Brandon Marsh hasn’t played with Shohei Ohtani in nearly two years, but still get asked about his ‘big brother’
Marsh and Ohtani were teammates for less than two seasons with the Angels. Now, Marsh is on the two-way star Ohtani's "little coattail" with a strong start at the plate for the Phillies this season.
LOS ANGELES — Every time Brandon Marsh visits Dodger Stadium with the Phillies, he’s a popular player among the contingent of Japanese media.
It’s a holdover from the 1½ seasons he coincided with two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani on the Angels. Despite a language barrier between them, the two became friends. A few clips of the two of them joking around together went viral during their days in Anaheim, and fans and media in Japan took notice.
So, even though Marsh hasn’t played with Ohtani since 2022, he still gets asked about his friend whenever the Phillies play the Dodgers.
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“He was kind of like a big brother to me, helped me out a lot, just trying to teach me how to be a better hitter, and stuff like that,” Marsh said. “ … I think that’s where it all started. It’s all his fame, and I’m just on his little coattail, a little bit.”
This season, Marsh is putting his own name on the map with his offensive performance, no coattails needed. He entered Sunday’s series finale against Los Angeles hitting .323, the second-highest batting average in baseball. He’s finally played his way into an everyday role under interim Phillies manager Don Mattingly, after being entrenched in an outfield platoon for most of his career.
While Marsh has earned regular starts against lefties, Mattingly has, on occasion, still opted to pinch-hit for Marsh against left-handed relievers late in games. That included Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Dodgers, when Mattingly went with Edmundo Sosa over Marsh with the bases loaded against Alex Vesia.
Sosa struck out, but remained in the game and later came through with the go-ahead home run against lefty Tanner Scott.
But overall, Marsh has been the Phillies’ most consistent hitter this season, even through their 9-19 start.
“I can definitely see myself this year pressing a little less, just having a better chance of being in there every single day,” Marsh said. “Definitely got to still earn it, and I could lose it in the blink of an eye.”
It’s a far cry from where he was at the beginning of last season, when his average dropped as low as .095 on April 16. But after a hamstring strain landed him on the injured list, he returned from his rehab assignment a different hitter. In the 169 regular season games he’s played going back to May 2025, Marsh has a .310 average and .834 OPS.
For reference, Trea Turner won the National League batting title last season with a .304 batting average in 141 games.
“If you really go back and look at last year, from talking to [hitting coach] Kevin Long in the winter, after his first month or so, he was one of the best hitters in the game,” Mattingly said earlier this month. “So he’s just continued that. So now, this is just who he is, right? He’s showing that it’s sustainable.”
But even with the success that he’s been seeing, Marsh said it’s important for him stay even-keeled. It’s only natural to be proud of the .300 next to his name, but at the same time, he tries not to focus on it.
“I feel like that’s something that I feel like I’m still learning like every day, but I’m just really doing my best not to look at the scoreboard,” Marsh said. “Because I feel like I don’t want to get too, too high, looking at, ‘Oh, I like where I’m at here,’ and then get complacent, and completely just lose it.”
Marsh said he tries to follow Kyle Schwarber’s example, and emulate his approach to flushing his at-bats.
“I feel like just the good, the bad, and all in between, when I get onto the bus after the game, I’m trying my best to forget it. Even the good,” Marsh said. “Still remember some feels and stuff like that to repeat the next day, but if it’s a bad night at the plate, definitely try not to remember anything.”
As Marsh learned last season, everything can change quickly.
But he also learned that when it does, he’ll find his way out of it.
“I have that confidence and belief in myself, if I go through it again, or go through a bad little stretch that I can come out of it,” Marsh said. “Definitely, I learned a lot about myself in that time, and leaned a lot on the guys around me.”
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Extra bases
The Phillies returned Max Lazar (oblique) from his rehab assignment Saturday and reinstated him from the 60-day injured list. He was optioned to Lehigh Valley. To clear room on the 40-man roster for Lazar, Zach Pop (calf) was reinstated from the 15-day injured list and designated for assignment. … Andrew Painter (1-5, 5.40 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday against Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (4-4, 3.09).