We’ve all but known for a while, but on Thursday it became official that the designated hitter will be coming to the National League.
As MLB commissioner Rob Manfred addressed the media on Thursday, he confirmed a couple of new rules that will heavily impact the Atlanta Braves.
One rule we all were certain would be put into place is the permanent designated hitter (DH) across both leagues.
The DH was brought into the American League for the first time in the 1973 season and it remained exclusive to that league until the shortened 2020 season saw it added to the National League instead.
With the money given to pitchers this day and the lack of any effort from the majority of the pitchers made this an easy rule change.
It also opens up jobs for 15 other players and gives the NL more of a competitive advantage.
While I don’t like the DH, I understand this decision because of the reasons I just mentioned.
Also, you would have never seen someone like David Ortiz or Nelson Cruz join an NL club in the past. Now those NL teams will be able to compete for those players in free agency and trades.
I wrote the other week about the best internal options at DH for the Braves. If Marcell Ozuna remains with the team, and it’s looking like he will, he’s a perfect fit to be the DH.
Ozuna was in the DH spot for 39 games during the 2020 season and slashed .362/.464/.691 with 14 home runs as a DH.
Combined, the DH spot for the Braves in 2020 hit .309 with 17 home runs in just 226 at-bats.
That’s a big offensive boost for the Braves and NL teams.
Manfred: "We've agreed to a universal designated hitter and eliminated draft pick compensation."
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) February 10, 2022
MLB: Draft Pick Compensation Eliminated
The other big rule change that was officially announced on Thursday was to eliminated draft pick compensations.
I’m assuming this wouldn’t go into effect until after the 2022 season as teams have already made qualifying offers this offseason with this process in place.
But no longer will free agents be drug down with a compensations pick tied to them when they sign with another team.
There were some other notes from Manfred on Thursday that we’ll write up in another post, but I wanted to share this news first as it’s now official about the DH and draft pick compensation.