Dodgers: Trevor Bauer Insists the DH Needs to Return to the National League
The universal DH was supposed to be part of the plan for the 2021 MLB season. The Dodgers must have thought that to be true given their interest in various hitters this offseason. Unfortunately, that does not look like it will be happening.
MLB and the Player’s Union agreed on the terms of Healthy and Safety protocols for 2021 this past week. During that process, the league argued that the DH was not integral to the health of players. Thus, it was not included in the plans, much to the chagrin of Dodgers brass.
As it turns out, the Dodgers’ newest pitcher was also holding out hope for it as well. Trevor Bauer recently spoke on am570’s Petros and Money to talk about coming to Los Angeles. For Bauer, there is no reason that the DH should not be a part of the league’s plans.
It’s just time to have a DH in both leagues. If you think about the fans perspective and what they want to watch, do they want to watch a pitcher try to bunt and be bad at hitting or do they want to watch David Ortiz go up there and hit a homer? It’s a pretty simple thought in my head.
Bauer has a total of 49 plate appearances in his career, with most of them coming in 2019 with the Reds. In his career, he has 4 hits to his name, all of them being singles. He has also struck out 24 times and walked 3. He went on to say he would work with the Dodgers hitting coaches to get ready for 2021.
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For the moment, the Dodgers will head into the 2021 season planning on their pitchers hitting. There does not seem to be any indication that the universal DH will return, so that is their only real course of action for the moment.
Here’s hoping a miracle comes along because watching these guys get back into the box after a year off could be painful.
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It is absolutely idiotic that the universal DH is being held up as a bargaining chip by both sides. Just another example that neither side has the fans interest or even the best interests of the game as their motivation. They will carry this idiocy into a work stoppage next year that will cost them millions of dollars and – even worse – more fans. Do they really want to become a niche sport in America like hockey? It sure seems like both are willing to destroy the “village” in order to “save it.”
Agree 1,000%!! Management as well as every teams medical personnel should go and confront that Manfred, who I can’t stand, and the league office to inform them all how dead WRONG they are about the health and safety issues that DO exist with pitchers having to bat after a year off. IDK but if I were the Union, I would not wait until after this season to go on strike and stay out until this issue is resolved. The stupidity is an understatement.
Yes I agree. The additional offense, time saved during the game and the ability to save your pitchers the risk of injury at-bat or on the base paths makes the DH absolutely necessary. Neither side the Players Union nor the Owners trust each other. Its going to be a long strike next year I think unless wiser people get in front of the negotiations.
I hate the idea of the DH in the NL. I like real pitching and pinch hitting strategy. Any pitcher should be able to stick a bat out across home plate and bunt a baseball to advance runners. I wasn’t that fond of the old Tommy Lasorda double switches with pitchers and fielders to change the batting order but it was strategic. With that said the NL DH is probably inevitable. Manfred gave the players union a teaser last year, and now they are barking at the door. I respect Bauer’s opinion on this more than most since a pitcher would normally want to face the weakest batters possible, which would be opposing pitchers.
Dodger106W, a real problem with MLB is having a separate set of rules for each league. It never has been a fair playing field IMHO and baseball appears to be the only major sport with separate set of playing rules for each league. And consider the fact that with double switches and PH for pitchers early in the game will more often than not leave a team having exhausted all their guys on the bench by the 7th inning. If ya noticed prior to last year Roberts saw that happen several times over the course of a full season.
I think the biggest problem was bullpen games. They’re OK during the regular season when you have the division locked up, and have young pitchers who need work. But in the postseason you need to put aces on the mound in every game. That’s the biggest value of Bauer. Now your throwing Kersh, Buehler, and Bauer in a three man postseason rotation. And they can take stress off the bullpen simply by going 7 innings per start. Bauer likes going every 4 days. That won’t happen in the regular season, but is a strong possibility in the postseason. As long as we re-sign JT, we will be a much stronger postseason team in 2021.
Our manager is Dave Roberts, you should want him to have to make the least amount of choices possible. Yeah he wised up in key moments last year but nearly sabotaged the whole season in game 4 of the WS. If it wasn’t for Cash, that game 4 would’ve been looked back on right now as the game that started the downfall
They will until one or two star pitchers get hurt for the season batting.
I really like Friedman’s idea of a DH for as long as the starting pitcher is in the game. Once the pitcher is pulled, no more DH. Puts a new twist into the latter innings while also keeping the pitchers safer. It will also end the silly relief pitchers starting games; the relief game.