Brewers: 3 Early Reasons to Be Excited for the 2022 Season

3. The possible addition of a universal DH could benefit the Brewers in multiple ways.

There will be plenty of points that the owners and MLBPA will argue over during this offseason’s collective bargaining agreement negotiations. But there seems to be at least one that both sides appear to be prepared to implement going forward.

The shortened 2020 season experimented with a few different rule changes, including the universal designated hitter. All indications are that there is an extremely good chance that this will be coming to MLB to stay in 2022.

Yes, that means that there would be no more chances for dramatic Brandon Woodruff playoff homers. Gone would be the days that Adrian Houser makes a certain Marlins starter question his entire existence.

Baseball traditionalists might not like it, but a universal DH could be a positive thing for fans of the Brewers offense.

As fun as the rare pitcher bomb can be, there’s a reason teams pitch around the eighth spot in the lineup to get to the pitcher. MLB pitchers hit a whopping .110 with a….gulp….44.2% strikeout percentage in 2021. Brewers pitchers were actually worse than the league average at .095 and 49.5%.

Of course, a universal DH would benefit the offenses of all National League teams. But for Brewers fans, think of all the possibilities that this now presents.

Since his two MVP-caliber seasons in 2018 and 2019, Christian Yelich hasn’t seen the same offensive success while also fighting off nagging injuries. Imagine if he could take some of the stress of playing the field away by playing DH now and then.

Keston Hiura has similarly seen an offensive decline, getting demoted down to Triple-A Nashville multiple times in 2021. Perhaps a move to DH could spark a change in the other direction for the former top prospect.

The lack of a DH would give Milwaukee a tough decision to make in whether to tender arbitration eligible sluggers Daniel Vogelbach and Rowdy Tellez. What if the Brewers not only didn’t lose either of them, but were able to give fans a lineup for a game in 2022 that featured both?!

Those are only a few of the possibilities that a universal DH would bring to the Brewers. It would be the end of a long era of pitchers hitting, but those who watch the game for the offense surely wouldn’t mind, nor would those hoping for an offensive boost for Milwaukee in 2022.

As fans of a team that is now a perennial playoff contender, it probably doesn’t take much to make Brewers fans excited for an upcoming season. Still, these three reasons should make even casual Milwaukee observers looking forward to 2022.