Designated hitter
For a position with no defensive component whatsoever, it may be surprising that only four DHs reached the 500 plate appearance minimum both seasons to be considered. The four were Yordan Alvarez of Houston, Nelson Cruz of Minnesota, Tampa Bay and Washington, J.D. Martinez of Boston and Shohei Ohtani of the Angels.
Here, of course, we are only counting player data for the offensive side of the game, so Ohtani’s substantial pitching contributions are not figured in to his rating.
Alvarez wins in WAR with a cumulative score of 9.8. That’s 1.5 better than Ohtani, his only serious challenger. Martinez (4.1) is third and Cruz (2.7) fourth.
Alvarez also leads the group in OPS+ with an average of 161.5. Again, Ohtani is a comfortable second at 151.0, well ahead of Martinez (122.5) and Cruz (109.5).
Where Ohtani emerges as a contender is in availability. He totaled 1,305 plate appearances during the two seasons, 90.1 percent of the theoretical maximum and significantly more than Alvarez (1,159). In fact Martinez (at 1,230) also bettered Alvarez in availability.
That created a tie for the overall positional leadership. Both Ohtani (second, second, first) and Alvarez (first, first, third) had average ordinal scores of 1.67. Martinez was third and Cruz fourth.