Why MLB pitchers will NEVER hit again

Here’s Brody Brazil. A lot of people are saying that these voicemails feel like oldtime sports radio. Somebody’s got a great comment or something to say. I get to play it here for you on the YouTube channel. You phone it in 8334 Brody. I listen to all of your calls and I get to respond to the very best ones here on future videos. Hi Brody, this is Ron from Wildwood, New Jersey. And maybe I’m oldfashioned, but I miss pictures hitting. Me too. in uh 2019, the year before they went to the Universal DH, you had 13 pitchers hit home runs and you had more strategy in the game. Yes. And I miss that. Me, too. Whether the pitchers throwing a great game now, do you pinch it for them and let somebody else finish it, right? Or do you let them finish the game? And I’d love to see it come back. Do you think they could ever come back to where the National League has the pitchers hit and the American League keeps their DH? Better yet, the American League ditches the D8. Whoa. Thank you for your time. I love watching you on YouTube. Bye-bye, Ron. Thank you very much for the call. I love that you’re watching from Wildwood, New Jersey, all the way across the other side of the country. Uh, and a great question you’ve got, a great topic you bring up. It’s such an interesting conversation. I agree with you wholeheartedly. Here’s the problem. If I’m being honest about this, if I’m being real about it, pitchers will never hit again. in Major League Baseball, unless they’re show Otani, unless they’re purposely doing both. And Otani’s got his own rule where a pitcher can be the DH and that’s the only way it exists. But pitchers hitting traditionally as part of a regular season, that’s never going to happen again. The rule was changed officially in 2022 and players and owners greatly agreed on this. And I say this is why it’s never going to happen because rarely ever is it where the players and the owners are so much in unison that that like again that’s what makes me think it’ll it’ll never change anytime soon. Probably for the rest of my lifetime or yours too. It’s because both sides agree so strongly. When is there ever going to be push back from one side or the other? Like owners are going to say, you know what, let’s let’s make our pitchers hit again or or players and pitchers are going to say, you know what, we want to hit again. Nobody’s ever going to fuel this fire enough again. I know that’s a point down here. What What would be the momentum to bring back pitchers hitting? I don’t know. I don’t know what would ever spark this to happen again. Once it’s gone, it’s like never coming back. And obviously only existed in the National League in modern times. And the American League had the DH. I know that’s not how it used to be way back in the day, but when the American League got the DH, it was kind of like, all right, this is one step in the pool. It stayed that way for several decades. And then now obviously you’ve got the DH in the National League too, which by the way, it’s like I’m still I know we’re several years into this. I’m still not used to saying, “Oh, the DH for this National League team is so and so.” But the teams like their perspective and ownership groups, they didn’t want to risk injury to their pitchers who they train and they need and you know, they’re very high highly valued. They didn’t want them getting hurt while they were hitting or especially while they were base running. Now, I also think strategy-wise, to your point, like it makes the National League games, it did, it made them them much more interesting, much more complex. You got to think about your pitcher, where they’re at in the game, how well they’re doing. Do you want to pinch hit? Do you want to take them out? Cuz once you take them out, they can’t pitch for you anymore either. It was a much more interesting game. And you know what? But I think a a pitcher’s batting average in the final year, was it 2021 when they hit? A pitcher’s batting average across the board was like a 111 collective batting average in Major League Baseball. Yeah, pitchers struggled to hit. They were generally bad hitters, which is also an interesting study. How could you be one of the best most athletic players on your team growing up, little league, high school, college, as a pitcher and shortstop and probably cleanup hitter, and then you just stop practicing your hitting once you get into the minor leagues? It’s it’s always been interesting, but teams didn’t want to run that risk. It’s less about strategy of the game and things they find interesting. They just didn’t want to take the risk with their valuable assets on the player side of it. So players who get older, they realize that well maybe some like, and I’ll use Albert Pulse as the exact example here, but he’s playing for the Angels for all those years. He’s in the American League. Well, when the Angels don’t have a spot for him anymore, he can only look at the rest of the American League at that point and say, “Well, I’m a DH. I don’t really play in the field anymore. I want to extend my career. Well, guess what? Now, as a national leager with the St. Louis Cardinals all over again, you can be a DH. You can extend your career maybe another year or two without playing out in the field on a regular basis. It’s more opportunities. It’s more roles for more veterans because the DH is now in both leagues. That’s the player side of this, I think, more than anything else. And sure, for some pitchers who are like, I hated hitting no matter what. They’re not going to be mad at the fact that that’s not on their their plate anymore. I’ve already talked about what would be the momentum to bring this back. I can’t see any of that coming anytime soon. That’s why I think there’s going to be nothing to spark this conversation. But I will leave it with this. That’s why I look at Show Otani right now and think how special this guy is. Like baseball’s trying to avoid putting pitchers in these situations and having them hit and run and all that stuff and you know be more of an athlete and Hiro Otani is doing it and doing it so well, amazingly well on an every day and game basis. So yeah, unfortunately I don’t think we’re ever going to see pitchers hit again. I wish it came back. I wish things went the other way. I wish the American League instead of having the DH, I wish they went to pitchers hitting and both leagues had pitchers hitting. But I’d be fine, honestly, if it was just one league and the other and they they went back to the way it used to be. National League has pitchers hit. American League has the DH. That’s the way I grew up with the game. And I always thought that was cool that it made the American and National League different. Now, it’s basically all the same thing. Let me know what you think about all this in the comments section below. Thumbs up while you’re down there helps me the video and the channel. Don’t forget to subscribe. Please hit that button now. I’d love to see you back here next time.

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24 comments

  2. I miss the strategy, but I understand. Maybe there will be more good hitting hitting pitchers in the future? I'd love that.

  3. In a world where teams complain about not having enough slots for pitchers, there’s one little trick: Two-Way Players don’t count as one of the thirteen pitchers on a 26-man roster.

    While the DH is never going away, we need to see more starting pitchers DH for themselves then DH on the other 4 days.

  7. If you ask me what I love about baseball, it isn't any one thing, but a thousand little things. One of them was that pitchers batted in the National League, but the American League used the designated hitter.

  10. Hot take: I never liked pitchers batting. Not only did I find it bizarre that it was exclusive to the NL but it seemed like a waste of a spot in the batting order because most of the time, the pitchers wouldn't do anything of worth. Sure there was the occasional highlight but I don't think that rare moment is worth it

  11. I thought it would have been fun for the NL to leapfrog and instead go down to 8 man lineups with no DH or pitcher.
    Anecdotally, I've heard players say a DH day doesn't actually feel like a rest day (apart from Catchers).
    Also league-wide DH production is not much better than average, it might be more productive to give an extra at-bat to 4 or 5 different hitters.

  17. Actually, Brodie, what I would like to see is that in the bottom of the 9th, for the visiting team to have two pitchers (righty and lefty relievers), one on the mound and one in the field, and remove an outfielder, and move the pitchers as is necessary for the situation. (Of course, the pitchers would need to take outfield practice so they wouldn't completely embarrass themselves and give up a winning run with their gloves instead of from the mound…) Now, you'd need the rule as to the new pitcher having to bat in place of the substituted-for OF, but what if you had TWO new pitchers coming in? Which one would be the non-batter pitcher and which one would take the OF's place batting? Gotta think outside the box here.

  20. Near the end of the relationship between my father and myself, one of the few things we could talk about was baseball. He was happy the National League adopted the designated hitter because it meant a single standard across all of baseball. He said multiple times he didn't care whether the American League went back to having pitchers bat or the National league went to the designated hitter, he wanted all of baseball to have a single rule applying to both leagues.

  21. Baseball adopted and kept inter-league play because of fan demand and the rule stayed. Personally, I still prefer the old way when the leagues were separate. If somehow it was proved that fans want pitchers to bat and the demand effected profit and loss, then MLB would change accordingly. Honestly, I miss watching games where pitchers batted. Oh well.

  22. The only way Pitchers will hit again is if there is a salary cap and a team is unwilling to pay for DH, and they did not want to use any of their bench players as DH.

  24. As traditional as I am, even the very best(non-Shohei hitting pitchers), only hit around .200(i.e. Steve Carlton, Mike Krukow, Madison Bumgarner), and struck 40 percent of the time. The vast majority of them were hitting in the low .100s and striking out 50 percent of the time or more. The DH is a good thing, as a Giants fan I would much rather have Rafael Devers, Heliot Ramos or any player who just needs a day off in the field, than a guy hitting .100 who most likely will strikeout.

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