The Pirates’ Tyler Glasnow Stirs Up the DH Debate Yet Again

Add the Pittsburgh Pirates to the growing list of National Leaguers who want to see the designated hitter in both leagues. Tyler Glasnow, the Pirates No. 1 overall prospect — and No. 12 on the Grading on the Curve Top 50, has hit the Double-A disabled list. 

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The move to the DL comes after Glasnow, the 6 foot 8, 225 pound right handed starter, injured himself sliding into second base earlier this month. The DH to the NL debate heated up earlier this season in the big leagues after injuries to aces like Max Scherzer came at the plate as opposed to on the mound. Now, one of the premier pitching prospects in baseball is on the shelf, not from pitching, but base running.

The young righty skipped his start after he initially injured the ankle on May 6th, returning to the mound this past Sunday. Glasnow is a pitcher known for his impeccable control and high strikeout rates. He wasn’t able to display any of that on Sunday.

Glasnow, in his previous five starts of the 2015 season, had allowed a total of four earned runs, while walking just six batters. This past Sunday, he threw 3.2 innings of uncharacteristic-Glasnow baseball, walking four, striking out one and allowing 5 earned runs to cross before being pulled. Something was visibly not right. His ankle was damaged.

Glasnow still has outstanding numbers on the 2015 season. He currently sits at 2-2 with a 2.76 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and 29 strikeouts over his first 29.1 innings pitched for the Altoona Curve in the Eastern League. He would have certainly seen Triple-A by June and if the Pirates needed an arm down the playoff stretch, there was a good chance Glasnow would have been the guy. This may be put on hold now, as we all know, ankle sprains can linger around even once the player has been deemed “healthy”.

So, should pitchers hit? It is a debate that seems to come around quite often, and with new commissioner Rob Manfred saying that it is something he would consider earlier this season, it seems to be more prevalent than ever. The Glasnow case shines more light on the discourse.

Tommy John surgery seems to be a rite of passage these days for top pitching prospects. Thus, with many teams already losing their top pitching prospects for a year at a time, why would they want one of their future aces to suffer a debilitating injury at the plate? As many proponents of the DH in the NL will tell you, pitchers are paid big bucks to pitch, not hit. 

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The pitchers batting, however, are very much part of the current strategy on NL managers. Pitchers need to learn how to lay down the perfect sacrifice bunt, or move runners over by either pulling the ball down the line or going to the opposite side of the infield. These abilities are simply ingrained in a pitchers skill set. They need a lot of practice.

What is the right response? Should the pitchers not bat at all in the Minor Leagues? Until Manfred and Major League baseball decides on their fate of the DH, young pitchers still need to learn how to play both parts of the game. And until then, random, freak injuries will slow down the progress of many of the game’s future aces.