Editing Plate appearance (section)

=== Exception for batting titles ===
Rule 9.22(a) of the [[Official Baseball Rules]] make a single allowance to the minimum requirement of 502 plate appearances for the purposes of determining the batting, slugging or on-base percentage title. If a player:

* leads the league in one of the statistics;
* does not have the required 502 plate appearances; and
* would still lead the league in that statistic if as many at bats (without hits or reaching base) were added to his records as necessary to meet the requirement,

he will win that title,<ref name=":0" /> but with his original statistic (before the extra at bats were added).

In the example above, Player B is 12 plate appearances short of the required 502, but were he be charged with 12 additional unproductive at bats, he would go 110-for-412 for a batting average of .267. If no one else has a batting average (similarly modified if appropriate) higher than .267, player B will be awarded the batting title (with his original batting average of .275) despite the lack of 502 plate appearances.

In a real-life example, in 2012, [[Melky Cabrera]], then of the [[San Francisco Giants]], finished the season with a league-high .346 batting average, but he had only 501 plate appearances, one short of the required 502. Per the rule, he would have won the batting title because after an extra at bat is added and his batting average recalculated, he still would have led the league in batting average. Cabrera's case, however, turned out differently. The reason Cabrera finished the season with only 501 plate appearances was because he was suspended in mid-August when he tested positive for illegal [[performance-enhancing drugs]]. Cabrera was still eligible for that extra at bat, but he requested that the extra at bat not be added to his total, and that he not be considered for the batting crown, because he admitted that his use of performance-enhancing drugs had given him an unfair advantage over other players. As a result, Cabrera's name is nowhere to be found on the list of 2012 National League batting leaders.<ref name="Mahony" />