DataBaseball
2026
Josh Harrison headshot

3B · 2023

Josh Harrison

Age
36
B/T
R/R
Height
5' 8"
Weight
190 lb
Number
#5
Born
July 8, 1987 in Cincinnati, OH, USA
MLB debut
May 31, 2011
dbWAR
8.5
11 season(s)
PA
114
AVG
.204
OBP
.263
SLG
.291
wRC+
51
100 = avg

Josh Harrison is a third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2023 he hit 2 home runs and knocked in 10 RBIs, notching 21 hits across 114 plate appearances in 39 games. His batting average was .204, 17.9% lower than the league average of .248. He reached base at a .263 clip and slugged .291, for an OPS of .554, 24.5% lower than the league mark of .734 — the worst on his team, and 431st of 461 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 86.6 mph off the bat, hit 25.9% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 2.4% of them and made contact on 78.1% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 51 wRC+ puts his offence 49% below average. That comes to -0.3 dbWAR — -6.8 runs with the bat, -0.2 on the bases, -0.2 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2023.

wRC+51
wOBA.249
ISO.087
BB%2.6%
WAR-.3

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2023. These four terms sum to -3.3 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-6.8Baserunning-0.2Position-0.2Replacement+3.8
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

2.40.8-0.8151617181920212223

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
202339114212100320.204.263.291.087.2292.6%17.5%.249-6.851-0.3
20221174259972722171.256.317.370.114.2974.9%16.7%.307-1.7931.4
202113755814186093175.279.341.400.121.3135.6%13.4%.327+4.81092.4
20203291223141612.278.352.418.139.2886.6%13.2%.338+1.21130.3
20193514724184627.175.218.263.088.2074.1%18.4%.210-14.223-0.8
2018963748683731868.250.293.363.113.2864.8%18.2%.287-9.4810.5
20171285421321647122890.272.339.432.160.3035.2%16.6%.335+4.81092.4
2016130522138459191876.283.311.388.105.3233.4%14.6%.303-7.8871.4
2015111449120428101971.287.327.390.103.3364.2%15.8%.316-0.21011.5

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2023201.2000850227.006.866.000.010.8623158-0.0
2022303.0000962218.008.113.676.06.0454204-0.1

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2023. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP6055100015.182.233.200.20225.0%
vs RHP544811235.229.296.396.3019.3%
Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2023. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB5330201.0001.0001.000.8130.0%
vs RHB1085000.625.500.625.4420.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2023.

Loading 84 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 85 tracked batted balls in 2023. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
2.4%
2 barrels
Exit velocity
86.6
mph average
Max exit velo
104.6
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
25.9%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
30.6%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
10.7°
average
Barrel rate2.4%
Exit velocity86.6 mph
Hard hit rate25.9%
Contact rate78.1%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2023.

.2354 AB6 AB6 AB5 AB.1258 AB.2508 AB.15413 AB.09111 AB.25012 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .248.

Situational hitting

How Josh Harrison hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations114.204.263.291.249
Bases empty67641211013.188.224.281.224
Runner on first · thin221941223.211.318.368.308
Runners on473991937.231.319.308.285
RISP252050714.250.320.250.264

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2023.

Pitch sequencing

What Josh Harrison throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter
Fastball

Select a count to see exactly what Josh Harrison throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2023.

Fastball100.0%4456.21,34125.0%0.0%
Josh Harrison's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters.

Head to head

Put Josh Harrison beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Josh Harrison

Similar players

Nearest 2023 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.