet.
The milestone nobody has reached in 150 years
On September 22, 2026, Just Baseball flagged the stat: no player in MLB history has ever led both leagues in RBIs. It sounds like a simple number, but pulling it off requires being a dominant run producer at two different points of a career, in two different pitching environments, under two slightly different sets of rules. Alonso did half of it in 2022. He’s six games from completing the other half.
Why this isn’t luck: Alonso’s contact quality in 2026
One number explains why Alonso is here for a reason: his average exit velocity is 93.8 mph — 98th percentile across all of MLB. Almost nobody in the big leagues hits the ball harder, more consistently. His supporting Statcast numbers in 2026 back that up across the board:
- xwOBA: .395 — 98th percentile. That’s what his contact quality says he should be producing, and it’s actually better than his slash line of .264/.359/.858 suggests.
- Barrel rate: 14.3% — 94th percentile. Better than 94% of hitters at squaring the ball up perfectly.
- Hard-hit rate: 55.9% — 99th percentile. Nearly six out of every ten balls he puts in play travel at 95 mph or harder.
- Bat speed: 74.6 mph — 79th percentile.
His full 2026 line in 678 plate appearances: 40 home runs, 108 RBIs, .264 AVG, .858 OPS.
What he’s not — and why it doesn’t matter here
Alonso is not a complete athlete in the traditional sense. His sprint speed sits at the 5th percentile — one of the slowest players in the majors. His strikeout rate checks in at the 32nd percentile. But leading the league in RBIs doesn’t require speed or a high batting average. It requires hitting the ball hard with runners on base, and that is exactly what Alonso has done better than almost anyone for years.
Six games to go. If the lead holds, Pete Alonso claims a line in the record book that has been blank since the sport began.
The numbers at a glance
- Plate appearances: 678
- Home runs: 40
- RBIs: 108
- AVG / OPS: .264 / .858
- xwOBA: .395 (98th percentile)
- Exit velocity: 93.8 mph (98th percentile)
- Barrel rate: 14.3% (94th percentile)
- Hard-hit rate: 55.9% (99th percentile)
- Bat speed: 74.6 mph (79th percentile)
- Sprint speed: 5th percentile
