John Smoltz 'guarantees' MLB will change one rule [View all]

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Jayson Stark of The Athletic , who popularized the idea, dubbed it the "double hook." The idea is fairly straightforward. When a manager removes his starting pitcher from the game, he loses his designated hitter, too. The manager is thus incentivized to keep his starting pitcher in the game as long as possible so he can keep his DH in the lineup, too.

Four years ago this would not have been practical. Now that the National League has adopted the DH rule, it is. Smoltz is a fan. So is current Texas Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the MLB Players Association's bargaining committee.

MLB was intrigued enough to test the idea in the Atlantic League in 2023 . Smoltz thinks it could potentially reach the major league level someday.

"Two, three years ago people lost their mind on the shift, the base-stealing, and the pitch clock (rules) and the game's better for it," he said in an interview with John Ourand on The Varsity podcast . "The game will be better for it once this comes into place. People will throw their arms up and complain but In six months to a year you'll never know the difference."