Pitchers do not hit anymore. That ended after the 2021 season. At that point in time, most Dodger pitchers were used mainly to sacrifice runners into scoring position. In 2021, Dodger pitchers hit .152. They had no homers and 19 RBIs. Julio Urias led LA pitchers with 12 hits. He drove in 9 runs. David Price had the best BA among the hurlers at .267. Urias with 10, and Buehler with 8, led the pitching staff in sacrifice hits. The pitchers accounted for 29 of the teams 32.
The American League adopted the designated hitter in 1973. Other than the pandemic year of 2020, the NL never used it full time until 2022. The DH would be used in American League cities in the World Series and not in the NL cities. Now that it is universal in the league and the minors, MLB changed the rule to allow Ohtani to stay in games he leaves when he is the pitcher. The Ohtani rule benefits the Dodgers every time he pitches. Right now, he is about the only player in the majors who is covered by that rule. In the past, he would have had to move to a defensive position to stay in the game.
So, who are the best hitting pitchers of all time? Let us start with the two true unicorns, Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani. The Babe was signed by the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association in 1914. He did not particularly impress with the bat in Baltimore. He hit just 1 homer and had 28 hits in 121 at bats. As a pitcher in the AA that year, he was much more impressive, 22-9. He was not what one would call a strikeout pitcher, 139 in 221.2 innings, and he walked a lot of batters, 101. After being sold to the Red Sox he spent some time at their Providence team in the AA. He was called up and got into 4 games. He had a 2-1 record and a 3.91 ERA.
At the plate he hit.200. Over the next four seasons, he blossomed as a pitcher and a hitter, so much so that he began playing in the outfield when he wasn’t pitching. His best season as a pitcher, he went 23-12 with a 1.75 ERA in 1916. As a hitter that season, he batted.272. From 1917 to 1924, he would not hit under .300. From 1920 on, Babe was simply an outfielder, and the rest is history. Here is Ruth’s batting line as a pitcher.309/14/69 in 150 games. His OPS as a pitcher exclusively was .897. He finished 94-46 in his career as a pitcher with an excellent ERA of 2.21. The bulk of his work as a pitcher came in a four-year stretch from 1914-17 when he won 78 games. He also set a record in the 1916 World Series against Brooklyn with 29.2 scoreless innings which was finally broken by another Yankee lefty, Whitey Ford in 1961. 
Tracking Ohtani’s success as a hitter when he is pitching is much trickier since he is basically the DH also. But in games where he is simply listed as a pitcher, his stats are not impressive at all. And you can look this up on baseball reference. He is listed as such in just 21 games. His BA is just .197 with 3 homers and 8 driven in. Yet we know that his combined stats in games where he pitches and remains as the DH are much more impressive and relevant. An updated stat counting his ABs as a DH while pitching show a .292/36/101 line.
Shohei now has 280 homers, 275 have come while he has been the DH. This is the first season that Dodger fans should see the full Ohtani experience as he will be in the starting rotation from the beginning of the season. It might be fun to see and track how he does as a hitter when he is the starter. Although he will never be a high average hitter like Ruth was, he is one of baseball’s most unique players. Now we will look at some of the players who were pitchers first but also could swing the bat. They are in no particular order and were on a list made by fans. 
Wes Ferrell: Wes Ferrell was a right-handed pitcher who came up to the majors in 1927 and spent the bulk of his career with the Cleveland Indians and in the American League. Over his career he would win 193 games. Ferrell though was a very good hitting pitcher. His career BA was .280. He slugged 38 career homers with a high of 9 in 1931 when he hit .319. He drove in 208 runs over his career. His career OPS was .797. Ferrell played for 15 seasons. His brother was Rick Ferrell, a catcher who spent his entire 18-year career in the American League and is in the Hall of Fame. By the way, Wes hit 10 more homers in the majors than his brother Rick. 38-28. 
Mike Hampton: Some might think, huh? Hampton? The fact is he was a very good hitter by pitchers’ standards. His career stats are decent at a .246 BA with 16 long balls and 79 driven in. His best season was in 2001 with the Rockies when he hit 7 homers and drove in 16 while hitting .291. He hit .344 the following season, but with less power. Hampton is more remembered as being one of the Rockies least successful free agent signings. He was dogged by injuries in his last few seasons in the majors and finished his career with the D-Backs in 2010. Hampton won five silver slugger awards in a row, 1999-03. 
Carlos Zambrano: Zambrano started his career in 2001 with the Chicago Cubs. He spent 11 years in Chicago, and his career line is .238/24/71. He hit 6 homers in 2006 but hit just .151. He hit .337/4/14 in 2008. He earned 2 silver sluggers as the best hitting pitcher in 06 and 08. Career pitching line was 132-91 with a 3.66 ERA. 
Madison Bumgarner: Bumgarner would earn two silver slugger awards in his career, 2014-15 with the Giants. His career batting line is .172/19/65, so I feel the reason he made this list is because of his power output. Oddly enough in postseason play he was ofer. Bumgarner signed a huge deal with the D-Backs when he became a free agent in 2020 but ended up being one of their worst all time signings. Was nowhere near the pitcher he was with the Giants
#21 Greinke
Zack Greinke: Greinke spent most of his career in the American League where he did not have to hit. In 2011, he joined the Brewers and that was his first season where he had more than 7 at bats. He spent two years with Milwaukee. He hit .143 his first season and .212 the next. Joining the Dodgers as a free agent in 2013, he batted .328 with a career high 19 hits. He won his first silver slugger award. Over his three years with the Dodgers, he was a .249 hitter with 3 homers and 10 driven in. In his career he hit .222 with 9 homers and 34 runs batted in. He won his second silver slugger in 2019 with Arizona. 
Don Drysdale: His career line is .186/29/113. Big D twice hit 7 homers in a season. Walter Alston thought enough of his skill with a bat to use him as a pinch hitter several times. He had 26 doubles and 7 triples in his career also. His season high in doubles was 6. In 1965 his line was .300/7/19. He had 39 hits that year, his career high. When he was playing, there was no silver slugger award. Oddly, Big D never had a hit in the postseason.
Don Larsen: Don Larsen, who owns the only perfect game in World Series history, was a pretty good hitting pitcher. He finished 10 games under .500 as a pitcher, but he was capable with the lumber. His career line is .242/14/72. In 1958 and 1960, he hit over .300. Don spent 14 years in the majors, most of it in the American League. 
Ken Brett: One of four brothers who played professionally, the most prominent being his Hall of Fame brother George, Ken was pretty good at the plate. His career line is .262/10/44. In his 14-year career, he played for 10 different teams, including 30 games for the Dodgers in 1979. He hit .300 three times. His best season for homers was 1973 when he hit 4. 
Farrell holds the record for the most homers in a season by a pitcher with 9. Probably the best hitting pitcher in Dodger history would be Don Newcombe. He certainly belongs with these guys. Newk had a career .268 batting average with 15 homers and 109 RBIs. He hit .359 in 1955. That year he hit 7 homers and drove in 23. Another good hitting pitcher for LA was Rick Rhoden. He spent 5 of his 15 years in the majors with the Dodgers. Overall, he hit .238 with 9 homers and 75 RBIs. He won 3 silver slugger awards as a member of the Pirates. In 1993, Orel Hershiser won his only silver slugger award with a .356 BA. Orel never homered in his entire career. Koufax hit 1. What Orel did have was 89 sac-bunts. Kershaw loved to hit, he thought his at bats would help the team. He wasn’t a great hitter by any standard, but he also was an excellent bunter with 110 sac bunts in his career. His only career homer helped beat the Giants on opening day in 2013.
