“We’ll continue to play by baseball rules,” NL President Chub Feeney famously said back then.
Well, the rules have finally changed.
Among the most noticeable switches in MLB for the 2022 season will be that all 30 teams will use the designated hitter, eliminating pitchers hitting and changing one of the long-standing different quirks between the two leagues.
No more Madison Bumgarner taking meaty cuts, no more Max Scherzer trying to end last year’s 0-for-62 slump.
The extra hitter won’t be a completely new concept in the NL: The league used the DH in the coronavirus-shortened season in 2020, in interleague games when visiting AL parks and in the postseason. There’s also the reality that nearly every level of baseball – from high school to college to the minor leagues – usually uses the DH.
But the change is still substantial, and it means some parts of the game will almost certainly become endangered or vanish – think sacrifice bunting, double switches and a Bartolo Colon blast. On the positive side, it also could add a jolt of offense to a game that needs it. MLB teams combined for a .244 batting average last season, which was the sport’s lowest mark since 1972 — pitchers didn’t help, combining to barely hit over .100.
There are certainly some pitchers upset that they don’t get to swing the bat. Zack Greinke produced two singles in last year’s World Series, including one as a pinch-hitter for Houston.
But Diamondbacks infielder Josh Rojas said he didn’t expect the change to be a big adjustment.
“I do think it’ll help with run production on the National League side,” Rojas said. “Having that pitcher in the nine-hole kind of cut off some rallies sometimes, or having to bunt him over instead of swinging it. … I don’t mind the DH.”
The DH position could also provide more jobs for the sport’s 30-somethings, who might not be as fleet in the field but can still swing the bat at a high level.
