Batter up! Universal DH appears to be a lock
No more pitchers on the bases wearing jackets. No more surprise dingers. No more epic bunts. No more awkward batting stances and related injury scares.
It’s the end of an era, but at least we’ll always have Bartolo Colon’s legendary home run.
Major League Baseball has agreed to the universal designated hitter, commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Thursday. The move ends the National League’s 48-year run that forced pitchers to take at-bats. In addition, Manfred said MLB has agreed to eliminate draftpick compensation for signing free agents.
While nothing is official until an agreement with the players union is reached, the universal DH was always expected to be included in the new CBA. In 2020 s pandemic-shortened season, MLB deployed a trial run of what will soon become the norm. NL pitchers did the job they were hired to do, and sluggers filled their absence in the lineup. It certainly made for a more entertaining product, but NL purists lamented the departure of increased strategy in the game when a pitcher was at the dish.
Mets fans can breathe a sigh of relief if the universal DH does come to pass ahead of next season.
Jacob deGrom took his always-competitive attitude to the batter’s box last year, hitting .364 (12-for-33) with six RBI, four runs scored, and a double across 15 games. He was a pleasure to watch, oftentimes providing a more exciting and productive at-bat than some of his struggling teammates. But then the injuries kicked in.
Following the All-Star break, deGrom speculated that a number of his aches and pains last season — including back stiffness, right lat and side tightness, right flexor tendinitis and right shoulder soreness — were caused by swinging. Those injuries, though framed by the Mets as “minor” at the time, did cause deGrom to exit at least some of his starts early, while skipping others entirely. However, he insisted that the forearm injury that eventually forced him to miss the second half of the season was not the result of hitting. No matter the minutiae, the best pitcher in baseball spending no time in the batter’s box is a best-case scenario for deGrom and the Mets.
Of course, it’s not just the Amazin’s ace who will benefit from the universal DH. Right-hander Taijuan Walker also said that the side tightness and discomfort in his non-throwing shoulder that put him on the injured list in 2021 was the result of hitting. The Mets’ solution for Walker was to bat from the other side, so he switched from hitting righty to batting lefty during the season. With injuries building up for pitchers in recent years, MLB and the players union will make a smart decision by eliminating another threat: pitchers taking hacks.
Pending official approval from the Players Association, MLB also agreed to eliminate draft-pick compensation for signing free agents who decline qualifying offers. In the previous, now expired CBA, teams would receive an extra draft pick when their free agent player, who was extended a one-year qualifying offer, walked away to another club. Conversely, the team that signed that free agent player with the qualifying offer attached would lose its second-highest draft pick, plus $500,000 in international signing pool space.
MLB has agreed to extinguish that system, and the players union is expected to be in unison. It remains unclear if the elimination of draft-pick compensation for signing free agents will take effect once the new CBA is in place, or if that policy will be grandfathered in. Qualifying offers itself, which have been in place since 2012, are expected to remain intact.