Reese Kaplan -- So the DH Comes to the NL and the Mets

It's time for a brief history lesson on the subject of the designated hitter (DH as it's come to be known).  It was back in 1973 that the AL was having a hard time with revenues and attendance.  The proposal to have a special hitter designated to appear in the batter's box in place of the pitcher was proposed to Major League Baseball.  The NL owners were incensed by what they termed gimmickry and were vehemently against it.  

Back then the leagues operated somewhat independently and it was league president Joe Cronin who pushed hard for its implementation in their games.  There was no interleague play back then so it was clearly going to be an AL-only activity.  It came down to the baseball commissioner making the final call, and Bowie Kuhn decided to let it happen.  If it succeeded, great...if it failed, then it could be excised from the AL and things would revert to the way they were.

Whether you were for it or against it, the fact is that the DH rapidly became a cornerstone of the AL game as it is played today.  That extra bat in the lineup led to more runs being scored, fewer decisions being made about pitcher substitutions late in the games and it did indeed revive interest in fans viewing the newly modified AL games.  

Now word has come out that the impossibly locked negotiators have agreed in principle to bring the DH to the National League for immediate implementation if and when a 2022 baseball season starts.  While there are valid arguments to be made on both sides of the issue, the fact is the game already has one black eye (on its way to a matching set) due to the lockout stalemate.  Anything that can be done to rev up some interest in baseball once again should be done and if that means no more ABs by Jacob deGrom, so be it.  

Of course, now that the DH is upon us, we all have strong opinions about how the Mets should address the role and who is best served by making it his full time job.  There are several different ways to go to solve this new challenge.  Let's take a look:

• Move Pete Alonso to the DH position as he's in the game for his bat.  While that sentiment is true, Alonso has already declared he has no interest in being a DH and frankly has worked to make himself into an acceptable if not stellar fielder at first.

• Use Robinson Cano to contribute his bat as he enters his ages 39 and 40 seasons.  The Mets are on the hook for his remaining $20 million per year salary unless there's a recurrence of his use of PEDs, so you have to figure out how best to get value out of the man's performance.  It's natural to assume that his defensive range will decline a bit with age, and it's conventional wisdom to use older ballplayers in a role less demanding on their bodies.  What makes the Cano issue a bit odd is how the Mets will handle second base duties if we believe the great publicity about Jeff McNeil being on the trading block.  The Mets could use Eduardo Escobar at second base, but he's not well regarded for his defensive ability.  He's spent over 600 games at 3B, over 300 at SS and over 100 at 2B.  That's not an ideal profile.

• Use a combination of Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis as the platooning DH partners.  While this solution is not ideal, it does give you players who have shown an inconsistent ability to be productive hitters with good power.  Since you're addressing both the LH and RH side of the hitting equation, it could work, though it removes them from the prospect of becoming trade bait.  In addition, you'll still not know if either is capable of being everyday players if they're not playing every day.

• Sign a free agent to take over the role who won't tie you up for many years as would a younger player like Kris Bryant.  In this case, the ideal contract might be one to long-ago former Met farmhand Nelson Cruz who was an international free agent peddled to Oakland before he ever played an inning for the Mets organization.  He's going to be 41 starting the coming season and although his batting average dipped to .265 from his career average of .277 split between Minnesota and Tampa last year, he still slugged 32 HRs and drove home 86.  That kind of production is more consistent and reliable than what might or might not result from a steroid-less Cano or a two-headed platoon partner DH.  He earned $13 million on his last one-year deal and probably can be had for that amount or less again on a single year contract.

Many other options can and do exist, but these are the names heard most frequently.  Who do you think should be the Mets' rookie full time DH?