Pitchers Hitting Is Dead, Long Live Pitchers Hitting

Over the years, plenty of FanGraphs articles have started out with a writer clicking around on the leaderboards looking for something interesting. Only the truly great articles, however, come about when the writer distractedly clicks on the wrong leaderboard because they’re busy baking adorable miniature cakes. With that auspicious beginning, let’s talk about pitchers hitting in the era of the universal designated hitter.

We’ll start with a simple question: Who was the best hitting pitcher in 2022?

Did you think it was Shohei Ohtani? Oh sweet, naïve reader. You make me laugh. It wasn’t Ohtani. That would’ve been the right answer if the question had been, “Who was the best hitting pitcher in 2022 (minimum two plate appearances)?” But that wasn’t the question, and you have fallen right into my trap. (Don’t worry; nothing bad happens if you fall into the trap. In fact, there’s candy down there.)

Evan Phillips is the new king of pitchers hitting. He earned his 360 wRC+ the old-fashioned way: coming to the plate with an 11-run lead, standing there holding what was clearly the same bat Chris Taylor used three batters earlier, and earning a five-pitch walk off a very frustrated Caleb Smith. Want to be better than Ohtani? It’s that easy.

Before Phillips took his place in the on deck circle, manager Dave Roberts gave him a rousing pep talk. Per Kirsten Watson, Roberts said, “You don’t need batting gloves. Just go out there. Whatever you do, just don’t get hurt.” Don’t be fooled by the fact that Phillips showed absolutely no desire to take the borrowed bat off his shoulder. He was amped and ready to swing. Just take a look at these vicious practice cuts.

Phillips was not the first pitcher to hit in the universal DH era (non-Ohtani division). In case you ever have need for that obscure piece of baseball trivia, look no further than Reiver Sanmartin, who batted twice on April 19. In all, five pitchers made plate appearances this year, though only one was better than Ohtani.

Phillips’ spot came up in the order because the Dodgers moved DH Edwin Ríos to first base, and he actually got to hit because the game was so lopsided that it didn’t matter.

Anderson also came to the plate for the Dodgers during a lopsided game, but the difference is that he really was in there to do damage. He has two career home runs, and he somehow convinced Roberts to let him pinch-hit for Freddie Freeman up 8–0 against the Padres with a position player on the mound. Anderson wasn’t about to let the fact that infielder Matthew Batten was sitting 52 mph stop him from getting his money’s worth. Watch him swing out of his shoes on this 1–1 pitch:

The Dodgers had a lot of fun with the at-bat. Orel Hershiser, a career .201 hitter himself, chastised Anderson for standing so far from the plate. The Dodger Stadium organist, clearly prepared for an inverted pitcher-hitter situation, played “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).”

Another such matchup happened on June 22. In his 14th season in the big leagues, Robertson finally got to make his first plate appearance, and he was thrilled. Pittsburgh infielder Diego Castillo was his opposite in just about every way; despite being a rookie, he was already making his second appearance as a pitcher. He was also less than thrilled.

By the time Robertson came to bat, Castillo had walked the bases loaded, then given up a grand slam and a single. The single was a seeing-eye grounder that somehow found its way through a shifted infield, forcing Castillo, who had already started walking toward the dugout, to turn around and keep on pitching. Robertson, though, had enough enthusiasm for the both of them:

I hope nobody in Pittsburgh was trying to have a candlelight dinner that night. Robertson worked a full count before striking out on three mighty hacks, powering wind turbines throughout western Pennsylvania. Even more impressive, he finally cheered up Castillo:

Listen to the crowd! Sensing the import of the moment, the Pittsburgh broadcast relied on a splitscreen throughout the at-bat. On the right, Robertson smiled from ear to ear. On the left, Castillo had his head down, trying in vain to remember where they keep the strike zone. While he headed back to the dugout, cameras caught Robertson positively glowing as he hit his teammates with a double negative: “I wasn’t not going to swing.”

While most pitchers only batted during blowouts, Robertson’s future team had bucked that trend just five days earlier. The Phillies and Nationals were tied at 6–6 in the 10th inning, with Garrett Stubbs in the on deck circle to pinch hit for José Alvarado. After a single and an interference call gave the Phillies a two-run lead, manager Rob Thomson pulled Stubbs back, gave Alvarado some lengthy instructions, and sent him to the plate. Thomson presumably told him he wasn’t allowed to swing, but at least he let him wear batting gloves.

For his part, Alvarado did an excellent impression of a guy who wanted nothing more than to knock a ball all the way to Capitol Hill:

He had me totally fooled, and I wasn’t the only one. As the Phillies’ broadcast put it, Alvarado was “standing hitterish.” After striking out looking, he nearly made Thomson look very bad in just his 15th game as manager. The Phillies never scored the runner from second, and Alvarado closed out the game, but not before giving up a double that brought the winning run to the plate.

Our final pitcher came to the plate under less whimsical circumstances. Back in April, an injury to Tyler Stephenson forced backup catcher Aramis Garcia from designated hitter to catcher, meaning that Reiver Sanmartin had to hit. Cameras caught him trying on several of his teammates’ batting helmets before finding one that fit. And despite looking extremely stiff in the batter’s box, he managed the heroic feat of making contact with the ball. Look at this majestic blast:

Statcast clocked it at 74.5 mph off the bat, with a distance of three feet. Although he struck out in his second plate appearance, Sanmartin, who had notched four hits in the minors, really did look like he was getting comfortable in the box. He worked a 2–2 count and had an impressive take on a 1–1 fastball just off the plate:

His swing definitely leaves something to be desired, but I loved how competitive this at-bat was. I also loved that after both his at-bats, Sanmartin looked genuinely upset that he didn’t reach base.

In truth, all of these plate appearances were very fun to watch. In 2021, pitchers made 2.63% of all plate appearances; in 2022, they made 0.000033%, which is less. It’s possibly a hair too few for my taste, though I’m not trying to reignite the debate about the universal DH. Besides, pitchers were coming to the plate less and less anyway:

That’s a graph of plate appearances by pitchers from 1903 to 2019. The numbers are obviously decreasing over time. Let’s extend that gray trendline and project what would’ve happened if the rules had never changed:

There you go. Pitcher hitting was due to peter out on its own right around the year 2091. Personally, I would’ve been fine waiting that long, but I guess some people are just impatient. For now, I’m glad there will be a handful of times each year when we get to watch pitchers challenge the universality of the DH.