While the phrase “Hit ‘em where they ain’t” is attributed to Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Keeler (it’s on his plaque in Cooperstown, in fact), the saying probably holds no greater meaning for anyone in baseball history than for Ty Cobb. "The Georgia Peach" was MLB’s all-time hits leader before Pete Rose came along, amassing a .366 career batting average, which is an all-time best. Unsurprisingly, Cobb is also tops all-time in BABIP, batting average on balls in play, posting an unmatchable .383 mark.
As you would expect, the top of the BABIP list is dotted with old-time Hall of Famers, but there is quite an unlikely name residing well back from Cobb but still in second place all-time in this category. You guessed it, it’s Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Brandon Marsh.
Yes, despite just a .259 career batting average, something special seems to happen when Marsh puts the ball in play, as evidenced by his .370 career BABIP. This mark leads every other player in major league history, aside from Cobb, who has a minimum of 1,500 career at-bats, as recently pointed out by Philadelphia sports producer Tucker Bagley.
All-time BABIP leaders (min. 1500 at bats):
— Tucker Bagley (@TBagleySports) August 11, 2025
1. Ty Cobb .383
2. BRANDON MARSH .370
3. Ross Barnes .368
4. JORGE ALFARO .366
5. Shoeless Joe Jackson .366
6. Rogers Hornsby .365
What a ridiculous list.
Generally, at least 3,000 career at-bats are required to put players among the all-time leaderboard in any qualitative, percentage-driven category, so this comes with a bit of an asterisk. It remains to be seen how Marsh will fare over his next 1,200 or so at-bats.
Brandon Marsh continues running a legendary-level BABIP despite his flaws
It’s still a completely wild stat which makes you wonder how Marsh is so adept at finding holes in the defense and soft spots in the grass when he simply puts the ball in play. Certainly, there is a degree of luck to be had, but these things tend to correct themselves from year to year. For Marsh to be in year five of regular MLB playing time and still carrying such a lofty number is unusual, to say the least.
As Bagley notes, this list is even crazier after Marsh, given the fact that former Phil of recent vintage Jorge Alfaro also finds himself on it. Alfaro, who has been out of Major League Baseball since 2023, played with four other teams after the Phillies traded him in the 2019 J.T. Realmuto deal. He showed some promise by hitting 18 home runs in his first year for Miami, but he largely fizzled after that as he bounced around.
Alfaro did show his penchant for BABIP production even during his Phillies tenure, however, posting marks of .420 across 114 plate appearances in 2017 and .406 across 377 plate appearances in 2018. Obviously, he remained pretty solid in that particular department to hold down fourth place all-time, but he just struck out too much overall and had too many holes in his defensive game to stick in the bigs past the age of 30.
Circling back to Marsh, strikeouts are likely the key, and not in a good way. With a career 31.6 percent strikeout rate, Marsh is well above the league average. Those at-bats don’t hurt you when it comes to BABIP, which simply measures a hitter’s effectiveness at reaching base on batted balls that don’t go over the fence. So, that means fewer balls in play than the average player for Marsh, but he makes the most of them.
Marsh’s above-average speed is also beneficial in this case, although that doesn’t help explain why someone like Alfaro is on the list. Oh, and for reference, Cobb’s career strikeout rate was 5.2 percent, but he simply amassed so many hits that they more than offset the times he was put out by the defense.
Unlike Cobb, a competitor so ferocious that he is immortalized in the form of multiple statues that depict him sliding into someone and trying to spike him into oblivion, Marsh isn’t likely to get this kind of treatment after his playing days are over. And it's pretty doubtful he'll hang anywhere near the leaderboard on this list of luminaries late into his career, either.
But we can all have a smile at the weird game of baseball and the way that a player who fans were giving up on earlier this year can even be mentioned in the same breath as a hitter so good that he got his own Tommy Lee Jones-led TV movie. Heck, you've even got Shoeless Joe on this list, so maybe a Marsh-inspired Field of Dreams offshoot isn't off-base.
I wonder, though, who will play Marsh in his future biopic, BABIP: The Brandon Marsh Story? Hey, it could happen, if he just hits enough of ‘em where they ain’t.