Two-way player

In sports that require a player to play on offense and defense, a two-way player refers to a player who excels at both. In sports where a player typically specializes on offense or defense, or on pitching or batting, it refers to a player who chooses to do both.

Basketball

A two-way player in basketball excels at both the offensive side of the game and the defensive side of the game.
Some of the best two-way players in the National Basketball Association have been awarded the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Kevin Garnett, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the only Defensive Player of the Year winners to have also won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award during their careers. Jordan, Olajuwon, and Antetokounmpo won both awards in the same season.
In the Women's National Basketball Association, Yolanda Griffith, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Lauren Jackson, Candace Parker, Tamika Catchings, Sylvia Fowles, and A'ja Wilson have won both the WNBA Most Valuable Player Award and the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. Griffith, Swoopes, Leslie, Jackson, and Wilson won both awards in the same year, with Swoopes doing so twice.

Ice hockey

In the National Hockey League, the term two-way forward is used for a forward who handles the defensive aspects of the game as well as the offensive aspects of the game. The best two-way forward is presented with the Frank J. Selke Trophy. The term two-way defenseman is used to describe a defenseman who also makes contributions on offense. Occasionally, a player will be designated as both a defenseman and forward in his career; some recent examples are Nicolas Deslauriers, who was listed as a defenseman in his time in the QMJHL and in his first two professional seasons but as of 2022 is listed as a forward; and Dustin Byfuglien, who began his junior career as a defenseman before being moved up to right wing by the Chicago Blackhawks, then was moved back to defense when he was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers. Brent Burns began at right wing, was switched to defenseman, back to right wing for a year and then back to defenseman.
Only two players have won both the Hart Trophy and the Norris Trophy : Bobby Orr three times and Chris Pronger once, each time in the same season.

Baseball

Background

In Major League Baseball, there are few true two-way players, as most pitchers are poor batters, and position players generally do not also pitch. In the American League especially, the two-way player had mostly ceased to exist, as the designated hitter rule has allowed a team to have a designated batter bat in place of the pitcher since 1973. This rule was what largely made it possible for two-way player Shohei Ohtani to pitch and bat on separate days. Until 2022, pitchers in the National League still had to bat for themselves, but they were usually poor batters. In 2017, the average batting average for pitchers was.124, significantly worse than the league average of.255.
Until Shohei Ohtani in 2021, Babe Ruth was the last player to pitch 100 innings and have 200 plate appearances as a batter in the same season. Two-way players are still common in college baseball, with the John Olerud Award being given to the best two-way player of the season. However, by the major league level, a player is usually better at either pitching or batting, and rarely is given the chance to do both.
Effective with the 2020 season, "two-way player" became an official MLB roster classification. A player qualifies once he reaches the following statistical milestones in either the current or either of the two previous seasons:

At least 20 MLB innings pitched.
Appearing in at least 20 MLB games as a position player or designated hitter, with at least 3 plate appearances in each of the 20 games.

Once the player qualifies, he retains two-way status for the remainder of the current season plus all of the next two seasons. Two-way players do not count against the limit of 13 pitchers on a team's active roster instituted in 2020, and also are not subject to restrictions on pitching by position players that were also introduced in 2020.

Recent players

In 2017, the Tampa Bay Rays selected Brendan McKay, a two-way player, and began developing him as a pitcher and a first baseman; he made his MLB debut as a pitcher and DH during the Rays' 2019 season.
Shohei Ohtani, a two-way player as a pitcher and outfielder, moved from Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB in 2018 and became one of the few players to hit and pitch professionally. He has been used as a DH on days when he does not pitch. Ohtani was named the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year after becoming the first player since Babe Ruth to hit at least 20 home runs and pitch at least 50 innings in the same season. In 2021, Ohtani became the first player to be selected for the MLB All-Star game as both a pitcher and designated hitter, and he finished the year with 46 home runs and a 158 OPS+ as a hitter and a 3.18 ERA on the mound, winning the AL MVP award unanimously. In 2022, Ohtani became the first modern-era player to qualify for hitting and pitching leaderboards in the same season, and in 2023 was again the unanimous AL MVP, also making the All-MLB first team as both a designated hitter and starting pitcher. After a season-ending injury in 2023, Ohtani underwent his second major elbow surgery. Ohtani opted to play in the 2024 season, exclusively hitting as a designated hitter, where he became the first and currently only member of the 50 home run and 50 stolen base club. He went on to unanimously win his first NL MVP award in 2024, becoming the first full-time designated hitter to win the award. Ohtani returned to the mound on June 16, 2025 against the Padres in Dodger Stadium. Ohtani started game 4 at home in the NLCS against the Brewers. Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings while recording 10 strikeouts, allowing 3 walks and 2 hits, throwing 100 pitches—his highest pitch count since returning from surgery. Offensively, he hit three home runs—including a 469-foot homerun that was the longest recorded at Dodger Stadium that season— and drew one walk. The Dodgers won the game 5-1, sweeping the Brewers. Ohtani was awarded the National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award for his dominant performance. He went on to win his 4th unanimous MVP, joining Barry Bonds as the only players in Major League history to win four or more MVP awards.
Pitcher Michael Lorenzen, a former two-way player at Cal State Fullerton, amassed 133 at-bats, 31 hits and seven home runs in his seven seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, and he played as an outfielder in 36 games. He would stop batting in the Major Leagues after leaving the Reds, pitching for the Los Angeles Angels, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies, being named an All-Star and pitching a no-hitter in 2023.
Other major-league teams have evaluated prospects as two-way players, including Anthony Gose, Brett Eibner and Trey Ball.

Notable two-way baseball players

Player	League	Team	Years as two-way player	Wins	Losses	ERA	Batting average	HRs	RBI	Notes
Rick Ankiel	MLB	St. Louis Cardinals	1999–2001, 2004	13	10	3.90	.240	76	251	Ankiel was the first player since Babe Ruth to have won 10 or more games in a season, and to hit 50 career home runs.
Rube Bressler	MLB	Philadelphia Athletics Cincinnati Reds Brooklyn Robins Philadelphia Phillies St. Louis Cardinals	1914-1920	26	32	3.40	.301	32	586
Nixey Callahan	MLB	Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Colts/Orphans Chicago White Sox	1894, 1897–1903	99	73	3.39	.273	11	394	Pitched a no-hitter in 1902
Leon Day	Negro leagues	Baltimore Black Sox Brooklyn/Newark Eagles	1934–1946	67	29	4.51	.285	3	67	MLB Hall of Fame
Martín Dihigo	Negro leagues	Cuban Stars Homestead Grays Hilldale Giants New York Cubans	1923–1928, 1930–1931, 1935–1936, 1945	26	19	2.92	.307	64	227	MLB Hall of Fame
Hideo Fujimoto	JBL/NPB	Tokyo Kyojin Chunichi Dragons Yomiuri Giants	1943–1948	200	87	1.90	.245	15	151	Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
Fumio Fujimura	JBL	Osaka Tigers	1936–1938, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1950–1951	34	11	2.43	.300	224	1,126	Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
Brooks Kieschnick	MLB	Milwaukee Brewers	2003-2004	2	2	4.59	.248	16	46	2-time Dick Howser Trophy winner
Masaru Kageura	JBL	Osaka Tigers	1936–1938	27	9	1.57	.271	25	222	Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
Kim Seong-han	KBO	Haitai Tigers	1982–1983, 1985–1986	15	10	3.02	.286	207	781
Johnny Lindell	MLB	New York Yankees St. Louis Cardinals Pittsburgh Pirates Philadelphia Phillies	1941–1950, 1953–1954	8	18	4.47	.273	72	404
Michael Lorenzen	MLB	Cincinnati Reds	2015–2019	20	21	4.06	.235	7	24
Michio Nishizawa	JBL/NPB	Nagoya/Sangyo/Chubu Nihon/Nagoya Dragons/Chunichi Dragons Gold Star/Kinsei Stars	1937–1943, 1946–1947	60	65	2.23	.286	212	940	Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
Akira Noguchi	JBL/NPB	Tokyo Senators / Taiyō / Nishitetsu Hankyu Braves Chunichi/Nagoya Dragons	1936–1937, 1942–1943, 1948	49	40	2.54	.251	61	572	Brother of fellow two-way player Jiro Noguchi
Jiro Noguchi	JBL/NPB	Tokyo Senators / Tsubasa / Taiyō / Nishitetsu Hankyu Braves	1939–1943, 1946–1952	237	139	1.96	.248	9	368	Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
Shohei Ohtani	NPB	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	2013–2017	42	15	2.52	.286	48	166
Shohei Ohtani	MLB	Los Angeles Angels/Los Angeles Dodgers	2018, 2020–2023, 2024–present	38	19	3.01	.274	171	437	Won the MVP award in 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025
Ted Radcliffe	Negro leagues	Detroit Stars, Chicago American Giants, St. Louis Stars, Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Columbus Blue Birds, New York Black Yankees, Brooklyn Eagles, Cincinnati Tigers, Memphis Red Sox, Birmingham Black Barons, Homestead Grays	1929–1935, 1937–1939, 1941–1944, 1946	32	30	?	.278	19	97	Known as "Double Duty Radcliffe"
Bullet Rogan	Negro leagues	Kansas City Monarchs	1920–1929, 1933, 1935, 1937	119	50	3.68	.338	45	199	MLB Hall of Fame
Babe Ruth	MLB	Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Boston Braves	1914–1921, 1930, 1933	94	46	2.28	.342	714	2,214	MLB Hall of Fame
Junzo Sekine	NPB	Kintetsu Pearls	1950–1957	65	94	3.43	.279	59	424	Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
George Sisler	MLB	St. Louis Browns	1915–1916	5	6	2.35	.340	102	1,175	MLB Hall of Fame
Willie Smith	MLB	Detroit Tigers Los Angeles Angels Cleveland Indians Chicago Cubs	1963–1964, 1968	2	4	3.10	.248	46	211
Kota Yazawa	NPB	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	2023–present	1	2	3.52	.167	1	4
Bucky Walters	MLB	Philadelphia Phillies Cincinnati Reds Boston Braves	1934–1948, 1950	198	160	3.30	.243	23	234	Won the 1939 National League Most Valuable Player Award
Doc White	MLB	Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox	1902, 1909–1910	189	156	2.39	.217	2	75
Smoky Joe Wood	MLB	Boston Red Sox Cleveland Indians	1908–1915, 1917, 1919–1920	117	57	2.03	.283	23	325
Jimmie Foxx	MLB	Philadelphia Athletics Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs Philadelphia Phillies	1945	1	0	1.52	.325	534	1,922