The Top Designated Hitters in the First Third of the 2026 MLB Season

American League	National League
Yordan Alvarez	Kyle Schwarber
HM – Yandy Diaz	HM – Shohei Ohtani

For these designated hitter rankings, I focused almost entirely on offensive production and sustainability. Since DH removes defensive value from the equation, metrics such as WAR, wRC+, OPS, batting average, on-base percentage, barrel rate, batting run value, walk rate, strikeout rate, and pitch-specific performance carried the most weight. The goal was to identify not just which hitters have produced the best results so far, but which offensive profiles look strongest moving forward. All statistics are from FanGraphs and Baseball Savant and are current through May 20.

The Astros Yordan Alvarez is the 100th percentile of hitters in Batting Run Value. Yes, you read that right. Alvarez is statically the best hitter in the league through the first third of the season. His 17.4% barrel rate is his highest since 2022, and his walk to strikeout rate is very similar to last season. What’s different this season than ever before? Alvarez is hitting the sweet spot of the bat 46% of the time he hits the ball. He’s also hitting fastballs a lot better than last season. This year he has a .333 batting average against fastballs, where last season he was hitting .242. He only trails Drake Baldwin with the highest wRC+, with 175, and has the highest DH WAR in MLB with a 1.7. 

Yandy Diaz is an easy pick for AL honorable mention. He’s in the 94th percentile in strikeout rate, and doesn’t whiff on many pitches. He cut down his strikeout percentage by 3% from last season, and most of his stats like barrel rate, exit velocity, and hard hit rate are actually down from last year, Diaz is still sitting at a 1.4 WAR (third best DH rate in MLB) and a 152 wRC+. Diaz is also hitting .316 with an OBP of .395 which only trails Alvarez and Shohei Ohtani. 

Shohei Ohtani is a great DH in the National League to no surprise. He’s arguably the best pitcher in the league and hitter, but I have to give Kyle Schwarber the nod here for best DH thus far. Schwarber is in the 99th percentile of batting run value while Ohtani is in the 89th. Taking that at face value, it seems like a big difference, but it really isn’t. Schwarber hits more home runs, but Ohtani hits for a better average. Despite Schwarber’s .219 batting average, he has built a 1.5 WAR trailing only Alvarez, while Ohtani is at 1.3 WAR at the plate behind Diaz. Schwarber is rocking a 161 wRC+ and Ohtani is at 143. Both have elite walk rates, both sitting close to 14.5%. Schwarber is barreling the ball up 26% of the time he’s at the plate, and that’s up 5% since last season. Ohtani’s barrel rate has actually decreased 5% since last season. With all these stats looked at, Schwarber gets my nod for best DH in the National League… but it’s close. 

This closes out my microarticle series on the best players in the MLB at each position through the first third of the season. Check out the rest of Behind the Coaching for more content!