Time to end the designated hitter
How's this for some history?
Good morning, all! I hope your Sunday is off to a terrific start.
Baseball has a pitching problem and part of it has to do with the designated hitter. These days people do cartwheels, if a pitcher makes it two times through the opposing team’s batting order. Rare is the game where a pitcher hurls the distance. Check the daily box scores. More often than not a team uses three or more pitchers per game, even if or especially if its a low-scoring game. Rosters are constantly being manipulated, as pitchers are called up and sent down.
These days you cannot tell a pitcher even with a scorecard. Teams hire a pitcher for a game then release him. Rico Garcia is exhibit A. I got to know Garcia and his family, when he pitched for the Hartford Yard Goats. A nicer guy you could not meet. He has pitched for three teams in the last 27 days. Or is it four? I’ve lost track. After starting the season, pitching for the Mets AAA club at Syracuse, Garcia got called up to the big league team on July 11. He pitched one game for the Mets against the Yankees then was placed on waivers. The Yankees picked him up, pitched him in one game against the Braves and placed him on waivers. The Mets brought him back a week later, designated him for assignment only to have the Orioles claim him. They added him to the big league roster Aug. 7.
So what does this have to do with the DH? Pitching staffs are constructed with the DH in mind. Besides, I’m not so sure the DH is generating the offense it once did, which was the reason for the rule.
As an aside, I was at the first game, when the DH debuted on Apr. 6, 1973. It was Opening Day at Fenway Park and Ron Blomberg, the Yankees DH, drew a walk off Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant. Blomberg went 1-for-4 and the Red Sox DH Orlando Cepeda went 0-for-6. The Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and then got clobbered, 15-5. What I remember most about the game was not its history for being the first game to use a DH, but how freakin’ cold and windy it was. Balls were being blasted into the outfield only to be blown back to be caught by infielders.
So back to my original point. Teams are bolstering their bullpens, content to go with mediocre starting pitchers. A look at the recently concluded trade deadline shows many teams trading for relievers. Most of these pitchers throw hard, but even if they don’t, the bottom line is from the sixth inning on in many games, hitters are facing a fresh arm inning after inning.
Unlike the old days when pitchers hit, managers no longer have to think about pinch hitting for the pitcher or double switches. Just keep bringing those fresh arms into the game and if you run low on relievers, have your GM perform some roster gymnastics by farming out a pitcher or two and calling up a couple of fresh arms for the next game. Also gone is the strategy. When a pitcher hit, would he sacrifice or would he swing away?
Then you have the controversies. The Red Sox would have never been faced with the fiasco, involving their top player Rafael Devers, if the DH did not exist. He would have had to play in the field, even if it meant first base. Instead Boston peddled him to San Francisco, although they are now a better team without him.
Which brings us to the Yankees DH Giancarlo Stanton. Albeit a wonderful teammate, whose bat still carries some pop, as a muscle-bound DH, he never runs the bases hard for fear he might pull a muscle. And only because of Aaron Judge’s elbow injury, has Stanton been forced back into the outfield for the first time in two years. All this for a player making $32M per year.
There have been rule proposals hinted at over the years that a team lose its DH, if a starting pitcher is forced out of the game, before the fifth inning. Roger Clemens said on the Yankees Old Timers Day broadcast on Saturday a team should lose its DH, if a starting pitcher is removed before the seventh inning. I’m not so sure that is the answer. In fact, I do not expect any answers.
Baseball will never eliminate the DH. The players association would be dead set against it and for that matter so would the owners. But baseball was a better game without the DH, when there was such a thing as managerial strategy, starters pitched late into games and there was not a constant parade out of the bullpen.
Here are some other thoughts crossing my mind for Sunday, August 10, 2025:
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw pitched against the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night. Did you see this note?
BTW, Vlad Jr. has been on fire at the plate since the All-Star game
In first place through the first half of the season, the Cubs continue to slide further behind the front running Brewers in the NL Central and are 21-21 since June 19. The Yankees are 20-30 over their last 50. They have dropped into third place in the AL East. Ouch!
Former Yankees player and current broadcaster John Flaherty said on the Yankees pregame show Saturday, before the Old Timers Day game, all the players were saying the goal is to get through the game without getting hurt. Wouldn’t you know it. The great Mariano Rivera tore his Achilles in the game, diving for a ball, while playing in the outfield. The inning before he had gotten a hit off of Andy Pettitte. (See, pitchers can hit.)
Word is Netflix might televise MLB’s Home Run Derby event before the All-Star game. It’s all about streaming, streaming, streaming.
Word is Netflix also made a bid to televise the U.S. Open golf tournament, but that the USGA is close to extending its rights deal with NBC. Can you say Peacock?
As always, thank you for subscribing and have a nice rest of your weekend.
DAN