Getting on base by being more patient at the plate. That's a mission Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh is showing success in fulfilling so far in the 2023 MLB regular season. Marsh is making a concerted effort to read pitches and choose when to swing, and it's showing in his stats.
“I love walks. I love them. Because I feel like it's harder to walk than to get a hit sometimes, Brandon Marsh said recently, per Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “You take four against these guys, it's a good feeling. You get to walk to first, you don't have to run it out or anything. You can just walk there.”
Marsh entered Sunday with already 24 walks this season — just four short of his career high of 28 in 2022 when he was still with the Los Angeles Angels. With a ton of games left this season, Brandon Marsh is virtually assured to set a new career-high in walks this year. Moreover, Marsh is sporting a 14.0 percent walk rate this season, which is another testament to his much-improved discipline at the plate. Prior to this season, the best walk rate he's had in the big leagues was just 7.7 percent in 2021 when he also appeared in just 70 games. While he still has a pretty high strikeout rate (30.8% as of Saturday), it's lower than in his previous seasons in the MLB.
Brandon Marsh was traded by the Angels to the Phillies in 2022 for Logan O'Hoppe. He would later sign a one-year deal contract with the Phillies worth $734,500 back in March.