Red Sox now-retired slugger David Ortiz has added another award to his mantle. Major League Baseball announced Wednesday that Ortiz has won the 2016 Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter of the Year award.
The award has been around since 1973, when Orlando Cepeda of the Red Sox won it.
The namesake of the award, Edgar Martinez won it five times. The other multiple-time winners of the award:
Hal McRae, 3
Paul Molitor, 2
Don Baylor, 2
Harold Baines, 2
Dave Parker, 2
Greg Luzinski, 2
Willie Horton, 2
As such, when the Mariners held a ceremony to honor the retirement of Martinez in 2004, then-commissioner Bud Selig renamed the award in his honor.
In that same season, Ortiz won the award for the second time. This 2016 award? It's Ortiz's eighth. So he's dwarfed the man the award was named for.
Per MLB, here's how the winner is decided:
Ballots are cast by club beat writers, broadcasters and AL public relations departments with nominees including all players with a minimum of 100 at-bats as a designated hitter.
So we need to keep in mind only at-bats as a DH count. Nelson Cruz only got 411 at DH, but he still had to figure as Ortiz's greatest competition. Only five hitters got at least 400 at-bats at DH and here's a comparison. Again, these are numbers only at DH.
| Player | AVG/OBP/SLG | 2B | HR | RBI |
| David Ortiz | .317/.402/.629 | 48 | 38 | 125 |
| Nelson Cruz | .304/.367/.594 | 18 | 33 | 85 |
| Victor Martinez | .279/.340/.456 | 21 | 24 | 79 |
| Albert Pujols | .269/.318/.457 | 17 | 25 | 99 |
| Kendrys Morales | .253/.317/.423 | 21 | 22 | 79 |
The other players who were DH-types (Carlos Santana, Edwin Encarnacion, etc.) would have to be considered part-time DHs.
So, really, this shouldn't have even been close. And it sounds like it wasn't, since MLB said in its press release that Ortiz "received overwhelming support."
So it's Ortiz eight, Edgar five in Edgar's award.
