When Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright suffered a season-ending injury earlier this year running the basepaths, it opened up a fresh round of debates on whether the National League should join the American League in adopting the designated hitter and not having its pitchers bat.
But Cubs manager Joe Maddon — a supporter of pitchers hitting despite spending his entire career in the AL before coming to Chicago — brought up this point in addressing the DH discrepancy on Saturday: Plenty of hitters, especially young ones, don’t like being a DH.
Maddon said during his days as a coach on the then-Anaheim Angels, his team tried to rotate in a group of 20-something outfielders — Darin Erstad, Garrett Anderson and Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon — between playing the field and being a designated hitter.