Catchers Starting at DH in the 2026 MLB Season
About mid-season, I noticed that the trend of MLB catchers starting games at designated hitter was increasing compared to recent seasons. Now that the season has ended, I’ve run the numbers once more and found that in 2026 catchers started at DH at the highest rate of all the seasons I’ve examined.
I think it’s worth laying out the full table of how teams deployed catchers as DH, visible in this spreadsheet. All numbers pulled from Baseball-Reference.com.
| TM | NAMES | C GS AS DH | TOTAL G | PCT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARI | Del Castillo, Moreno | 58 | 162 | 0.3580246914 |
| COL | Goodman, Sullivan, Fulford | 46 | 162 | 0.2839506173 |
| LAD | Rushing, Smith | 6 | 162 | 0.03703703704 |
| SFG | 0 | 162 | 0 | |
| SDP | Campusano, Salas | 11 | 162 | 0.06790123457 |
| CHC | Ballesteros, Amaya, Kelly | 52 | 162 | 0.3209876543 |
| CIN | Stephenson | 11 | 162 | 0.06790123457 |
| MIL | Sanchez, Contreras | 40 | 162 | 0.2469135802 |
| PIT | E. Rodriguez | 1 | 162 | 0.006172839506 |
| STL | Herrera, Pozo, Crooks, Bernal | 123 | 162 | 0.7592592593 |
| ATL | Baldwin, Murphy | 61 | 162 | 0.3765432099 |
| MIA | Hicks, Ramirez | 75 | 162 | 0.462962963 |
| NYM | Alvarez | 23 | 162 | 0.1419753086 |
| PHI | 0 | 162 | 0 | |
| WSN | Ford | 1 | 162 | 0.006172839506 |
| ATH | Langeliers, Heim, Serven | 53 | 162 | 0.3271604938 |
| HOU | Diaz | 8 | 162 | 0.04938271605 |
| LAA | Ballesteros, d'Arnaud | 19 | 162 | 0.1172839506 |
| SEA | Raleigh, Garver | 25 | 162 | 0.1543209877 |
| TEX | Higashioka, Diaz, O'Hoppe, Jansen, Wynns | 17 | 162 | 0.1049382716 |
| CHW | Quero | 1 | 162 | 0.006172839506 |
| CLE | Fry, Hedges | 12 | 162 | 0.07407407407 |
| DET | Dingler, Valencia | 34 | 162 | 0.2098765432 |
| KCR | Perez, Jensen | 122 | 162 | 0.7530864198 |
| MIN | Jeffers, Caratini | 9 | 162 | 0.05555555556 |
| BAL | Basallo, Rutschman | 46 | 161 | 0.2857142857 |
| BOS | Gasper, Wong, Rutschman | 33 | 162 | 0.2037037037 |
| NYY | 0 | 161 | 0 | |
| TBR | Hicks | 1 | 162 | 0.006172839506 |
| TOR | Kirk, Valenzuela | 4 | 162 | 0.02469135802 |
| TOTALS | 892 | 4858 | 0.1836146562 |
St. Louis, which used Ivan Herrera as their primary DH, led the majors with 123 games in which their starting DH was a player who also played catcher this season. Kansas City, which gave a lot of DH starts to Salvador Perez and Carter Jensen, was second with 122 such games. Overall, 16 teams — more than half of MLB — used catchers as their starting DH in 10% or more of their games, which would have been among the most aggressive rates 15 years ago.
As a league, 18.4% of DH starts went to catchers. To put that into context, I also ran the numbers for another traditionally defense-first position, shortstop. While it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison because every team carries a backup catcher and not every team carries a backup shortstop, most teams do have multiple players who take the position during the season, and since some of the best hitters in the league are shortstops one might think those players would get an occasional break from playing their demanding defensive position while keeping their bats in the lineup.
I counted 4% of DH starts going to shortstops, and that number is propped up by Casey Schmitt’s 23 starts at DH while starting 3 games at shortstop. The Giants gave 23 DH starts to shortstops, and the next-highest team was the New York Mets, with 17 starts spread between Brett Baty (himself mainly a “guy who can stand where shortstops normally do”), Bo Bichette, Francisco Lindor, and Ronny Mauricio.
As for What It All Means… Similar to earlier this year, I am hesitant to draw any grand sweeping conclusions, but the main one is that most MLB teams no longer punt catcher offense, even from backups, as indicated by their using two catchers in the starting lineup so often. If anything, I wonder if teams are seeing particular advantages to using catchers as regular DH, especially with defensive versatility later in games since catchers rarely play non-catcher positions other than first base competently, let alone well enough to make them worth inserting as defensive replacements.
Also, the trend will probably continue. Herrera could easily stop catching entirely, but St. Louis could keep seeing how many catching games they can get from him. Drake Baldwin will almost certainly keep DHing for Atlanta. Samuel Basallo might be the Orioles’ primary DH. Mickey Gasper staked a claim on DH and first base starts for Boston next year, in addition to perhaps continuing to catch. Gabriel Moreno hit so well for Arizona this year, he’ll almost certainly continue to draw DH responsibilities.
I wonder how much more capacity there is for catchers to start at DH, since there will be several teams that commit to a full-time DH (e.g.: Ohtani, Schwarber, Yandy, Pederson, possibly Rice), and of course there are teams with multiple hitters at other positions they’ll prefer to give at bats (e.g.: Eldridge/Devers, Wood/Lile). Obviously, I don’t know, but I would be surprised if the rate went much higher than 18%-20%, leaguewide, which would probably require three or four teams doing what the Cardinals and Royals did and give 75% of their DH starts to catchers.
Let’s revisit next summer.
* * *
Thanks for reading, you crazy kids. Let’s do this again, sometime.
(Photo: "Mike Piazza with Marlins-73" by Jon Gudorf Photography. Used under CC BY-SA 2.0 license. For his career, Piazza started 1,602 games at catcher and 120 at DH. He played five games with the Florida Marlins in 1998, three of which were against the St. Louis Cardinals, and two of those, the one on Sunday, May 17, 1998, and the one on Monday, May 18, 1998, were day games. This one was taken on Monday, which we know because Mike Winters, umpire No. 33, was the home plate umpire that day. The Cardinals used two catchers that day, and I can't tell if this shows Tom Pagnozzi or Tom Lampkin. Pagnozzi started 0 games at DH in his career. Lampkin started 3 games at DH.)