In baseball, acleanup hitter is the fourth hitter in thebatting order. The cleanup hitter is traditionally the team's most powerful hitter. His job is to "clean up the bases", that is,drive in base runners.^[1]

The thinking behind the use of the cleanup hitter is that at least one of the batters before him will reachbase somehow, usually via awalk or abase hit. Traditionally, thelead off hitter, the number one spot in the batting order, has good foot speed,plate discipline, and a highon-base percentage. The second batter is usually acontact hitter, meaning he is able to consistently make contact with the ball and put it in play to move base runners forward and intoscoring position. The first or second batter mightbunt his way on base as they both will be speedy runners. The third batter is usually the best batter, the hitter with the highest batting average. He has the role of scoring runs himself, but his job comes down to getting on base for the cleanup hitter to have a turn to bat in the same inning. The cleanup hitter coming up to hit—if he has runners on base—has the opportunity to produce runs by getting a base hit or ahome run. The third and fourth batters tend to be interchangeable in the batting order. The fifth batter in the lineup also has the job of batting in runs, in effect a backup for the cleanup hitter. He shares multiple traits with the cleanup hitter and therefore can compete for the cleanup hitter's spot in the batting order. Batters six to nine typically descend in batting skill level, meaning that the ninth batter is often the least effective batter in the lineup.^[2]

Each individual hitter's strengths and weaknesses determine their spot on the daily lineup card. As the number four hitter's primary responsibility is toturn base runners into runs, a hitter with a highslugging percentage and batting average, especially with runners in scoring position, is generally preferred to the higheron-base percentage (OBP) and low strikeout rates of hitters earlier in the lineup. A manager may also take into account a batters tendency to hit inclutch situations or focus on home run ability. Since the home run is by far the most sure-fire method of batting in baserunners, the annualHome Run Derby tends to be a who's who of cleanup hitters from around the league.^[3] That being said, a hitter with an unspectacular home run rate who is instead reliable when it comes to extra-base hits can also be a valuable tool for scoring withrunners in scoring position (RISP). It is ultimately a question of how well a player fits into the rest of the lineup which determines the run-scoring potential of the cleanup spot.

Thedesignated hitter (DH) is a batter that hits for thepitcher and never plays defense. The DH is important because the DH is usually one of the better hitters. It is a trend that the DH is either in the third, fourth, or fifth spot in the lineup. The DH was adopted by theAmerican League of North American Major League Baseball in 1973 and by theNational League in 2022. In games without a DH, the pitcher hit in the lineup unless another playerpinch hit for the pitcher, in which case the pitcher left the game and was replaced for the team's next defensive half-inning.^[4] Between 1973 and 2022, when there wereinterleague games and the National League was the home team, the American League team did not use a DH, and their pitchers took their turn at bat.

Below is a list of Major League Baseball players with the mostruns batted in (RBI) from the cleanup spot as of the end of the 2020 season.^[5]

Below is a list of Major League Baseball players with the most games played in the cleanup spot as of the end of the 2020 season.^[5]

Below is a list of Major League Baseball players with the mostplate appearances from the cleanup spot as of the end of the 2020 season.^[5]

• Batting (baseball)
• Baseball terminology

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