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MLB Considering Expansion Of Player Pool

By Jeff Todd | August 14, 2020 at 9:54pm CDT

As Major League Baseball continues to adapt to the unprecedented circumstances of the 2020 season, it is considering a notable change to the present 60-man player pool system. Per Josh Norris of Baseball America, a proposal under consideration would add something like 15 more slots to each team’s alternate training site.

It doesn’t sound as if this evolution is a done deal, or even a firmly hammered out system under consideration. But developments have come far more rapidly than usual during this ad hoc, covid-addled campaign. If the league is to implement it, we’d presumably see things come together in rather short order.

As with the alternate site information sharing plan that is set to go into effect, this latest development reflects observations from the early functioning of a modified season and an effort to anticipate issues to come. First and foremost, as Norris explains, the current approach has left too few players around to participate in alternate site games. And teams would surely rather have more flexibility to get players in action, both to enhance development of younger players and to build out veteran depth.

There’s also an interesting potential trade deadline tie-in here, as with the enhanced scouting that would come from video and statistical sharing. Bigger player pools would give much greater flexibility to teams looking to structure mid-season deals. (Remember, only players in the 60-man pool may be traded.) Teams would have more room for prospects in their pools, thus making it easier to put trade candidates into play without unduly sacrificing the ability to supplement the active roster as needed.

With just over two weeks to go until an undeniably bizarre trade deadline, this could be quite the wild card. It’ll be especially interesting to see how quickly the changes are agreed upon and implemented. If teams are to wheel and deal at anything approaching their typical levels, they’ll want to have some advance notice to hash out potential agreements.

There’s a tie-in to a broader matter within the baseball operations landscape. In the past decade or so, roughly the span of MLBTR’s existence, we’ve seen analytics (in the broadest sense) grow from a niche element of the roster-building meta game to a more-or-less universal, rather uniform philosophical framework. Thinking about the game critically and shrewdly applying analytical resources is the base state for the contemporary front office. Doing more and better remains the goal, but the returns are necessarily diminishing. What we’re seeing now is something else entirely: an entire new set of challenges with human dimensions; ever-changing rules regimes and economic circumstances; information gaps that technology can’t really solve.

Navigating this world to construct a winning MLB team presents a new — or at least heavily altered — challenge. Particularly for those of us who’ve observed the evolution to this point, it’ll be fun to sit back and see which executives thrive in this new era of the hot stove.

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27 Comments

  1. DarkSide830

    5 years ago

    would help facilitate deadline moves for sure

    Reply
    • Phanatic 2022

      5 years ago

      What is the reasoning behind not allowing trades of players not in 60 man player pool?

      Reply
  2. 66TheNumberOfTheBest

    5 years ago

    If MLB is going to allow teams go more than a week without playing games rather than calling up these backup players, it doesn’t really matter how many slots they have.

    7
    Reply
  3. sportsfan101

    5 years ago

    Mlb is a effing joke plain and simple right now. There legit doing what they can to save face after they effed up over n over again n that’s that. ManFred needs to be fired and baseball needs a legit commish who won’t ruin the sport.

    5
    Reply
    • i like al conin

      5 years ago

      What does this mean? Why?

      Reply
      • BlueSkies_LA

        5 years ago

        I guess it means the owners should hire a commissioner who doesn’t work for them. The baseball version of a flat earth.

        Reply
  4. jakerafferty87

    5 years ago

    Not even using the full 60 man…

    5
    Reply
  5. dave frost nhlpa

    5 years ago

    Wait until the NFL starts ‘roiding and they get locked down in a bubble.

    Reply
    • marcfrombrooklyn

      5 years ago

      There are teams that are having issues fielding two practice squads out of the healthy players in the alternate site.

      Reply
      • AtlSoxFan

        5 years ago

        I think the answer is having a second squad of purely ineligible players that are there for practice/training purposes only.

        Reply
      • John Free

        5 years ago

        This is definitely a problem. Some teams chose to use the pool teams for development without regard to position, and now are stuck with coaches and trainers filling positions to field intra-squad scrimmages.

        Reply
  6. Rangers29

    5 years ago

    Completely unrelated to this story, but I just have to announce from the rooftops that the Rangers are .500… and Lance Lynn completely manhandled the Rockies’ offense. Complete game, 1 earned run, but tons of errors by Texas. That’s all. Goodnight!

    Reply
  7. Aaron Sapoznik

    5 years ago

    I’m all for the expansion of the 60-man player pool in light of the problems with the Marlins and Cardinals thus far. However, if there is so much concern regarding the lack of organizational assets/prospects allowed to be dealt by the August 31st trade deadline wouldn’t it make more sense to just eliminate the rule that restricts the eligibility of those players to pool members?

    1
    Reply
  8. mstrchef13

    5 years ago

    As an O;s fan I definitely want to see this, as it gets another dozen prospects direct instruction. However, There needs to be no more postponements. The player pool was supposed to be used to swap guys into the active roster in case of a virus issue. That isn’t what is happening..

    2
    Reply
  9. del taki

    5 years ago

    If the player pools are there, why are there week long postponements? Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t players still have to be on the 40 man roster to get called up? They should remove that rule for the rest of the year. Any member of the 60 man squad should get to be called up without adding them to the 40 man and creating a massive and unneeded roster crunch for some teams.

    5
    Reply
    • User 4245925809

      5 years ago

      That’s what have been thinking also del takl.. team has issue with virus? Ding, ding! 25 new guys from the 60 man and no games missed!

      3
      Reply
      • Orel Saxhiser

        5 years ago

        johnsilver, That’s how it should have been all along. Rosters are now at 28. A team can have up to 32 extra players. Mass infection, be prepared to bring in 28 of them as temporary players. And please make sure you have two catchers in the pool. What happened with the Cardinals rips at the integrity of the game. It seems neither side considered this worst-case scenario when squabbling over money.

        2
        Reply
        • BlueSkies_LA

          5 years ago

          True but I think probably the core issue is they didn’t decide ahead of time if the priority was fielding real MLB teams, or just playing the games. Seems they are leaning towards the former, but they may well end up with the latter.

          Reply
    • Phanatic 2022

      5 years ago

      That would be great for baseball. It would be so much fun to see some of these minor leaguers even if it’s brief.

      Reply
  10. TheOtherMikeD

    5 years ago

    How about loaning players to covid hit teams? Works for European soccer. Gets the games played.

    Reply
    • DarkSide830

      5 years ago

      why the MLB has yet to implement a loan system for any reason is amazing. for example, why arent there teams in the NPB and KBO opperated by the MLB that feature a full roster of prospects? (for the record, i know they have a limit on foreign players, im suggesting an adjustment for these teams in specifc)

      Reply
      • smuzqwpdmx

        5 years ago

        Probably mainly because going halfway around the world and leaving all your family behind to live in a country where you don’t speak the language is something that most players will only do for money.

        The KBO does have a team like that playing the Australian baseball league though (Geelong-Korea).

        Reply
    • Questionable_Source

      5 years ago

      Injury risk. Can’t ask other teams to give their players to the cardinals, who can’t keep their own players healthy.

      I assume the same roster BS would be in play. They would have to be on the 40 man roster, service clock would start.

      As stated by others, they shouldn’t have to borrow players from other teams. They have a full roster at their alternate site, that they aren’t allowed to access because of the aforementioned roster BS.

      Reply
      • AtlSoxFan

        5 years ago

        But what roster BS? They are allowed to have a modified version of the IL already just for covid purposes that has no minimum duration, no restrictions on callups/send down, and, function just like the real 45 day IL in creating openings on the 40 man.

        The ONLY problem is the called up players need an option to move back off the 40man when activating someone off the covid IL. That’s it.

        1
        Reply
        • bronxbombers

          5 years ago

          You option someone to remove them from the 25 (now 28) man love roster. To remove someone from the 40 you have to DFA them

          Reply
    • misterb71

      5 years ago

      If MLB follows through on eliminating a fair number of minor league affiliates for the clubs copying the loan system that functions in world football would be a very logical addition to the game. Copy the idea that you can’t play against your parent franchise’s clubs and add mini-windows to the season when a player can be recalled by the parent club from their loan spells. It would serve to boost competition on the road to the Majors and get players who are on the verge of figuring things out greater challenges along the way.

      Reply
  11. josiahdd

    5 years ago

    There’s no point. Games are postponed for a week at least if one player tests positive.

    1
    Reply

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