Even in a down year, Carlos Santana has continued to be a walking machine

Carlos Santana has drawn 104 walks this season, which ranks second in the American League, behind only Toronto's Jose Bautista. Santana led the AL last season, when he finished with 113 walks. That means he is now one of just five players in Indians history to walk 100+ times in a season more than once. Jim Thome did it six times, while Jack Graney, Mike Hargrove, and Travis Hafner each did it twice.

This is Santana's fifth full season at the MLB level, and he has walked at least 90 times in all five of them. Thome (7 times) and Larry Doby (5 times) are the only other players with at least five such seasons in franchise history. In those five seasons, Santana has walked 498 times, with four games left in this season. The only player in Indians history who has ever walked that many times in a five-year stretch is Thome, whose best stretch (1996-2000) included 577 walks.

Santana leads all American League players in walks during the last five years, and is behind only one player across all of MLB.

MLB walk leaders, 2011-2015:

• 1) Joey Votto: 528
• 2) Carlos Santana: 498
• 3) Jose Bautista: 471
• 4) Andrew McCutchen: 419
• 5) Miguel Cabrera: 401
• 6) Ben Zobrist: 381
• 7) David Ortiz: 361
• t8) Paul Goldschmidt: 359
• t8) Mike Trout: 359
• 10) Curtis Granderson: 357

Santana has now appeared in 800 games during his career, and has 532 career walks.

Most walks in first 800 career games:

• 1) Ted Williams: 731
• 2) Max Bishop: 706
• 3) Frank Thomas: 673
• 4) Ferris Fain: 625
• 5) Eddie Stanky: 622
• 6) Charlie Keller: 597
• 7) Babe Ruth: 573
• t8) Adam Dunn: 559
• t8) Eddie Yost: 559
• 10) Ralph Kiner: 557
• 11) Jim Thome: 549
• 12) Darrell Evans: 547
• 13) Harlond Clift: 542
• 14) Carlos Santana: 535
• 15) Roy Cullenbine: 534
• 16) Joe Morgan: 530
• 17) Eddie Lake: 527
• 18) Rickey Henderson: 526
• 19) Earl Torgeson: 523
• 20) Mickey Mantle: 519

All those bases on balls add up to more than fifteen kilometers of walking to first base. (That's the metric system, get with the program.) Between all that walking, and a team-leading home run total during his time with the lead, I'm tempted to think Santana prefers to take his time going around the bases, but I'm not so sure about that, seeing as how he's stolen a career-high 11 bases this season. Carlos contains multitudes.