Baseball

Central League to adopt DH from 2027

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner Sadayuki Sakakibara

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:33 JST, August 5, 2025

For the baseball purists who like to see pitchers bat, the last holdout has succumbed to modern times.

Japan pro baseball’s Central League will adopt the designated hitter starting with the 2027 season, the league decided at its board meeting on Monday, a half-century after the “position” was first introduced into Japan.

The historic move shows the league’s acceptance of the global trend, and will influence team strategy while also reducing the burden on players.

The designated hitter, who bats in place of the pitcher in the batting lineup, was first introduced by Major League Baseball’s American League in 1973.

Japan’s Pacific League followed suit in 1975, but the Central League resisted make the change, preferring the “tradition of nine-man baseball” and the subtleties of player usage and other tactical decisions.

However, the DH has become the mainstay in recent years, and is used at the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics. It was fully introduced in the major leagues in 2022 when the National League adopted it.

Looking at the amateur game in Japan, the nation’s top university league — the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League — does not currently use the DH, but has decided to introduce it next spring, meaning that all 27 college leagues under the Japan University Baseball Federation will be in alignment. The Japan High School Federation decided on Friday to adopt the DH next year.

At the Central League board meeting on Monday, board members from all six clubs unanimously decided in favor of the DH.

Kiyoaki Suzuki, director of the Central League board and the chief of the Hiroshima Carp team office, said at a press conference on Monday that the high school federation’s decision had great impact. “We felt we had to make the decision when the high school federation took the step,” Suzuki said.

To give the teams time to adjust their rosters, the DH will start from the 2027 season. The league plans to adopt the so-called “Ohtani rule” in which a player doubling as the starting pitcher and DH can continue as DH after being taken out from the mound.

“It is a significant step forward [for Japan pro baseball], now that the Central League has made a decision to take up the challenge of the new form of baseball,” Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner Sadayuki Sakakibara said.