The 27-player fix for baseball’s ills
The National League’s roster crisis reached the point of absurdity during the Giants’ weekend series in New York. It took just a single bit of misfortune — Ryan Theriot’s illness — to throw them into a state of desperation.
Holding a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning Friday night and needing a pinch-hitter for Barry Zito, manager Bruce Bochy turned to Matt Cain. With bench options dwindling to zero the following day, Aubrey Huff was thrown into action at second base. The result was rampant embarrassment and a highly substandard caliber of play.
I’ve got a suggestion that wouldn’t merely fix this leaguewide problem. It also would save baseball from the disheartening fate of designated hitters in both leagues. The answer is a 27-man roster — giving each team two additional players.
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a massive storm cloud looming over next season. Major realignment is at hand: 15 teams
in each league, divided into five-team divisions, with the Houston Astros moving to the American League to make things even. No longer will MLB have to explain why one division (the AL West) has four teams and another (the NL Central) has six.
The problem is that odd number: 15. The only way to retain a comprehensive schedule is to have an interleague game every day. Teams have managed to make the proper Dh-related adjustments during the interleague windows each season. But two sets of rules as a issue? That’s just a bit too awkward. “One way or the other” will be the rallying cry.
To date, there hasn’t been the slightest hint that either side would capitulate. American League people love the DH, and the National League embraces the traditional game. There won’t be any radical change immediately, but well-placed sources estimate that within a few years, allowing for an adjustment period, the DH will rule both leagues.
Unless drastic measures are taken. And let’s replace “drastic” with common sense. More players, more jobs and no need for the DH at all.
For decades, the 25-man roster worked just fine. Pitching staffs generally went 10-deep, allowing for a seven-man bench and specific roles: pinch-hitters from both sides of the plate, lateinning defense, speed on the bases, legitimate backups at every position. The DH virtually wipes out bench play in the American League, but if you’ve followed Bochy’s Giants, you know that he’d make great use of a sevenman bench, clearing the decks in the most complicated games.
He certainly wouldn’t have to use Huff at second base, put it that way. Bochy didn’t have a choice because a 12man pitching staff (common throughout the game) limits his bench to five — and make that four if someone isn’t available that day.
The players’ union has long defended the DH because it creates high-paying jobs for players ill-equipped to handle a glove. Well, here’s an additional two jobs on every team — and before you note the obvious difference between a high-profile power hitter and a backup second baseman, take a close look at how the DH has evolved.
Traditionally, it meant star power: Frank Thomas, Paul Molitor, Edgar Martinez, Don Baylor, Harold Baines or someone along the lines of Orlando Cepeda, Rico Carty or Gates Brown in the twilight of a long career. As much as it defied one of the game’s basic tenets — if you swing the bat, you also have to take the field — it was reasonably good fun.
With the exception of Boston’s David Ortiz, the DH has outgrown its original intent. The game is all about long-term contracts — witness the veritable flood of lucrative extensions over the past two years — and teams are looking to the future, not an aging, short-term option. Johnny Damon (Cleveland) and Hideki Matsui (expected to sign a minor-league deal with Tampa Bay) are just now finding work, and the likes of Vladimir Guerrero, Magglio Ordoñez and Derrek Lee remain out in the cold.
The new trend in DH strategy is rotation, spreading the assignment among position players. The Yankees, Rangers, Twins, Mariners, Orioles, A’s and Angels have gone this route. The Tigers have two prime DH candidates, Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera, but because they consider themselves authentic players, each prefers to be in the field.
So what does that leave? Edwin Encarnacion (Toronto), Luke Scott (Tampa Bay), Travis Hafner (Cleveland), Billy Butler (Kansas City) and Chicago’s platoon of Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko. That’s the sorry state of your modern-day DH.
It’s good to know that rosters will expand to 26 players this year for scheduled doubleheaders, for a bit of precedent will be set. But that’s only the beginning.
“I would actually consider 27, for the whole season,” Colorado general manager Dan O’dowd told reporters. “I’m not sure how we arrived at 25 to begin with, but I definitely feel it’s time for a change.”
And let’s not hear any blather from the owners, whining about paying two additional players. This is a $7 billion industry on the rise. Regional TV contracts have made a number of teams obscenely rich, and the Cincinnati Reds, who have the smallest TV market in the game, recently handed Joey Votto a 10-year, $225 million extension. The Dodgers’ $2.15 billion sale jacked up the value of every team, and according to Forbes, 27 of the 30 teams made money last year. So let’s not even start with the boo-hoo routine.
Baseball’s current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t expire until November 2016, but when it comes to something this important — preserving the game as it was meant to be played, with all the attendant strategy and intrigue — concessions can be made. Expand the rosters by next spring and “grandfather” the DH into play for a year or two, so American League pitchers can practice swinging the bat and acting like actual ballplayers.
Indeed, “grandfather” is the perfect word. The designated hitter in a nutshell.