Talk:Position player
Add topic | This article is rated Stub-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
How did this term originate?
[edit]I don't quite understand "position player", because I thought pitcher was a position too. For the 9 defensive players, the rules define a pitcher and a catcher, with the other 7 allowed to station themselves anywhere in fair territory.
I do notice that "position player", as used here, excludes the designated hitter as well as the pitcher. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.63.16.20 (talk) 17:05, 2 October 2012 (UTC)
Designated hitter
[edit]Article currently states: "A designated hitter, who bats but does not play any defensive position, is also not considered a position player."
However, the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award presented to Shohei Ohtani in 2021 was, according to commissioner Rob Manfred, for "something that happened for the first time in the 88-year history of the All-Star Game, that is a player was selected both as a pitcher and a position player, and then the field manager selected him to start the game as the pitcher".
Ohtani was selected as both a Designated Hitter and Pitcher, and to my knowledge did not play any other defensive position in the field. Thus the "position player" term would seem to include the DH. PK-WIKI (talk) 21:02, 3 September 2026 (UTC)