Seven Years Ago Today: The Blue Jays signed Kendrys Morales to a 3-year, $33 million contract. I remember, at the time, it surprised me. I didn’t think we’d be signing a DH-only guy, or at least not until after Edwin Encarnación and Jose Bautista had signed somewhere else.
There are plenty of Major League Baseball players who were born to hit, and when the designated hitter was adopted by the American League in 1973, it made and saved plenty of careers.
Defining a player's value is more nuanced than simply checking the box score, but there's one position in baseball that is a bit easier to judge. I'm talking, of course, of the designated hitter.