I'm no cartoonist, but I'm envisioning a sketch in my head where caricatures of Adam Wainwright, Zack Greinke and Madison Bumgarner peek their heads out of a treehouse window. There's a sign sloppily put together on the front that says "NO DH ALLOWED" while a mob of angry fans who dig the long ball gather together below. Because, let's face it: a lot of baseball fans want to see runs being scored as opposed to pitchers feebly attempting to get on base or laying down bunts to move a runner over. That's life in the world of juiced baseballs and short porches in 2021.
But those aforementioned pitchers probably don't belong in that universal DH support group. As the rules currently stand, MLB will not keep the DH in the National League for the 2021 season, making the niche group of good-hitting pitchers temporarily happy. Wainwright is definitely one of those guys — he said so himself to legendary MLB writer Jayson Stark.
“You know, there are a lot of pitchers that really enjoy the offensive side,” Wainwright told Stark. “They love competing on both sides. They love when you get that knock and you look over there and the pitcher’s just kicking dirt because he can’t believe he just gave up a hit to the pitcher. And you think, ‘Yeah! I got in his head a little bit.’
"Man, I'm gonna miss that stuff."
But he'll only miss it once — or, technically, if — a universal DH is implemented and the need for pitchers to hit disappears after this season. However, he'll still be able to accomplish one of his career goals in 2021 should he find success at the plate.
“I have to absolutely finish above .200,” Wainwright said. “I’m sitting on .199 right now? That’s not acceptable. I have to be over .200 at the end of the season.”
You may find yourself asking some questions at this point. Why would a guy with a career .199 batting average be so desperate to continue hitting? It's a fair question if you're not aware of just how impressive that is. Among all pitchers to have registered at least 400 plate appearances since the year 2000, .199 is a figure that sits pretty close to the top (min. 70% of appearances as a pitcher).
When you sort the list by OPS instead of average, Wainwright moves up one spot to No. 9 (.527 OPS), while Bumgarner shoots up to No. 8 (.532) and Greinke sits all the way up at No. 4 (.600). Greinke is another guy with career aspirations that he may never reach due to the AL rule book.
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Another goal that Wainwright has for this season goes above just the individual accomplishment of reaching .200.
"Well, one of my goals is … I want us as pitchers to be so good that they rethink the rule change," he told Stark. "I want there to be this talk around the nation during baseball season, with people going: ‘Did you see that? Bumgarner hit that triple right there. That was the most exciting thing ever. I can’t believe he did that.’
"That’s the kind of stuff that I hope happens, because I like the game a lot better with no DH.”
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