McAdam: The offseason is well underway, but status of DH rule for 2021 still undecided

It's nearly December, which means that, for now, spring training is just over two months away and Opening Day is a mere four months in the distance.

Thanks to the pandemic, there will be no Winter Meetings this season, at least not in the traditional sense. Executives will still meet with their colleagues from other teams and with agents, but it will all be done virtually.

Given that the industry is about to enter its most important month of the offseason, with trades and free-agent signings bound to take place, it sure would be nice if the people putting together the rosters knew what the rules were going to be for the upcoming season.

For now, they're merely making educated guesses. And that feels both unnecessary and unfair.

A year ago, Major League Baseball introduced the designated hitter into National League regular-season games for the first time. Adopted by the American League in 1973 to boost offense, the N.L. never followed suit. The only games involving N.L. teams which included the DH were 1) interleague games in A.L. ballparks and 2) World Series games in A.L. ballparks.

Last year, in recognition that players had been off for several months before re-assembling for a condensed second spring training, MLB instituted the DH for both leagues. MLB correctly came to the conclusion that the last thing it needed was pitchers coming up lame from pulled hamstring while futilely running the bases.

The DH came for a while and stayed. And somehow, neither the game nor the republic crumbled.

But the DH's appearance in the National League might be a one-year cameo. Or it could be here to stay. Or it could disappear in 2021 and make a more permanent appearance in 2022 and every season thereafter.



It's all very unsettled. It's also highly embarrassing.

As general managers try to assemble rosters, half don't know whether their pitchers will hit or whether the DH will return.

Here's the issue: implementing the DH was a collectively bargained issue between owners and the Players Association, with the DH voted in for the 2020 season. But the current collective bargaining agreement is up after 2021 and while the Players Association wishes to have the DH a more permanent fixture for all 30 teams -- it means more jobs for productive aging sluggers -- owners aren't about to agree to that a year before the current CBA expires without getting something in return.

And because owners and the Players Association have shown themselves incapable of playing nice or agreeing on anything in a timely manner, the issue remains unresolved.

Talks are said to be ongoing, but as usual, there's a general lack of urgency surrounding the matter. It will get done, the two sides suggest....eventually.

In the meantime, free agents are in limbo. Nelson Cruz is perhaps the game's most productive and consistent DH. In the six full seasons previous to the shortened 2020 year, Cruz averaged just over 40 homers per seasons. But at 40 years of age, he's incapable of playing in the field with any regularity. So it's DH or bust for Cruz.

For now, Cruz has a universe of 15 teams that could be interested in him. If the DH gets voted back into the N.L. for 2021, that number could double. Until then, Cruz is in baseball limbo, waiting to see what the rules are going to be before he chooses where he'll play -- and for how much.

Or, take the Red Sox. It might be in their best interest to move on from J.D. Martinez, who has two years and about $38.75 million remaining over the next two seasons. Martinez is coming off his worst season in a long-time and if the Red Sox want to move him, they'll have to be willing to shallow a good chunk of that remaining salary.

A deal would be far easier to pull off if the Sox knew that N.L. teams would be in the market for DH help. Otherwise, the Red Sox' trading partners would be limited to A.L. teams only.

Some other rules introduced in 2020 -- placing a runner at second base in extra innings; ensuring relievers face a minimum of three batters unless they complete an inning beforehand -- may or may not return. But that lack of clarity isn't playing a role in team-building. No roster construction is dependent on either rule.

That's not the case with the DH. The lack of certainty is stalling free agency, blocking potential trades and leaving players, agents and executives in suspended animation.

Are the sport's movers and shakers so occupied that they can't find a day or two to sit down and come to an agreement -- one way or another -- in the coming days?

This should have been a priority weeks ago, with the union and MLB attaching some importance to its resolution. Instead, we wait....and baseball makes it up it goes along.