With the league all but certain to adopt the universal designated hitter rule in December, the forthcoming season will almost certainly be the last time we see pitchers take their turn at bat
When Major League Baseball made the decision to expand the designated hitter rule to National League ballparks last year to lighten players’ workloads, the end of America’s national pastime in its original form appeared to be a fait accompli.
The facts: Few pitchers want to bat and even fewer managers want to watch them bat. It’s one of the rare issues that both the players and the owners, warring factions who otherwise couldn’t agree on today’s weather, appear to be in total accord. And after a pandemic-shortened season gave baseball commissioner Rob Manfred the perfect cover to enact a handful of experimental rules, it seemed inevitable that last year’s universal DH trial run would be carried over into perpetuity.
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