Rosters expand to 40 men in the MLB, and it is a ridiculous rule that must come to an end. Every September MLB teams are allowed to expand their rosters from 25 to 40 during the month of September. Teams wanting to see what the young prospects have is understandable. Still, 40 eligible players in a nine-man game?! The rules need to be changed, for the better of the game.
It is absurd that in the final month of the regular season, teams have access to a small village during the most important month of the regular season. Every manager can play righty/lefty match-ups up and down the lineup towards the end of the game. The games are in danger of not even looking like a real game. Resemblance of March spring training games are more likely to come to mind when a match up in the 8th inning is two rookies squaring off with the game on the line, because the managers have the extra bats and arms at their disposal.
Ridiculous Rules as Rosters Expand
MLB is supposed to be focusing on speeding up the game. How does a revolving door out of the bullpen help that at all? Every time the manager goes to the mound to pull a guy so he can see what the next kid has, 8-10 minutes are wasted. The flow of the game is also interrupted, which has fans tuning out as well as natural momentum of a game being ruined.
This kind of nonsense is going on in the middle of all the important pennant races. That’s the real crime. It’s unfair for teams and their fans to have their fate decided by players that were in Chattanooga, Rome and Pawtuckett just a few days ago. Things have to change to keep the contenders and non contenders happy all at once.
Each team should have to declare a 25 man roster every day with 40 guys allowed to stay on the permanent roster. This would allow each manger to expand their roster by 4 players, because they would not be putting the four guys in their rotation that were not set to pitch that day. This rule would only be in place after September 1st, just like the current rule. The other 15 men not listed would be allowed to stay with the team and even be present in the dug-out and/or club house each day.
Each club could choose specific guys to look at each day and this would also allow for rest. A veteran catcher like Gerald Laird (Atlanta Braves), could be rested on a day that the club wanted to start minor leaguer Christian Bethancourt and leave Evan Gattis available off the bench.
Catchers aren’t the only ones that could be spared. The same kind of strategy could be used in bullpens. With all of the worries about Tommy John surgery, managers would have to designate rest days for the guys in the pen, and thus, keeping guys on a regular rest schedule.
These games are far too important for the rules to be turned upside down during the stretch run. These changes would allow the young guys to get a look, and the guys shooting for October, to go up against an even playing field. Here’s hoping somebody’s listening in the MLB front office. We’ve been yelling this for years!
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