Ryan Spilborghs is a former big league outfielder. He is currently a color analyst for the Colorado Rockies on Root Sports Rocky Mountain and also works for MLB Network Radio. He came up in the Rockies organization and appeared for the club at the major league level between 2005 and 2011, playing a significant role in Colorado’s 2007 and 2009 postseason runs. Ryan also spent time with the Indians and Rangers organizations in 2012 before finishing out his playing career with Japan’s Seibu Lions in 2013. MLBTR is glad to welcome him as a contributor to our Player’s Perspective series.
Do you love September baseball? How can you not, with the baseball season coming down to the wire? Major League Baseball got it right by adding two extra wild card teams. More teams are in the conversation for a playoff spot than ever before. How many times have you heard teams say, “We just want a chance to play meaningful games in September?”
We’re in October now, of course, and this is when it really gets good. But I wanted to explain what it’s like to make it through that last month of the regular season as a player — whether or not your team ends up making the postseason.
For organizations that are out of the playoff race, especially, September gives opportunity by way of expanded rosters. Players, front offices and fans get to glimpse what their future holds. However, if you were to survey coaches and players about September baseball, most will say they hate it. Can you name another major sport that changes the rules during the most important time of their season?
There is a laundry list of reasons why September baseball is despised by most, from competitive imbalance to pace of play to personal accolades and incentives.
First, the basics. September 1st in Major League Baseball marks the beginning of expanded rosters, which runs through the end of the season. Teams are allowed to carry 40 players on their roster — an increase of 15 players per team. (And no, you don’t have to be on the roster before September 1st to be playoff eligible; players just have to be within the organization.)
September is a double-edged sword for managers: it’s an opportunity to watch and reward minor league players they have not seen play at the Major League level, but it is also a difficult task to manage playing time and prepare against the opponents’ extra players. Not every team takes full advantage of the expanded rosters. Team record can play a role, as can financial considerations. But on the whole, the impact is significant. Major League games in September are changed by roster expansion. With so many additional options, the pace of play slows, and the nature of the action is totally different.
There’s a lot at stake for players, too. I was not given a September call-up back in 2005, even though I made my MLB debut earlier that year with the Rockies and finished the minor league season with career-best numbers. During the last two weeks of the minor league season, I remember reading articles speculating on who the organization was leaning toward calling up. My name was always in the mix. But when things wrapped up at Triple-A, I was told by my manager that my season was over.
In fact, what had happened was that the Rockies decided they were not going to promote any player from within our minor league system. The Major League team was well below .500 but playing well at the time, and they didn’t want to “disrupt team chemistry.” I was devastated for several reasons. The first was that my best season was over and I wanted to be rewarded with more opportunities at the MLB level. The second reason was financial: I was a minor league player making slightly above the minor league minimum for the Triple A level, and needed the extra money to carry me through the offseason for living expenses and workouts.
Things turned out fine for me, though. I decided to play winter ball in Mexico to deal with those two disappointments, and it ended up working out better for my career. There’s also an impact that may go beyond the importance of the MLB service clock. This season, Rockies shortstop Trevor Story made national headlines for his historic start. Trevor acknowledges that not getting a call-up in September of 2015 really pushed him to work harder in the offseason. That “chip on the shoulder” attitude fueled his training and helped him get off to such a great rookie season.
For me, not getting the 2005 September call-up ended up impacting my career several years later. I was always considered more of a fourth outfielder, and in my first real season in the big leagues (2006), I was optioned up and down between the minors and majors. For those of you who are unaware, each day you spend in the major leagues is considered one day of service time towards your career. Service time in MLB is gold: there are 162 games in an MLB season, but it takes 183 days (21 off days) to play out the season. It takes 172 of those service days to earn a full year of MLB service time. A player’s service time also dictates a player’s pension, but more importantly, it gets a player closer to salary arbitration and free agency.
The thirty days of service time I lost in September of 2005 came back to prevent me from reaching my first year of arbitration by an entire season. I never like discussing money, because I acknowledge that the salaries of Major League Baseball (like all professional sports) are so far beyond what almost the entire population ever makes. But I think it’s worthwhile to describe my feelings and perspectives as a participant in this industry. Most players only have a small window to earn, which often only comes after spending a long time in the minors. Having my arbitration year pushed back from 2008 to 2009 meant a significant difference in my career earnings. For a role player like myself or any other players in a similar situation, that is a significant loss.
September roster changes don’t just impact the young guys who are (hopefully) reaching the big leagues for the first time. For players that have remained on the team’s roster over the course of the season, having an expanded roster presents challenges for playing time that can have several ripple effects on any team. In particular, role players that have had playing time during the season can lose opportunities to call-ups.
Although players will always support their newest teammates, those lost opportunities in playing time can cost players opportunities to gain contract incentives and compile statistics that help out heading into the offseason. This is especially important for players who most likely will not return to their current team after the season. Former Braves manager Bobby Cox was famous for making sure the players that had been on the roster over the course of the season met their individual player bonuses and got enough playing time to help their future when it came to looking for offseason jobs, but it’s a tough balance and there are competing priorities. It takes a self-aware manager and organization to recognize how these opportunities should be allotted.
All of those things can make for a tense time in September. When teams fall out of playoff contention, the at-bats and playing time can be critical for players to prove their standing in the major leagues. Players can read the writing on the wall whether or not their current team will make an effort to retain their services. While it is part of the business for younger players to receive playing time when they are expected to contribute to the team’s future success, that doesn’t make it any easier for the veterans.
First, it wasn’t just teams that were out of contention that were using a ton of players. The Mets had a game against the Phillies where they used 10 pitchers. The Nationals had 39 players in September. Second, I think there is a compromise here. Teams will still be allowed to bring up the same amount of players, but only dress 30 players in a game. Make a rule that no more than 3 of those players can be pitchers. That way, it gives teams a chance to have a few more players to take a look at, but at the same time, keeps the number of players to a minimum and prevents a team from using too many pitchers in a game
That still wouldn’t necessarily change anything just because you can sit three SP who wouldn’t have throw anyway. So if you have a reg staff of thirteen plus add 3 relievers as you suggested then you still have an excess of 6 more relievers. Or the easier way to think 11 active relievers with two sp.
Yeah, it’s way too easy to abuse a limitation like that by having a bottomless bullpen.
Limiting pitchers doesn’t make sense, look at a team like the giants who normally carries anywhere from 2-4 additional pitchers on the 25 man roster compared to most teams- limiting the number of pitchers just handcuffs a manager’s options and in the end forces teams to compete for the same resources since the build of the team has to be the same
Nothing should change, this new commissioner is going to screw up baseball like Bud did! Example making the All-Star game count BS
The story says players hate September call ups, most fans don’t like them, and some managers don’t like them. Change is always needed. If you think things should be left just because it’s how it’s always been done, you’ll quickly be left in the past
Yeah, I don’t mind September callups, but as a fan I loathe the unbalanced schedule and interleague play and the ASG “counting”.
“If you think things should be left just because it’s how it’s always been done, you’ll quickly be left in the past” – fantastic quote!!!
I am with you, the unbalanced schedule is terrible – I really think they need to:
+decrease the number of in division games – there are like 6 series’ in division with each team
+increase the number of interleague games and not limit to one division per season
+manage the schedule so that teams get a days off with more regularity, some teams end up playing for like a month straight and then having a bunch of days off the following month which totally screws with the routine that players need
+either eliminate 2 game series’ and 4 game series’ or designate them with some kind of sense: eg: all interleague is 2 game series”, 4 game seies’ only happen the first or last month of the season
and yeah, kill the ASG mattering for home field advantage – it is counter intuitive that the previous year’s players’ current performance should decide the current year’s advantage, especially when there have been no repeats in forever in the WS
Agreed on all your points.
‘However, if you were to survey coaches and players about September baseball, most will say they hate it.’
So, what are the odds that it will be changed next season? It seems like it is a priority for the players to have this rule altered in such a way that they don’t feel they are up against unfair competition. Maybe expending the rosters to 30 players instead of all 40 will help to solve some of the issues which are described in this article.
Thanks for the article Ryan!
After reading a lot of proposals, I would like to see a roster increase to 27 all season, along with a three player taxi squad all season. Early in the season, it can be used for veterans such as a third catcher. During the season, it can change to suit the situation.
And after the minor league season is over, it can be used for top prospects.
Each series, the manager selects 27 players who are active. Nothing changes in September except the composition of the taxi squad if desired.
Question for Ryan:
Does Jeff Francis know who Dustin Pedroia is yet?
He’s a guy who tries to check swing but ends game 1 of the Alds striking out?
Jokes
Man they got Ryan Spilborghs to write this? Sweet
It’s the second piece Ryan has written for us. We’re happy to have both him and Burke Badenhop writing occasional columns for us and hopeful that we can continue to get some other recently retired players to share their experiences. If you’re curious to check out the others, you can find them all under the “Player’s Perspective” tag:
mlbtraderumors.com/players-perspective
Great work, Spilly, and huge props to MLBTR for getting more former players to voice their opinions and tell their stories.
Personally, I think it’d be pretty difficult to put a rule in place that deals with all this because almost anything is susceptible to loopholes. The only thing I could think of to effectively limit pitching changes is a hard cap on the amount of pitching changes a team can make per game, but that wouldn’t work for a number of reasons.
Somebody on here recently had a really good suggestion to deal with the expanded September rosters: Before each game, together with the lineup card, the manager would also submit a “bullpen card” which would have a smaller subset of the pitchers on the active roster whowould be eligible to pitch that game (I think the original suggestion was 7, but the number isn’t really important right now). Only these guys could pitch in that game, unless it went into extra innings, then you can start using your other pitchers. This would limit the number of pitching changes per game, while also having the benefit of the larger bullpen to rest up some arms on a day-to-day basis late in the season and having the young guys get to experience the big league clubhouse and not have to be shuttled in and out, up and down. The bullpen guys would also know ahead of time when they can expect to be “off” or “on-call” almost like starters, so their routine wouldn’t be totally off.
logged in just to say thanks because these articles are awesome to read. nice to finally get an unfiltered player’s perspective.