Time for the DH to die…kinda.

If you know what the designated hitter is then I guarantee you have an opinion about it. Ever since the American League adopted the rule in 1973 people have been both determined to remove it or insistent that the National League adopt it as well. If you aren’t familiar with the rule, it basically means that instead of requiring the pitcher to come to bat (and therefore be included in the batting order), a player is designated to hit for them and takes their spot in the lineup. This player doesn’t take the field when the visiting team is up to bat.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the DH. I think that every player on the team should be required to come to bat. It’s not fair that some pitchers have to spend some time (even if it’s very little) at batting practice while their counterparts in a different league can focus solely on chucking the ball at home plate. However, I understand why the AL adopted the rule. If you have someone like Pedro Martinez in your rotation, you don’t want him doing anything that might risk his arm. (43 hits in 434 career at-bats if you were curious).

But if pitchers are so bad at hitting, why would anyone ever want them at the plate?

Because experienced pitchers can be worth more at the plate than inexperienced position players. German Márquez is a starting pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. In 2018 he led all pitchers in MLB with a .300 BA (minimum 20 PA). He had 65 plate appearances, stepping into the batter’s box more than five position players for the Rockies that season (Butera, Castro, Hampson, Tauchman, Tapia). His batting bWAR of 0.7 was more than those five players combined. Márquez was rewarded for his efforts with the 2018 Silver Slugger award for pitchers.

But Márquez isn’t the only example of pitchers hitting the ball well. Pitchers who don’t frequently come to bat at hitter-friendly Coors Field do well also, even old men like Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. In fact, at 30 years old Kershaw was the most valuable pitcher at the plate last year with 0.8 fWAR. This is from someone who has seen less AB’s in his career (660) than some people see in a season (Trea Turner, 664 AB in 2018).

What’s wrong with keeping the DH rule the way it is?

In the AL, the DH is frequently used the entire game with pitchers hardly ever coming to bat. In the NL, starting pitchers usually have 2 at-bats per game while relief pitchers almost never come up. But, their requirement to come to the plate “forces” the use of pinch hitters, changing up the defensive layout and ultimately batting order of the team. Thus, the NL has to play around several distinct disadvantages not suffered by the AL because of the DH.

For interleague play the DH rule is allowed under the rules of the home team; i.e. if the home team is in the AL you can use a DH. This gives NL teams a slight advantage for their home games as their starting pitchers are used to coming to bat while their opponent’s pitchers are not, but this is only 1-2 at-bats in a whole game. A very small victory.

AL teams just have it easier than NL teams and that isn’t fair.

Why don’t we just make the National League adopt the DH?

Well, we could, but I don’t like that idea.

Why don’t we just make the American League get rid of the DH?

There are a couple reasons why this wouldn’t go over so well. First, there are the players who are predominantly used as designated hitters. Forcing them to take the field every game may lead to lots of errors, something nobody wants. Second, that means a LOT of starters will have to start at least participating in batting practice so when they have to pick up a bat they have something, anything to fall back on. Lastly, as I said earlier the DH is somewhat of a necessary evil. No one wants their starting pitcher to come to the plate 2-4 times a game, 30-odd times a season. The risk of injury skyrockets.

So what do you propose?

My solution is extremely simple, but one that I think both leagues would find satisfactory:

1. Teams have the option to use a designated hitter for the starting pitcher only. Regardless of how many innings the first pitcher throws, they count as the “starter” (i.e. “openers” are counted the same as normal starters).
2. Once a relief pitcher enters the game, the designated hitter must either exit the game or switch to a position. If the latter is chosen, the former designated hitter will assume the former position player’s spot in the batting order. In either case, the pitcher will assume the former designated hitter’s spot in the batting order.
3. Relief pitchers will come to bat unless replaced by a pinch hitter using normal methods of substitution.

So basically, you can use a DH for the starter. That’s it. It’s not a novel idea, and it’s not overly complicated. But it evens the playing field across the two major leagues. NL teams would receive the benefit of not having to send their starting rotation to the plate, while AL teams would have to start relying on pinch hitters to finish games.

This rule is fair to the players too. The DH role wouldn’t go away, so players who “specialize” at it would still be utilized. But more importantly, all pitchers would be treated equally regardless of their role. Starters wouldn’t have to worry about getting hits (or quality outs) anymore, and relievers in the NL hardly come to bat anyway because of pinch-hitting.

What about “Two-Way” Players?

A “two-way” player is used to refer to someone who frequently pitches and plays the field. A historic example is Babe Ruth. While everyone knows him as The Sultan of Swat, The Titan of Terror, The Colossus of Clout, The King of Crash, THE GREAT BAMBINO, Ruth started off primarily as a pitcher, and a good one too. Ruth was dominant in both roles, winning an ERA title in 1916 (1.75) and a batting title in 1924 (.378). There are modern examples too. Shohei Ohtani is a starting pitcher/designated hitter for the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani spent several years playing professional baseball in Japan before making his MLB debut in 2018. He became the first player to pitch 50 innings and hit 15 home runs in one season since…you guessed it, Babe Ruth. Just like Ruth, Ohtani dominates the game on all fronts. But Ohtani plays for an AL team; he doesn’t swing the bat the same days he takes the mound like NL pitchers. Enter Michael Lorenzen. The Reds pitcher had a 2018 slash line of .290/.333/.710, an unbelievably good feat for a pitcher. His 2019 campaign with the bat hasn’t been as good, but he’s still accomplishing remarkable things. On September 5th, 2019 Lorenzen started for the Reds and earned the win, but not before he hit a home run and then moved to center field to finish the game. The last player to earn the win, hit the long ball and play the field was…Babe Ruth again! Man, that guy was really good at baseball.

The Two-Way Player Rule

Two-way players have traditionally been extremely hard to find, but more and more position players are taking the mound as pitchers last less and less time. MLB does not like this apparently, as starting in 2020 a new rule will go into effect across both leagues. The rule is as only players designated as “pitchers” (thereby occupying a pitcher roster spot) are allowed to pitch, unless:

1. The game goes into extra innings
2. A team is winning or losing by six or more runs
3. The player has earned “two-way” designation

That designation is earned by:

1. Pitching at least 20 Major League innings and
2. Playing at least 20 Major League games as a position player or DH, with at least 3 at-bats per game in the current or previous season

Basically, to earn this designation your team would need to designate you as a pitcher for the year, and then substitute you enough to meet the at-bat requirement. This is not very desirable from a manager’s perspective, and quite cumbersome to achieve, but once your player EARNS the two-way designation it’s much easier to keep it. Their roster spot could be given back to a “true” pitcher, while they would move to occupy a position player roster spot, except you could freely have them pitch whenever you want.

This new rule isn’t about to reshape baseball overnight, but after a couple years, we may start to see more players earn that coveted designation.

How does this impact your proposed rule?

It doesn’t. The two-way rule affects MLB as a whole, limiting the use of position players taking the mound. My proposed rule is the reverse, decreasing how often pitchers go to the plate in a manner that creates a fair playing field for both leagues. Both rules can co-exist, hardly affecting each other, if at all.

Conclusion

Two-way players are convenient, but MLB wants to curb their use. Pitchers are going to keep pitching and batters are going to keep swinging. To make interleague play fair, and to make the game as a whole fair between all players, the DH should be restructured and made uniform across both leagues.

What do you think of my rule? Do you like the DH or do you hate it? What are your thoughts about two-way players? Comment below, or hit me up on Twitter @LTS_tweets! As always, thank you to both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference for all statistics.