The addition of a DH would change the roster calculus for every NL squad.

If baseball returns in 2020—and “if” now seems closer to “when”—it will probably have a universal DH. There’s no consensus on the other features of a proposed return. But this one looks set to be confirmed, and even before the current situation, it seemed all but inevitable to arrive sometime soon.

Almost from the moment that the AL elected to use the DH in 1973, the rule’s split-league setup made for consternation. “That could cause a problem if such a rule was adopted by one league and not the other,” then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn said after the initial vote. “What would happen in the World Series?” Decades later, MLB has learned how to handle the DH in a World Series, but it’s seen different sets of rules become increasingly anachronistic. A few months back, it was