Baseball is America’s pastime.  Sport’s pastime is emphatically arguing your side of a debate with your fellow sports fan.  One of sport’s largest debates recently revolves around baseball, to add a DH to all 30 MLB teams or not. As it currently stands, the National League lets the pitcher take a crack at it while the American League uses a designated hitter.  Majority of the time, the league of your favorite team seems to sway which side of the argument one resides on.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Ian Happ is a member of a National League team and while he’s, “A huge fan of the strategy and double-switches,” he also stated, “For entertainment and pace of the game, I think it’s time [to use designated hitters in the NL].”

As baseball tries to start it’s 2020 season, many ideas have been thrown around including implementing a league-wide DH.  While having pitchers in the batting lineup does add strategy to the NL game, DHs make for a better and more entertaining product.  Pitchers are trained at their craft on the mound and are the best in the world at it.  Similarly, position players are the best in the world at using a big wooden stick to make solid contact with a 90mph projectile.

It’s no surprise Happ would be in agreement with using a DH in the NL since Happ has not been an everyday player on the Cubs talented roster during his two seasons with the team.  Happ’s biggest asset has been his bat during his time in the majors and adding a DH would mean players like Happ would see more at-bats over the course of a season.

The implementation of a league-wide DH would mean no more pitchers bunting, pitchers would be allowed to pitch deeper into games since there’s no reason to pull them for a pinch hitter, better offense as a whole and faster games with less substitutions.  The MLB has been searching for a way to engage a larger audience and make baseball more enticing.  It may work and it may not, but a league-wide DH is a good place to start.