Will a player hit better or worse solely based on his defensive position? For example, will a league average defensive catcher hit better as a DH, worse at SS or it has no bearing on how they do in the batter’s box?

I have never seen any discussion suggesting a player will hit better or worse depending on the position they are playing.

I have never noticed anything like that, but I have noticed pitchers performing better as to what they're listed at. I've had pitchers that stunk as a SP1, but thrived as a 2 or 3, and a 2 or 3 that performed better as a 1, etc.

Not so sure about that jimt. I recently acquired a 1B that was below the league avg ratings that was struggling offensively. I brought him in to DH for me and saw better production out of him. I believe that some, not all, players will bring their defensive struggles to the rest of their game, much like RL. So I base my trade acquisitions on the ratings and if they will fill a position of need in my squad. I haven't done a lot of research on this, who has the time, but I've had success with this. In my opinion defense affects a team and needs to be considered.

Folks give the HBD code waaay too much credit. It's not sophisticated enough for that level of nuance.

Here's a PP by one of the original developers. I'm not a stat head and don't understand everything in that link so I can't say for certain, and I'm also not sure how close HBD's current engine follows what's in the PP, but my stats challenged brain doesn't see anything in there about an offensive player's defensive factors playing a role in the outcome of what happens during a plate appearance.

David Justice will argue that, in real life, this is a thing, but in hbd, it is not a thing. Any changes in offensive performance after a position change is just coincidence.

Sorry guys but the original developers started the game and set things up. That was a long time ago and several programmers ago. The new team has re-written everything, or is in the process so that it can be updated and modified going forward. As we all know that means little as programming and systems change. I believe that the current team is attempting to get the game to work more as the game description was written, the original developer was also doing this but on a smaller scale although we got somewhat frequent updates. My real contention is that while programmers make changes to make things run better, there are also unexpected results that weren't anticipated. So while the intention of penalizing players for playing out of position may not have been intended, as we know it happens to some, not all, that play out of position and could now be a part of this game.