Gonzales: Adding DH to National League is a start, but MLB must address other issues
Hurray!
There's a better chance for more offense in the National League in 2022 after Commissioner Rob Manfred announced this month owners elected to implement the designated hitter in the NL.
OK, what else can be done to improve an increasingly tedious product that puts parents at a crossroads when deciding whether to let their children watch four hour-plus playoff games or send them to bed in preparation for the next day of classes?
Will the elite teams continue to dominate as others are allowed to tank seasons and rebuild their farm systems through the amateur draft?
How long will Cubs fans wait for Brennen Davis to be promoted from Triple-A Iowa after the arbitration cutoff date sometime in June, or can negotiators for Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association resolve a solution to this annual manipulation?
Oh, and from a major financial standpoint, there's the paramount issue of the Competitive Balance Tax threshold and how much of an increase over the next five years can teams stomach and satisfy the MLBPA?
These are curious times when five teams - including the uber-wealthy New York Yankees, came within $4 million of the $210 million payroll threshold in 2021, according to The Associated Press. That doesn't include the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, who each paid fines for exceeding the threshold.
Simply, there's no reason to get excited over the prospect of MLB lifting its lockout until the CBT issue is resolved. In the meantime, let's not forget the quality of the game and attempting to reinstate it to an enjoyable product for all generations.
The players still need to sign off on the implementation of the DH in the NL, but it appears axiomatic it will happen.
And it's time. As late as the 1960s and 1970s, starting pitchers took exceptional pride in helping their cause at the plate. Cubs Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins hit 13 home runs, including six in 1971 when he led the NL with 24 victories.
Fellow Hall of Famer Don Drysdale hit 29 home runs and was 5-for-23 as a pinch-hitter.
Curt Schilling executed 14 sacrifice bunts in 2001, when he led the league with 256⅔ innings and 22 victories.
But more than a decade later, Schilling pointed out that those at-bats could have gone to left-handed slugger Erubiel Durazo, whose playing time at first base was blocked by Mark Grace.
It's a point well taken, especially since the implementation of the DH in the American League in 1973 fueled a trickle-down effect to youth baseball and increased specialization.
Pitchers like Travis Wood, who hit seven of his 11 home runs with the Cubs and batted .185 during an eight-year career, became the exception.
Fellow left-hander Jon Lester, who was an exceptional hitter at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, Wash. (according to coach Rick Barnhart), went hitless in his first 66 at-bats before regaining a semblance of his stroke and collected 42 hits (including four home runs) in his final 300 at-bats and won a game in 2016 with a 12th-inning squeeze bunt.
Even the AL pitchers provided some amusing moments in interleague games at NL parks. Jon Garland ripped a two-run home run at Cincinnati in 2006, causing fear among his teammates that they'd never hear the end of his feat. And left-hander Mark Buehrle, a lifetime .072 hitter, clubbed a home run off Braden Looper at Milwaukee in 2009.
The impending insertion of the DH in the NL will eliminate some strategy for managers who used to contemplate letting starters pitch deep into games.
In recent years, that option started to vanish with more starters not allowed to face opponents the third time around in the batting order. Garland hit his home run in the eighth inning - a feat that no starting pitcher will likely achieve again.
That's also taken some of the fun out of second-guessers.
But there are more issues that the sport's leaders need to solve to make it more enjoyable and multidimensional for fans.