The National League will not have the designated hitter in 2021 as LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reported. This does and doesn’t come as a surprise. The National League adopted the designated hitter for 2020 for several reasons, but it was only a 1-year agreement between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association. So, from that standpoint, we figured that this would be coming.
But the designated hitter role in the National League did seem to be more favorable than expected – though there’s still some push back on it from certain corners (both in the game and out).