It’s who you might expect. And who you might not.
BABIP, the old wisdom holds, is not something that is indicative of a hitter’s skill. For the uninitiated, BABIP stands for Batting Average on Balls In Play. It stands to reason that, once a play is put into play, there are a myriad of factors outside of a hitter’s control that lead to the result of the play being either a hit or an out.
There are exceptions, of course. Ichiro’s speed could cause nearly any ground ball to the left side of the infield strike terror in the hearts of the defenders. Edgar Martínez, on the other hand, was just a really, really good hitter.
Exceptions aside, BABIP is a stat that is prone to fluctuations from year-to-year. Over the entire history of the Seattle Mariners, there are players that have been luckier than others. Here are the 25 players across Mariners history with the highest BABIP. Please note that I’ve set the minimum qualifying plate appearances at 200, which I found weeded out most of the laughable names while still including some weirdos. Also note that I’ve specified the year that the player debuted for the Mariners — not the year they debuted in MLB.