Buster OlneyFeb 27, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseSenior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com Analyst/reporter ESPN television Author of “The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty”Follow on XMultiple 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Buster OlneyFeb 27, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseSenior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com Analyst/reporter ESPN television Author of “The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty”Follow on XMultiple Authors
CloseSenior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com Analyst/reporter ESPN television Author of “The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty”Follow on X
Today, we cap the series by ranking the best of the best at designated hitter.
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:
OPS in high-leverage situations: 1.123 Medium leverage: .975 Low leverage: 1.021
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
2023: .235 BA, .548 SLG 2024: .222 BA, .493 SLG 2025: .286 BA, .759 SLG