The case for bringing the designated hitter to the National League

Pitchers are more likely to get injured batting

A few years ago, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright suffered what was thought to be a season-ending injury running the bases (though he was able to make it back in late September). There was also Milwaukee Brewers hurler Jimmy Nelson, who injured his shoulder sliding in 2017 and hasn’t been able to get his career back on track since then.

Those are just two recent examples of pitchers getting injured because they had to bat. Of course, every player is at risk of getting injured on any given play; indeed, regular batters get injured either by getting hit by a pitch or running the bases all the time. Yet pitchers are so specialized to throw and are not as conditioned to swing the bat or to run the bases on a regular basis; they just don’t do it often enough to stay sharp.

To this, some would object that pitchers should do more to stay in shape and should be more athletic. However, we are in an age of specialization, and pitchers need to spend more time working on their pitching. Compared to throwing the ball, batting and running is such a small component of their game that in many cases it’s not worth the time to practice it as much as they need to in order to be skilled hitters and baserunners.

Here’s something to consider: Some fans complain a lot about how starting pitchers aren’t staying in games as long as they used to. Perhaps if they didn’t have to use energy to bat and to run the bases, they’d be able to stay in games an inning or two longer.