February 11th, 2022 at 9:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka With pitchers and catchers scheduled to report for Spring Training 2022 in exactly three days, and with negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association progressing very slowly, there was some good news out of Orlando, FL, on Thursday morning.
…good news unless you are an old-school baseball purist, that is.
Although nothing has been finalized between the two factions towards a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred met with reporters following Thursday’s annual owners’ meeting, informing them that they (MLB) had submitted a proposal to the players’ union to expand the designated hitter rule to the soon-to-be 162-year-old National League, and the elimination of draft-pick compensation.
“We’ve proposed an agreement that is better in every respect than the expired contract,” Manfred told the gathered media. “For the first time in history, and despite substantial opposition by some clubs, we’ve agreed to institute a draft lottery to address the players’ concern about clubs not competing.
“We’ve agreed to a universal designated hitter and the elimination of draft-choice compensation. These changes will improve the free-agent market by creating additional jobs that are often filled by veteran players and by reducing, actually eliminating, the drag from compensation,” the Commissioner added.
(Video capture courtesy of MLB.com – Click on image to view video).
It has long been accepted that a universal DH was inevitable, but it will be a bitter pill to swallow for baseball purists who enjoyed watching pitchers (attempt) to hit. That said, it definitely adds an additional productive bat to their (now) 26-man active rosters.
Although Manfred’s announcement on Thursday is certainly a step in the right direction towards establishing a new CBA, unless significant progress is made within the next 72 hours, Monday’s slated start to Spring Training 2022 is at serious risk of being delayed.
Stay tuned…
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Posted in 
I’m sure I’ll get flamed for admitting this but I’d be happy for the NL to continue without the DH. When I would express such to baseball fan friends they would always comment that it make the game boring. I say it is what makes the game interesting. But baseball is fundamentally a game of defense and “fans” now only seem to are about offense.
While on the subject of traditionalism, I’d happy seeing FEWER post season teams – just the 1st place finishers in each division and ok, if we must then THE best single team that did NOT win their division. I’m not quite to the point of wanting the old AL champ versus NL champ with NO other playoff rounds, but I admit I am closer to that than what we have now with so many rounds. The 3 game playoff make a mockery of the 162 game season. I’d also be happy with the old 148 (?) game season and all playoffs completed in October.
You most certainly won’t “get flamed” by me. I have always hated the DH … ALWAYS.
I totally get the ‘it adds an additional player to the roster‘ and the ‘it adds more offense to the game‘ arguments, but this was NOT how Abner Doubleday envisioned the game when he ‘invented’ it back in 1839.
I will forever miss precious moments like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVFsq9FQBlc
Pitchers hitting = no joy in Mudville.
Ron. If we had the DH chances are Kiki or Joc P would still be a Dodger. The way our team was built with so much depth the DH would have made us better.
what can we do? i feel like there must be a way for us to preserve the heartbeat of the game itself (the pitcher’s spot in the order) We need to start a movement