Howie Rose and Evan Roberts are both baseball purists in many senses – but when the former joined the latter on WFAN Saturday afternoon, many were surely surprised to find Howie actually advocating for the universal DY.
“I still can’t believe, as of now, there’s no DH in the National League this year, but I’m not convinced yet that it won’t be,” Rose said. “It leaves me befuddled because the owners and players want it, and the fact that it’s being used as a bargaining chip is beyond my comprehension. People can argue that it’s a benefit to the health and welfare of pitchers.”
Evan has long been staunch on his disdain of the DH coming to the NL,
“The most obvious thing in the world is that when there’s a new CBA, it will come for good, so to fight to have one last glorious year of no DH is not worth it, because you know that’s it,” Roberts said. “I don’t want the DH, but I won’t debate it, because it’s going to happen, and my kids won’t know about pitchers hitting.”
If this were a different era, Howie would agree…but it’s not, so he doesn’t.
“Had we been in a different era, where starters were groomed to go as far as they could, and you had a 10-man staff, I’d be dancing on tables to abolish the DH in both leagues forever,” Rose said, “but it has become a necessity. The way the game is played has changed to the point where pitchers hitting has become obsolete. If this is the way the game is, that toothpaste is out of the tube, and the DH is an unfortunate necessity.”
Cite strategy all you want, but Rose says there’s a difference between strategy and being handcuffed.
“Prior to last year, NL managers became accustomed to managing games basically with their hands tied behind their backs,” Rose said. “With a 25-man roster and a 13-man pitching staff, which was common, you had basically a four-man bench, and one was your backup catcher, who you were loath to use as a pinch-hitter. How do you manage a game with double switches and the potential of extra innings with three guys on the bench?”
Back to Howie’s first point about not being certain the NL won’t get a DH sometime before this year starts: both he and Evan agreed that any changes now are going to cause a lot of waves.
“Look at Marcell Ozuna, instead of 30 potential suitors, he had 15, and he’s an MVP candidate under ideal conditions who had to go back to (Atlanta) where he had a lot of success,” Rose said. “Nelson Cruz, too.”
“If you’re a guy like Jackie Bradley Jr. who is getting impacted, and this gets announced in late March, there are a lot of guys who probably missed out on a different-looking contract based on the fact that we thought this rule wouldn’t be in place,” Evan added.
And to that point, Rose noted how a universal DH would actually make the Mets a better team, in theory, using Bradley as an example.
“Had there been (a universal DH), JBJ or someone of commensurate defensive skills could be under contract right now,” Rose said. “They’d be a much better team with Brandon Nimmo in a corner, a strong defender in CF, Peter Alonso as a most of the time DH, and Dom Smith at first. Just think of how that one rule would make the Mets a much better team defensively!”
Still, though, by swapping out Robinson Cano, Amed Rosario, and last year’s catchers for James McCann, Francisco Lindor, and Jeff McNeil (and maybe still Nimmo for another center fielder), the Mets are much better already.
“My primary concern is that this club has been largely abysmal defensively for many years. I am tired of watching them give outs and runs away, particularly up the middle,” Rose said. “I think it’s encouraging they’ve put a priority on that. They got Lindor, who is a huge upgrade even though I though Andres Gimenez was going to be good, and maybe they’ve lucked out a little with the Cano suspension because you move McNeil back to his natural position. But I’m intrigued to see where we go in center field.”
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