"For 14 years from 2003 through 2016, it belonged to David Ortiz. Then, after he retired and the Sox tried Hanley Ramirez there for a season in 2017, J.D. Martinez took over and led the team in games played from the position for five years from 2018 through 2022. Basically, if you wanted to get in the lineup and your last name didn't end in a z, you'd better have a glove, and you better have spot where you could play every day."
"But those days, much like the balls those guys hit, are long gone. Starting with Martinez's final year in Boston in 2022, the Red Sox have now had four different guys lead the team in games from the DH slot in the last four seasons. And given the makeup of this roster going into 2026, we might be about to go five-for-five."
David Ortiz held the Red Sox DH role from 2003–2016, followed by a brief Hanley Ramirez experiment in 2017 and J.D. Martinez from 2018–2022. Since Martinez's final year in 2022, four different players led the team in DH games across four seasons: Martinez (2022), Justin Turner (2023), Masataka Yoshida (2024), and Rafael Devers (2025). The absence of a permanent DH alters roster construction by allowing positional flexibility and overflow at-bats. Boston's front office has embraced that flexibility, creating uncertainty over who will lead the DH role in 2026, with candidates including Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida depending on health and lineup composition.
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