-
Buster Olney
Multiple Authors
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’s 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.
Today, we cap the series by ranking the best of the best at designated hitter.
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’s 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).
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has a lot of options to sort through at the top of his lineup, juggling Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and now Kyle Tucker, whose four-year deal will pay him a record $57.1 million average annual salary. But Roberts is settled on this: Shohei Ohtani will be the leadoff hitter again, whether he’s serving as the designated hitter or the Dodgers’ starting pitcher.
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 and his first two seasons with the Dodgers — he has 153 home runs and an adjusted OPS+ of 184.
It shouldn’t be any surprise, then, to find him at the top of our list of the top 10 designated hitters in MLB this upcoming season.
Top 10 designated hitters
1. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
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:
Home OPS: 1.010
Road OPS: 1.018
First half OPS: .988
Second half OPS: 1.054
Innings 1-3 OPS: 1.019
Innings 4-6: .979
Innings 7-9 1.041
OPS vs. starting pitchers: .977
OPS Vs. relievers: 1.071
OPS in high-leverage situations: 1.123
Medium leverage: .975
Low leverage: 1.021
2. Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies
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.
Against four-seam fastballs in his career:
2023: .235 BA, .548 SLG
2024: .222 BA, .493 SLG
2025: .286 BA, .759 SLG
And his improvement against lefties is ridiculous:
2023: .758 OPS
2024: .898 OPS
2025: .964 OPS
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’s power, command of the strike zone, effort to get better and clubhouse impact, the thought of fielding a team without him must’ve been unthinkable for Phillies owner John Middleton.
3. Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros
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.
4. George Springer, Toronto Blue Jays
Springer enters the last year of his six-year, $150 million contract with the Jays at 36 years old, and he’s at the stage of his career where he’ll be playing for another contract, if he wants that. But what he did last year was pretty spectacular: Only Aaron Judge and Ohtani, two of the game’s biggest stars, had a higher wRC+ than Springer’s 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 out for most of the year and with Addison Barger and Nathan Lukes manning the corners for the Jays, Toronto can reduce the grind on Springer’s legs by keeping him at DH.
5. Brent Rooker, Athletics
After a 39-homer campaign in 2024 resulted in a contract extension that keeps him with the A’s 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, forcing opposing managers to make difficult choices; Rooker hammered left-handed pitchers last year for a .293/.385/.500 triple slash line.
6. Yandy Diaz, Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay exec Erik Neander has constantly turned over his roster to manage payroll, trading everyone from Blake Snell to Tyler Glasnow to Brandon Lowe. 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.
7. Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers
Manager Pat Murphy’s priority is to keep Yelich’s 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.
8. Giancarlo Stanton, New York Yankees
Aaron Judge is the leader of this team, but some players in the clubhouse say that the impact Stanton’s 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’s in the lineup — Stanton had 24 homers and an OPS+ of 162 in 77 games last season. He’s within range of 500 career homers, needing 47 more, with two years (plus a $25 million team option) left on his Yankees’ contract.
9. Kerry Carpenter, Detroit Tigers
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.
10. Ivan Herrera, St. Louis Cardinals
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.
Honorable mentions
Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals: With Carter Jensen ascending to the big leagues and Vinnie Pasquantino at first and Jac Caglianone developing in the outfield, it’s 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.
Eugenio Suarez, Cincinnati Reds: 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.
Jurickson Profar, Atlanta Braves: He has made it clear this spring that he prefers to play the outfield, but it’s hard to imagine Atlanta catering to a player who missed half of last season because of a PED suspension. Profar’s defensive metrics in left field were also well below average in 2025, which informed the Braves’ decision to sign Mike Yastrzemski to play alongside Michael Harris II and Ronald Acuña Jr. in the outfield.
Ryan O’Hearn, Pittsburgh Pirates: 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’s lineup now at this spot.
Samuel Basallo, Baltimore Orioles: His bat speed is unreal, and his power is immense. At just 21 years old, it’ll be really interesting to see how Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz chooses to develop Basallo behind the plate and as a major league hitter.