In
baseball, a
position player is a player who on
defense plays as an
infielder,
outfielder, or
catcher. This is generally all players on a team except for the
pitcher, who is considered separate from the position players; in the
American League, there is also a
designated hitter, who bats but does not play any defensive positions (and is therefore not a position player). Position players are eligible to pitch, and a manager may have a player do so in the case of a blowout during a game, or if he runs out of eligible pitchers in a game, usually occurring when the game goes into many extra innings. However, this is rare.