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Best Designated Hitters in MLB 2026
Source MLB StatcastThrough 74 ranked designated hittersRatings refreshed nightly
Shohei Ohtani is the highest-rated designated hitter in MLB 2026 on Legends Deck, at 99 overall. The top three are Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez, Ben Rice, ranked by a percentile transform of real 2026 Statcast data. Every player here is a playable card.
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Put Ohtani in your lineup
Play a half-inning in our Statcast-driven sim. Shohei Ohtani is rated 99 here because his real 2026 Statcast numbers rank at the top of every designated hitter.
| # | Player | Team | OVR ▾ | AVG | OPS | HR | RBI | SB | Barrel% | Exit Velo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Shohei Ohtani |  | 99 | 0.275 | 0.889 | 30 | 81 | 11 | 16.4% | 93.3 | View card › |
| 2 |  Yordan Alvarez |  | 98 | 0.316 | 1.033 | 42 | 106 | 1 | 16.0% | 94.4 | View card › |
| 3 |  Ben Rice |  | 95 | 0.264 | 0.897 | 41 | 97 | 3 | 14.3% | 91.9 | View card › |
| 4 |  Kyle Schwarber |  | 88 | 0.232 | 0.857 | 45 | 97 | 3 | 15.6% | 92.3 | View card › |
| 5 |  Bryce Eldridge |  | 84 | 0.269 | 0.825 | 17 | 57 | 1 | 11.5% | 92.7 | View card › |
| 6 |  Randal Grichuk |  | 82 | 0.287 | 0.880 | 15 | 46 | 0 | 11.2% | 91.3 | View card › |
| 7 |  Dominic Canzone |  | 81 | 0.264 | 0.820 | 23 | 77 | 2 | 12.2% | 91.1 | View card › |
| 8 |  Yandy Díaz |  | 79 | 0.293 | 0.805 | 22 | 85 | 3 | 7.1% | 90.9 | View card › |
| 9 |  Joc Pederson |  | 77 | 0.235 | 0.816 | 26 | 53 | 2 | 11.3% | 92.1 | View card › |
| 10 |  Jahmai Jones |  | 77 | 0.206 | 0.667 | 6 | 16 | 3 | 10.8% | 90.6 | View card › |
| 11 |  Eduardo Valencia |  | 77 | 0.341 | 1.016 | 8 | 21 | 0 | 15.5% | 90.3 | View card › |
| 12 |  Iván Herrera |  | 76 | 0.241 | 0.735 | 19 | 69 | 8 | 6.2% | 89.4 | View card › |
| 13 |  Samad Taylor |  | 73 | 0.316 | 0.798 | 2 | 18 | 13 | 3.6% | 85.9 | View card › |
| 14 |  George Springer |  | 72 | 0.249 | 0.726 | 15 | 54 | 12 | 6.5% | 88.6 | View card › |
| 15 |  Christian Yelich |  | 71 | 0.235 | 0.693 | 12 | 59 | 11 | 9.6% | 88.9 | View card › |
| 16 |  Brent Rooker |  | 70 | 0.200 | 0.670 | 10 | 29 | 2 | 15.5% | 89.9 | View card › |
| 17 |  Michael Conforto |  | 69 | 0.240 | 0.800 | 15 | 45 | 1 | 11.9% | 90.0 | View card › |
| 18 |  Taylor Ward | | 68 | 0.225 | 0.670 | 7 | 37 | 4 | 5.1% | 88.7 | View card › |
| 19 |  Jose Fernandez |  | 68 | 0.255 | 0.643 | 3 | 16 | 9 | 3.8% | 87.8 | View card › |
| 20 |  Masataka Yoshida | | 67 | 0.274 | 0.746 | 5 | 28 | 2 | 3.4% | 88.8 | View card › |
| 21 |  Jesús Sánchez | | 67 | 0.254 | 0.712 | 8 | 35 | 1 | 10.8% | 90.7 | View card › |
| 22 |  Josh Bell |  | 66 | 0.255 | 0.738 | 21 | 96 | 2 | 9.6% | 89.9 | View card › |
| 23 |  MJ Melendez |  | 65 | 0.192 | 0.665 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 11.1% | 94.2 | View card › |
| 24 |  Tyler Black | | 65 | 0.333 | 0.838 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0.0% | 83.6 | View card › |
| 25 |  Josue De Paula | | 65 | 0.323 | 1.081 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 11.5% | 89.2 | View card › |
| 26 |  Romy Gonzalez | | 64 | 0.185 | 0.572 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 4.4% | 87.6 | View card › |
| 27 |  Mickey Gasper | | 64 | 0.251 | 0.823 | 10 | 24 | 0 | 10.4% | 88.9 | View card › |
| 28 |  Eugenio Suárez |  | 63 | 0.212 | 0.740 | 26 | 74 | 1 | 12.5% | 88.5 | View card › |
| 29 |  Kevin Alcántara | | 60 | 0.240 | 0.646 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 6.7% | 91.1 | View card › |
| 30 |  José Tena |  | 60 | 0.222 | 0.672 | 7 | 25 | 6 | 8.3% | 90.6 | View card › |
| 31 |  Miguel Andujar | | 59 | 0.259 | 0.726 | 5 | 22 | 2 | 4.5% | 88.3 | View card › |
| 32 |  José Azócar |  | 58 | 0.353 | 0.860 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0% | 87.3 | View card › |
| 33 |  Agustín Ramírez |  | 58 | 0.235 | 0.672 | 5 | 24 | 4 | 4.2% | 89.9 | View card › |
| 34 |  Ronny Simon |  | 57 | 0.254 | 0.648 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3.8% | 87.8 | View card › |
| 35 |  Dominic Smith | | 57 | 0.253 | 0.694 | 9 | 46 | 0 | 5.8% | 87.8 | View card › |
| 36 |  Eloy Jiménez | | 57 | 0.290 | 0.633 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4.0% | 89.2 | View card › |
| 37 |  Sean Keys | | 57 | 0.197 | 0.570 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 10.0% | 88.6 | View card › |
| 38 |  Andrew Benintendi | | 56 | 0.240 | 0.715 | 15 | 78 | 1 | 8.6% | 89.3 | View card › |
| 39 |  Austin Hays | | 56 | 0.280 | 0.705 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 4.1% | 87.5 | View card › |
| 40 |  Marcell Ozuna | | 55 | 0.203 | 0.613 | 8 | 29 | 0 | 7.7% | 89.1 | View card › |
| 41 |  Bryan De La Cruz | | 55 | 0.280 | 0.762 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 5.1% | 88.8 | View card › |
| 42 |  Giancarlo Stanton | | 55 | 0.256 | 0.724 | 3 | 14 | 1 | 18.0% | 94.1 | View card › |
| 43 |  Gustavo Campero |  | 54 | 0.364 | 0.788 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.0% | 88.2 | View card › |
| 44 |  Will Wagner | | 53 | 0.257 | 0.708 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 81.9 | View card › |
| 45 |  Andrew McCutchen | | 52 | 0.192 | 0.537 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 5.8% | 87.1 | View card › |
| 46 |  Stuart Fairchild | | 52 | 0.158 | 0.565 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.0% | 94.2 | View card › |
| 47 |  Gage Workman | | 52 | 0.171 | 0.586 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 20.8% | 94.1 | View card › |
| 48 |  Owen Miller | | 52 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 49 |  Jorge Soler | | 51 | 0.203 | 0.664 | 12 | 49 | 0 | 10.9% | 88.5 | View card › |
| 50 |  Rob Refsnyder | | 49 | 0.140 | 0.465 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 8.6% | 86.6 | View card › |
| 51 |  Salvador Perez |  | 47 | 0.229 | 0.657 | 21 | 78 | 1 | 10.7% | 89.2 | View card › |
| 52 |  Moisés Ballesteros | | 46 | 0.215 | 0.612 | 9 | 35 | 1 | 8.4% | 90.1 | View card › |
| 53 |  Jonah Bride | | 45 | 0.200 | 0.533 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 54 |  Dylan Carlson | | 45 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 55 |  DaShawn Keirsey Jr. | | 45 | 0.200 | 0.400 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 56 |  Eric Haase | | 45 | 0.162 | 0.600 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 16.3% | 86.0 | View card › |
| 57 |  Luken Baker | | 45 | 0.200 | 0.400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 58 |  Luke Williams | | 45 | 0.000 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 59 |  Will Wilson | | 45 | 0.200 | 1.133 | 1 | 2 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 60 |  José Barrero |  | 45 | 0.167 | 0.334 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | View card › |
| 61 |  Jihwan Bae | | 45 | 0.500 | 1.167 | 0 | 0 | 1 | — | — | View card › |
| 62 |  Nicky Lopez | | 45 | 0.270 | 0.634 | 1 | 24 | 5 | 0.0% | 84.7 | View card › |
| 63 |  Jonathan Ornelas | | 45 | 0.190 | 0.417 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0% | 91.9 | View card › |
| 64 |  Adrian Del Castillo | | 44 | 0.193 | 0.555 | 5 | 24 | 1 | 6.3% | 88.3 | View card › |
| 65 |  Jorge Polanco | | 43 | 0.148 | 0.431 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 4.0% | 86.0 | View card › |
| 66 |  Tommy Pham | | 42 | 0.100 | 0.429 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5.3% | 93.6 | View card › |
| 67 |  Daz Cameron | | 42 | 0.208 | 0.575 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 11.1% | 84.1 | View card › |
| 68 |  Logan O'Hoppe | | 40 | 0.219 | 0.578 | 4 | 24 | 0 | 9.1% | 86.8 | View card › |
| 69 |  Nick Solak | | 39 | 0.143 | 0.443 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12.5% | 90.2 | View card › |
| 70 |  Kyle Farmer | | 38 | 0.222 | 0.489 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 7.1% | 81.2 | View card › |
| 71 |  Orlando Arcia | | 38 | 0.271 | 0.654 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.5% | 86.0 | View card › |
| 72 |  Chadwick Tromp | | 37 | 0.163 | 0.344 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0.0% | 85.5 | View card › |
| 73 |  Oliver Dunn | | 34 | 0.091 | 0.258 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0% | 82.6 | View card › |
| 74 |  Michael Stefanic | | 33 | 0.346 | 0.799 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0.0% | 90.1 | View card › |
How this leaderboard is built
Legends Deck rates every designated hitter using real 2026 Statcast data. For hitters, the key inputs are exit velocity, barrel rate, xwOBA, sprint speed, whiff rate, and chase rate. No scout opinions, no card-by-card tuning: the same fixed pipeline for every player.
Full methodology: How Legends Deck card ratings work. Or read the ranked breakdown: Best Designated Hitters in MLB 2026.
Questions
Who is the best designated hitter in MLB 2026?
Shohei Ohtani is the highest-rated designated hitter in MLB 2026 on Legends Deck. The top three are Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez, Ben Rice, ranked by a percentile transform of real Statcast data refreshed nightly.
How are MLB designated hitters ranked on Legends Deck?
Hitters are scored on a percentile-normalized blend of exit velocity, barrel rate, xwOBA, sprint speed, whiff rate, and chase rate — pulled live. No editorial weights, just math.