Having the designated hitter for a season in the National League is as much about options as it is about offense.
More than anything, it is a matter of health.
With just three weeks of preseason summer camp after 3½ months in which the MLB season was suspended, it was deemed to be too risky to pitchers’ health to add hitting and running the bases to their ramped-up responsibilities. So among the myriad one-year-only rule changes was the institution of the universal DH.
“I was concerned about the pitchers starting up,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said.