Tomorrow, Sept. 1, rosters will be allowed to expand in the major leagues all the way up to 40 men.
In a sport with plenty of dumb rules and traditions, this one seems created by Larry as told to Moe and implemented by Curly.
Here is how you know it is stupid: If the rule didn’t exist and you proposed it today, the 30 general managers would laugh you out of the room. Yet a mechanism that trashes logic, strategy, fairness and integrity remains because of a toxic brew of tradition, laziness and partisanship. In interviews this week — in a sport in which it is hard to find consensus on anything — I heard pretty much unanimity that the rule is archaic and needs to be fixed.
But I also heard one group or another blame the union (it doesn’t want to do anything to limit service time), big-market teams (they want to use their financial advantages to expand rosters) and small markets (they want to use September to expand rosters and look at their prospects for next year). Thus, there is plenty of blame and too little resolve to fix what all agree is a blight on the final month of a season.
“I have never gotten [roster expansion] and I have never gotten a good answer why we keep doing this,” said Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin, who — to his credit — is the one guy in the sport who publicly champions the need for change annually.
Look, you might not like the designated hitter and that the two leagues operate under different rules. But at least both teams in any game either use or do not use the DH. There is fairness within the silliness. Once rosters expand, however, one team literally can operate with 15 more players than its opponent. Think about that, a game could begin in which one manager has 40 players at his disposal and another has 25. But even if it is 33 vs. 29, how is that fair?
For five months, games are played with 25-man rosters and the strategies dictated by that limit. And then in the sixth and most vital month, there pretty much are no limits. Teams can load up on extra relievers, pinch runners, third catchers and mascots. OK, not mascots. But this is so ludicrous — drastically altering the strategy deployed over the first 130 games — that you might as well put Mr. Met on the end of the bench, too.
The Dodgers, for example, traded for extreme lefty specialist Randy Choate on July 25 and his value is roughly for five weeks since on Sept. 1, just about every team will become overloaded with righty pinch-hitters, negating Choate’s strength.
“I hate the September call-up rule,” an NL GM said. “The idea of having unlimited relievers changes the game completely during the most important games of the year.”
And consider this: With a second wild card in each league this year, the chances for ties and play-in games become more likely. And those play-ins are played under September rules. So you can, say, have the Tigers and A’s in a one-game play-in to determine the second AL wild card and in this imperative game Detroit could have 36 players and Oakland 29. Could you imagine any other sport allowing this kind of unlevel field and opening itself up for the controversy/embarrassment that would arise when a should-not-be-on-the-roster, say, pinch-runner gets one team into the playoffs and knocks another out?
By logic, if you are going to have a month with expanded rosters, it should be April when starters are not fully stretched out and players’ bodies are not yet trained to play nine innings day after day. Now, I would not allow any roster expansion: You play 25 in April and May, you should play 25 in September. If you want to see a prospect, call him up and demote or release someone else. If you are worried with the minor league season over about having someone ready should there be a September injury, then expand your Instructional League concepts to keep veteran minor leaguers prepared.
But even if you going to expand rosters and bastardize the strategy of the game, at least come up with a mechanism where each team has to play with 28 or 30 or 32. Or have a taxi squad of up to 40, but you have to declare 25 a day. The idea that playoff spots have been and will continue to be determined by Team A having more players than Team B is something so obviously unfair and unintelligent that tradition, laziness and partisanship can carry the day no longer.