Last Friday in Queens, in the midst of an excellent start, Masahiro Tanaka pulled up lame after scoring a run on a sacrifice fly. Tanaka ended up leaving the game, was placed on the DL with hamstring problems, and is looking at about a month on the sidelines. All because the National League can’t get around the idea of a designated hitter, a position the AL has used for almost 50 years.
Recently, though, the DH has undergone a bit of a metamorphosis. It’s no longer the domain of an Edgar Martinez or David Ortiz, where one player occupies the slot for 155 games in a season.