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Highest Barrel Rate in MLB 2026
Source MLB StatcastThrough 245 qualified hittersWindow: 2026 regular season
Munetaka Murakami leads qualified hitters in barrel rate in the 2026 regular season at 20.5%. The top three are Munetaka Murakami, James Wood, Nick Kurtz, from Statcast data. Every player here is a playable card.
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Square it up like Murakami
Play a half-inning in our Statcast-driven sim. Barrel Rate is one of the real numbers behind every card's rating, and Munetaka Murakami's 20.5% is a big part of why he is rated 81.
What barrel rate measures
Barrel rate (also called barrel percentage or barrel%) is the percentage of a hitter's batted balls that fall into the "barrel" zone — a combination of exit velocity and launch angle that historically produces a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage. A barrel requires at least 98 mph exit velocity paired with a launch angle window that opens wider as velocity climbs. This is the cleanest single metric for elite power contact quality, separating hitters who merely hit the ball hard from those who hit it hard in the air. Qualified hitters meet MLB Statcast's default qualified minimum for Statcast batted-ball leaderboards (2.1 plate appearances per team game, roughly 340 over a 162-game season).
Why barrel rate matters
Barrel rate is one of the stickiest year-over-year Statcast stats for hitters, which makes it a stronger forecaster than raw HR/AB. Elite hitters typically post barrel rates above 10%; league average is around 6%. This board surfaces the hitters most likely to sustain power production regardless of batted-ball luck.
Built from MLB Statcast data, refreshed nightly. Qualified hitters meet MLB Statcast's default qualified minimum for Statcast batted-ball leaderboards (2.1 plate appearances per team game, roughly 340 over a 162-game season). Regular-season data only; teams shown are each player's 2026 MLB club.
New to the metric? What is barrel rate? Read the definition, formula, and a worked example.
Questions
Who leads MLB in barrel rate in 2026?
Munetaka Murakami leads qualified hitters in barrel rate in the 2026 regular season at 20.5%. The top three are Munetaka Murakami, James Wood, Nick Kurtz, based on real Statcast data.
What is barrel rate in baseball?
Barrel rate (also called barrel percentage or barrel%) is the percentage of a hitter's batted balls that fall into the "barrel" zone — a combination of exit velocity and launch angle that historically produces a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage. A barrel requires at least 98 mph exit velocity paired with a launch angle window that opens wider as velocity climbs. This is the cleanest single metric for elite power contact quality, separating hitters who merely hit the ball hard from those who hit it hard in the air. Qualified hitters meet MLB Statcast's default qualified minimum for Statcast batted-ball leaderboards (2.1 plate appearances per team game, roughly 340 over a 162-game season).
Why does barrel rate matter?
Barrel rate is one of the stickiest year-over-year Statcast stats for hitters, which makes it a stronger forecaster than raw HR/AB. Elite hitters typically post barrel rates above 10%; league average is around 6%. This board surfaces the hitters most likely to sustain power production regardless of batted-ball luck.