Dodgers have the first quartet of 100-RBI players in franchise history

For the first time in franchise history, the Dodgers have four players with 100 runs batted in on the same team. J.D. Martinez was the last to join the group, hitting a two-run home run in the first inning off Rockies right-hander Chris Flexen on Thursday night at Coors Field.

Martinez joined Mookie Betts (whose 106 RBI are the most out of the leadoff spot in a season in major league history), Max Muncy (a career-high 104 RBI), and Freddie Freeman (101 RBI, surpassing triple digits on Wednesday in Colorado).

The Dodgers never had more than two 100-RBI players in a season since moving to Los Angeles before 2023. Their last team with three such players was in 1955. The Boys of Summer teams in Brooklyn were quite prolific on offense, and had a trio of triple-digit run producers five times in a seven-year span.

Under the old 154-game schedule, the equivalent of reaching 100 RBI in 162 games would have been 95 RBI. Using that rubric, two Brooklyn teams actually had a quartet of prolific run producers:

• 1953: Roy Campanella (142), Duke Snider (126), Gil Hodges (122), Jackie Robinson (95)
• 1955: Snider (136), Campanella (107), Hodges (102), Carl Furillo (95)

This year’s Dodgers team is the first major league team with four 100-RBI players since the Blue Jays in 2021. Before that, no team pulled off the feat since Atlanta in 2003.

The Dodgers are just the 15th MLB team with four 100-RBI players in the last 80 years. The major league record is five such players, by the mighty 1936 Yankees, but also by two National League teams in 1894 — the Orioles (no, not those Orioles) and what became the Boston Braves.

Martinez reaching 100 RBI isn’t necessarily surprising because he’s been so productive when playing this year. But he’s missed so much time that it didn’t seem possible for him to amass the raw total. He missed 15 games on the injured list in April and May with back tightness, and missed 16 games in August and September with left groin and hamstring tightness that also limited him for a few weeks before landing on the IL.

The result is Martinez reaching 100 RBI in only 110 games played. No matter how much he plays this weekend in San Francisco, Martinez will have the fewest games played by a Dodger in a 100-RBI season.

Martinez has the fewest games in a 100-RBI season by anyone in the majors since 1994, when five players had big RBI years in a strike-shortened campaign:

• Albert Belle 101 RBI in 106 games
• Kirby Puckett 112 RBI in 108 games
• (NL MVP) Jeff Bagwell 116 RBI in 110 games
• Joe Carter 103 RBI in 111 games
• (AL MVP) Frank Thomas 101 RBI in 113 games

Martinez is just the 18th player in National League/American League history to drive in 100 runs in a season playing no more than 113 games.