NL DH Beneficiaries

Earlier today Jon Heyman reported the reality of the DH making its arrival in the near future. With that news now being official, we are gonna look at a few teams and players that could benefit from the new DH role.

Yoenis Cespedes:

Getting the obvious one out of the way, we have Mets outfielder who is coming off of missing majority of 2018 after undergoing surgery on both of his heels after 38 games, as well as missing all of 2019 after his now famous incident on his ranch involving a bore that resulted in a fractured right ankle that would ultimately eliminate any chance of playing in 2019. Cespedes is coming up on his age 34 season and given his extensive injury history, the chances of a team giving him a full time role patrolling the outfield is essentially non-existent. In his 4 years as a met he has put up a .282/.346/.543 slash line which includes 74 home-runs so the the bat could still be there, but given his extensive injury history if the bat isn't there, he could be out of the major leagues before he knows it.

San Diego Padres:

For a young up and coming team, the DH addition will be huge for the Padres who have lots of talent in their system that prior could have had an issue finding at bats, but the DH will open up plenty of options for the team involving multiple players. Some names currently that will benefit will be players like Francisco Mejia, who has been blocked to a certain degree by Austin Hedges who rains supreme in the defense category which has almost slowed Mejia's development at the plate. Wil Myers would also benefit since with his defensive troubles in the outfield and 1B blocked by Hosmer. The DH role will also allow some prospects to possibly have an early call-up without teams having to worry about taking a key piece out of the lineup or having the prospect essentially sit on the bench.

Cincinnati Reds:

One of the biggest beneficiaries among teams could be the Reds, who have had one of the better off-seasons with the acquisitions of Mike Moustakas, Nick Castellanos and new Japanese outfielder Shogo Akiyama. A crowded outfield was also one of the concerns for Jesse Winker and/or slugger Aristides Aquino possibly losing at bats. Nick Senzel would have a huge chance at making an impact for this team with him being able to play both the outfield and could re-transition into the infield when others need a rest.

Yasiel Puig:

Although he is still without a team, with this news teams could start reaching out more to puig as the season rolls around. Puig isn't the prized possession he was early in his career and his 2019 campaign doesn't look great at the surface, but after he was traded to Cleveland he put up a .297/.377/.423 slash line in 182 plate appearances with only 2 home runs though. His xwOBA was the second lowest in his career at .334 (lowest since .317 in 2017). Those numbers were a large part due to his weird platoon where his wOBA was better vs the shift (.456) rather than without a shift (.309). 2019 you could chock it up as just a down year for a guy that is still a quality bat to have in your lineup.

Scooter Gennett:

now this last one is a bit tricky, as Gennett last year was just flat out awful with a .226/.245/.323 with a wRC+ of 44, but that was after a season where he struggled heavily with a right groin strain and was ultimately shipped to San Francisco before being released at the end of August. In his time with the reds (excluding his 2019 campaign) he was arguably one of the top 2B in the league with a .298/.344/.493 slash line with a 124wRC+ which ranks 8th among 2B in that 2 year time span. Gennett could be a sneaky good pickup as a bat off the bench for a contending team while also bringing the ability to play the field without costing your team entirely.