During Thursday’s Zoom media scrum, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked where he stands if we have seen our last pitcher bat due to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred having mandated a universal designated hitter in both leagues for the 60-game COVID-19-shortened 2020 season.

“I would be disappointed,” Roberts answered directly. “I think that in baseball, there should be a place for both. I love the ability to keep an aging player in the game that can still hit, and I understand the fans’ excitement to see a hitter. But I also love a strategy of double switching and knowing that you have to pinch-hit for a pitcher and use your bench and things like that, and so I love that kind of strategy of it.

“So, for me, I get the best of both worlds,” added Roberts. “But I think in this particular case, with the pitchers not really being able to be built up, putting them in jeopardy as far as an oblique when swinging the bat, I think this year it’s very clear that it makes sense.”

It’s probably fair to say that every die-hard old-school baseball purist sees it this way as well; at least every National League die-hard old-school baseball purists.

The problem, of course, is that with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire following the 2021 season, the DH in both leagues could become permanent from now until kingdom come … baseball purists be damned.

Granted, there are very few National League pitchers who come close to even hitting their weight. In fact, during the 2019 season, Dodgers pitchers went a combined 47-for-299 (.157), with only former right-hander Kenta Maeda having more than 10 hits (12-for-48 = .250). Even so-called ‘good hitting pitcher’ Clayton Kershaw only went 4-for-49 (.102) in 2019.

Be that as it may, like Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, this die-hard old-school baseball purist will also be disappointed when pitchers no longer bat in the National League.

Play Ball!

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