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David Ortiz and the greatest designated hitters of all time
Boston Red Sox DH David Ortiz is closing out his career in style. USA TODAY Sports

David Ortiz and the greatest designated hitters of all time

One of the most debated topics in baseball is the true value of the designated hitter. One camp says that it is a pivotal part of the American League style of play, while others say that it is not truly even a position because it's one-dimensional. This dispute has gone to such an extent that even the Hall of Fame worthiness of players who have made their livings as designated hitters has been debated.

To date, it rings true that no player who has played the vast majority of his career as a DH has been elected to Cooperstown. While that debate rages on, one thing that cannot be debated is the impact that David Ortiz has had on the game while manning the position.

Saturday marks the anniversary of Ortiz passing Hall of Famer Frank Thomas atop the all-time home run leaderboard as a designated hitter, smashing his 270th dinger in the DH spot on Sept. 17, 2009. As the Red Sox slugger plays the last few regular-season games of his career, it's a fine time to look back not only on his accomplishments, but also on the impact of the position that he made his home for much of the past 20 years.

The designated hitter has been in play in since the 1973 season, and along the way it has housed many of the most pivotal offensive presences in the game. But just where does Ortiz stand among these greats of the past 40-plus years? A handful of specialists in the role, as well as a few select current and future Hall of Famers, have spent time there too. But have any done it to the extent that Ortiz has?

With him putting the final touches on another great season in the role, as well as on his career, let’s take a look at some of the great designated hitters of all time — and where Ortiz fits into the hierarchy.

10. Brian Downing

Downing hit 275 home runs in his 20-year career, spent mostly as a member of the California Angels. He split most of those between left field and later on at designated hitter, but since he spent more of his career without a glove than with one, he checks in here on this list.

He was a consistent threat at the plate, hitting exactly one more home run in his career at home than on the road. His best stretch of his career was from 1982 to 1988, when he managed to hit 20 home runs in all but one season, including highs of 29 and 28 in 1987 and 1982, respectively. The one-time All-Star was the Angels' career leader in 13 separate categories when he left the team in 1990, including RBI, home runs and extra-base hits.

9. Don Baylor

Another longtime Angel, Baylor is one of the toughest players to ever put on a helmet. He stood fearlessly in the batter’s box and forced opposing pitchers to challenge him away, as he regularly crowded the plate. This led to him setting a modern-day MLB record for being hit with the most pitches in a career at the time of his retirement, but it also led to him assaulting quite a few pitches in return as well.

Baylor, who spent parts of his career with six different clubs, had his best season in 1979, when he was the American League MVP in Anaheim, hitting 36 home runs while leading the AL in runs scored (120) and RBI (139). Overall, he would post three 30-homer years and take home three Silver Slugger Awards as well. He hit 214 of his 338 career homers as a DH.

8. Chili Davis

The first Jamaican-born player to ever reach the MLB, he spent his early career as an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants. But when Davis hit the American League in 1988, he found his true calling and never looked back. As a member of the California Angels (twice), Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees, Davis became one of the foremost designated hitters in baseball, six times hitting 25 or more home runs and becoming a one-time All-Star in the AL.

The switch-hitting Davis clubbed 350 career homers, 424 doubles and had 2,380 hits overall. He was a fine overall hitter, often topping 90 walks and three times carrying a .300 average in a season. Davis is currently the hitting coach for the Boston Red Sox, who lead baseball currently with 805 runs scored.

7. Victor Martinez

After breaking in as a catcher for the Cleveland Indians, it became clear early on that he would be a defensive liability (allowing 100 stolen bases in 2006), but his bat would keep him in the lineup no matter what.

Martinez is a five-time All-Star, having carried the honor as a member of the Indians, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers, where he has manned the DH role since 2011. Armed with a pinpoint understanding of the strike zone and the ability to be a near-equal threat from either side of the plate, Martinez is a .301 career hitter, with three years north of .330. In a bit of a rarity for such a free-swinging position, Martinez has multiple seasons in which he has walked more times than he has struck out. Most notable was his 2014 year, when he walked 70 times while striking out only 42 times in 641 plate appearances.

6. Jim Thome

Thome actually played more first base than DH in his career, but he put up some prodigious numbers at the position so he earns a spot here. In his 22-year career, he hit 612 home runs, the seventh most of all time, and 205 of those came as a DH, as well as 578 of his career RBI.

Despite swinging a prodigious power bat throughout his career, which included six seasons of 40-plus home runs, his contributions are often lost in the wave of the steroid era that surrounded, but never included, him. Also lost in that mix are some of his huge seasons as a DH, especially his run with the Chicago White Sox when he connected for 134 long balls in four years.  

5. Paul Molitor

After establishing himself as an infielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, Molitor went on to play over 1,100 games as a designated hitter as a Brewer, as well as with the Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota Twins.
By 1991, he adopted the DH role has his primary home. He already had over 2,000 hits in his career by this time, but he tacked on another 1,230 from that point on. In '91, he led the AL in hits (something he would do two more times from that point on at ages 36 and 39) as well as in runs scored.

In his career as a DH, Molitor hit .308 with 102 homers, 285 doubles and stole 169 bases, a rare feat for the position. His 3,316 hits overall are ninth in baseball history, and it could be argued he is the first DH enshrined in Cooperstown.

4. Frank Thomas

The Big Hurt got his career off the ground as one of the best hitters in baseball while prowling first base for the Chicago White Sox. He won a pair of American League MVP Awards in 1993 and ’94, while hitting .321 for the first nine years of his career.

But as he reached 30 years of age, injuries to his big frame sent him to the field less frequently, which instead allowed him to do what he always did best: rake at the plate. As a primary DH, Thomas had a pair of 40-plus homer seasons, as well as a 39-blast year in 2006. Overall, he hit the majority of his 521 homers as a DH, in addition to driving in 881 runs, totaling 1,288 hits, 763 runs scored and remaining one of the most feared hitters in the game, garnering 901 walks compared to 874 strikeouts in the role.

3. Harold Baines

In a career than saw him suit up for 10 different teams, Baines is the first player who truly specialized in the designated hitter role for the majority of his career. As a result of both his tenure and success in the role, Baines set a number of MLB records as a designated hitter. These include his 1,652 games as a DH (which still stands), along with his 236 home runs and 1,688 hits, both of which have since been surpassed.

After 1986, Baines never played more than 24 games in the field in his career, which ended in 2001. A .289 career hitter, Baines had 100 home runs as a member of both the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles. He connected for at least 20 home runs in 11 different seasons and was a .300 hitter in seven seasons — the first of which occurred in 1984 and the last in 1999. Baines was also one of the great clutch hitters of all time, with 13 career grand slams, three three-home run games and a .324 postseason batting average.

2. Edgar Martinez

Martinez is perhaps the most accomplished pure designated hitter of all time. He took on the craft that Harold Baines specialized and took it to another level. Martinez’s career has long been seen as the standard by which all other designated hitters are compared to, as he showed what a player allowed to truly focus only on the role could accomplish. No less than Pedro Martinez and Mariano Rivera deemed Martinez to be the toughest batter they ever faced.

Martinez was one of the best pure hitters ever. He was a two-time batting champion, hitting over .300 in 10 different seasons, including a pair of batting titles when he hit .343 in 1992 and .356 in 1995. He topped .300 in seven straight years from ’95 to 2001 and was a five-time All-Star during the span, seven times overall. Martinez’s 236 home runs as a DH are the second most of all time and were tops on the list at the time of his retirement in 2004.

1. David Ortiz

Yes, it is only right that the reason for putting this list together actually ends up being the top guy mentioned on it, but Big Papi has truly put together the most dynamic DH career ever. Much like Martinez, Ortiz began specializing in the role early in his career, and it has been his main home throughout.

Ortiz has gone on to claim every major record for a designated hitter in MLB history, including hits, home runs, doubles and RBI. He has nearly joined the 500 home run club as a DH alone, with 480 his career 536 long balls coming in the role. Overall, he has 10 seasons of 30-plus homers, including a DH record of 47 in 2006 (when he hit 54 overall).

He has been the most pivotal player from the offense-only role in the game’s history as well, being the driving force in Boston's three World Series wins during his run. He was the 2013 World Series MVP, when he hit .688 (11-for-16) with seven runs scored. He also is the only designated hitter to finish in the top five in MVP voting in five different seasons, and even as his career comes to a close, Ortiz is mashing as the best DH in the game.

Can you name the leaders in games played by a designated hitter for every American League team?

An asterisk (*) denotes non-consecutive years played with the team. The Milwaukee Brewers are included because of their American League affiliation until 1997.

SCORE:
0/15
TIME:
4:00
BAL-602 1993-2000*
Harold Baines
BOS-1750 2003-2016
David Ortiz
CHW-959 1990-2005
Frank Thomas
CLE-958 2003-2012
Travis Hafner
DET-608 2011-2016
Victor Martinez
HOU-346 2015-2018
Evan Gattis
KCR-1426 1973-1987
Hal McRae
LAA-598 1978-1990
Brian Downing
MIN-406 1973-1976
Tony Oliva
NYY-404 1983-1985
Don Baylor
OAK-428 1984-1986
Dave Kingman
SEA-1403 1987-2004
Edgar Martinez
TAM-245 2003-2008
Jonny Gomes
TEX-388 1982-1988
Larry Parrish
TOR-425 2009-2016
Edwin Encarnacion

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