Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As part of our 2026 MLB season preview, ESPN\u2019s Buster Olney surveyed those around the industry to help him rank the top 10 players at every position as part of his annual positional ranking series.<\/p>\n
Today, we cap the series by ranking the best of the best at designated hitter.<\/p>\n
The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2026 season, not who might be best in five years or over their career. We rolled out a position per day over two weeks. Here\u2019s the rest of the schedule: starting pitchers (Feb. 16), relief pitchers (Feb. 17), catchers (Feb. 18), first basemen (Feb. 19), second basemen (Feb. 20), third basemen (Monday), shortstops (Tuesday), corner outfielders (Wednesday), center fielders (Thursday).<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> manager Dave Roberts has a lot of options to sort through at the top of his lineup, juggling Freddie Freeman<\/a>, Mookie Betts<\/a> and now Kyle Tucker<\/a>, whose four-year deal will pay him a record $57.1 million average annual salary. But Roberts is settled on this: Shohei Ohtani<\/a> will be the leadoff hitter again, whether he\u2019s serving as the designated hitter or the Dodgers\u2019 starting pitcher.<\/p>\n Ohtani likes the idea of getting everything started, of getting into the game, Roberts said last year, and you cannot argue with the results: Ohtani has scored 280 runs over the past two seasons, by far the most in the big leagues. Over his past three seasons — his final year with the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> and his first two seasons with the Dodgers — he has 153 home runs and an adjusted OPS+ of 184.<\/p>\n It shouldn\u2019t be any surprise, then, to find him at the top of our list of the top 10 designated hitters in MLB this upcoming season.<\/p>\n Top 10 designated hitters<\/p>\n 1. Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a><\/p>\n He went through some postseason struggles last year, and opposing pitchers will undoubtedly try to follow the script created by the Phillies in October — Ohtani went 1-for-18 with nine strikeouts in the National League Division Series against them — but he is known for his adjustments. Ohtani is an equal-opportunity masher, as borne out by some of his regular-season splits from 2025:<\/p>\n Home OPS: 1.010<\/p>\n Road OPS: 1.018<\/p>\n First half OPS: .988<\/p>\n Second half OPS: 1.054<\/p>\n Innings 1-3 OPS: 1.019<\/p>\n Innings 4-6: .979<\/p>\n Innings 7-9 1.041<\/p>\n OPS vs. starting pitchers: .977<\/p>\n OPS Vs. relievers: 1.071<\/p>\n OPS in high-leverage situations: 1.123<\/p>\n Medium leverage: .975<\/p>\n Low leverage: 1.021<\/p>\n 2. Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, Philadelphia Phillies<\/a><\/p>\n Schwarber was rewarded for his investment in his teammates and his work ethic, which has driven his improvements over the course of his career. A couple of years ago, Schwarber aimed to get better against fastballs, and now he has become one of the best fastball hitters of his generation.<\/p>\n Against four-seam fastballs in his career:<\/p>\n 2023: .235 BA, .548 SLG<\/p>\n 2024: .222 BA, .493 SLG<\/p>\n 2025: .286 BA, .759 SLG<\/p>\n And his improvement against lefties is ridiculous:<\/p>\n 2023: .758 OPS<\/p>\n 2024: .898 OPS<\/p>\n 2025: .964 OPS<\/p>\n Schwarber turns 33 next month, and the idea that a DH-only player would get a $150 million deal, as he did over this winter, might have been unthinkable once. But given Schwarber\u2019s power, command of the strike zone, effort to get better and clubhouse impact, the thought of fielding a team without him must\u2019ve been unthinkable for Phillies owner John Middleton.<\/p>\n 3. Yordan Alvarez<\/a>, Houston Astros<\/a><\/p>\n Houston is committed to keeping him at DH because of his injury issues in recent seasons — he missed 48 games in 2023 and 114 games last year, including the last two weeks of the season as the Astros fought for a playoff spot. His slugging percentage dipped to a career-low .430 last season, and his adjusted OPS to 121. With a very right-handed lineup, Houston desperately needs the left-handed-hitting Alvarez to impact opponents again.<\/p>\n 4. George Springer<\/a>, Toronto Blue Jays<\/a><\/p>\n Springer enters the last year of his six-year, $150 million contract with the Jays at 36 years old, and he\u2019s at the stage of his career where he\u2019ll be playing for another contract, if he wants that. But what he did last year was pretty spectacular: Only Aaron Judge<\/a> and Ohtani, two of the game\u2019s biggest stars, had a higher wRC+ than Springer\u2019s 166, and he had a .309\/.399\/.560 slash line to go with it. Springer played 54 games in the outfield last season, but with Anthony Santander<\/a> out for most of the year and with Addison Barger<\/a> and Nathan Lukes<\/a> manning the corners for the Jays, Toronto can reduce the grind on Springer\u2019s legs by keeping him at DH.<\/p>\n 5. Brent Rooker<\/a>, Athletics<\/a><\/p>\n After a 39-homer campaign in 2024 resulted in a contract extension that keeps him with the A\u2019s through 2029, Rooker compiled 73 extra-base hits last season, including 30 homers. The right-handed masher is a perfect hitter to line up behind the left-handed hitting Nick Kurtz<\/a>, forcing opposing managers to make difficult choices; Rooker hammered left-handed pitchers last year for a .293\/.385\/.500 triple slash line.<\/p>\n 6. Yandy Diaz<\/a>, Tampa Bay Rays<\/a><\/p>\n Tampa Bay exec Erik Neander has constantly turned over his roster to manage payroll, trading everyone from Blake Snell<\/a> to Tyler Glasnow<\/a> to Brandon Lowe<\/a>. But Diaz remains — this will be his eighth year with Tampa Bay — partly because of his team-friendly contract but also because of his offensive impact. Over the past four years, he has compiled 13.4 WAR, a .379 OBP and an OPS+ of 138.<\/p>\n 7. Christian Yelich<\/a>, Milwaukee Brewers<\/a><\/p>\n Manager Pat Murphy\u2019s priority is to keep Yelich\u2019s bat in the lineup, so it appears his days as an every-day outfielder are over. Yelich, who had a .795 OPS and 121 OPS+ last season, is entering his 14th season in the majors and approaching some benchmarks — he needs 259 more hits for 2,000 in his career, and another 17 homers for 250.<\/p>\n 8. Giancarlo Stanton<\/a>, New York Yankees<\/a><\/p>\n Aaron Judge<\/a> is the leader of this team, but some players in the clubhouse say that the impact Stanton\u2019s words have on his teammates cannot be overstated. He has played 120 or more games only once since 2019, but he does damage when he\u2019s in the lineup — Stanton had 24 homers and an OPS+ of 162 in 77 games last season. He\u2019s within range of 500 career homers, needing 47 more, with two years (plus a $25 million team option) left on his Yankees\u2019 contract.<\/p>\n 9. Kerry Carpenter<\/a>, Detroit Tigers<\/a><\/p>\n Despite dealing with hamstring issues throughout last season, Carpenter still did big-time damage at the plate, with 18 doubles and 26 homers. He came off the bench in 21 of his 130 games, as Tigers manager A.J. Hinch worked to get the slugger as many matchups as possible against right-handed pitching — he went .257\/.300\/.512 vs. righties and .217\/.238\/.400 vs. lefties last season. As Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark lengthen the Detroit lineup, Carpenter is likely to have more opportunities with runners on base.<\/p>\n 10. Ivan Herrera<\/a>, St. Louis Cardinals<\/a><\/p>\n My colleague Paul Hembekides strongly believes Herrera should be much higher on this list, after a really nice offensive season last year — a .373 on-base percentage and an adjusted OPS of 136 in 107 games. However, Herrera does not have as much of a track record as the players in front of him.<\/p>\n Honorable mentions<\/p>\n Salvador Perez<\/a>, Kansas City Royals<\/a>: With Carter Jensen<\/a> ascending to the big leagues and Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a> at first and Jac Caglianone<\/a> developing in the outfield, it\u2019s not clear how Perez, who hit 30 homers last season, will be used this year. But he had 38 games at DH in 2025, and that number is likely to grow in 2026.<\/p>\n Eugenio Suarez<\/a>, Cincinnati Reds<\/a>: He hit 49 homers last season between the Diamondbacks and Mariners, and he still had to wait until late in the winter to sign a one-year deal with the Reds — probably due to his high strikeout rate and below-average defense.<\/p>\n Jurickson Profar<\/a>, Atlanta Braves<\/a>: He has made it clear this spring that he prefers to play the outfield, but it\u2019s hard to imagine Atlanta catering to a player who missed half of last season because of a PED suspension. Profar\u2019s defensive metrics in left field were also well below average in 2025, which informed the Braves\u2019 decision to sign Mike Yastrzemski<\/a> to play alongside Michael Harris II<\/a> and Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. in the outfield.<\/p>\n Ryan O\u2019Hearn, Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>: He had a really nice season last year with a .281\/.366\/.437 slash line, with only 50 of his games coming at DH. But he might best fit Pittsburgh\u2019s lineup now at this spot.<\/p>\n Samuel Basallo<\/a>, Baltimore Orioles<\/a>: His bat speed is unreal, and his power is immense. At just 21 years old, it\u2019ll be really interesting to see how Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz chooses to develop Basallo behind the plate and as a major league hitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[9012,3307,49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-503374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-american-league","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}