The Marlins announced they’ve designated reliever Shawn Armstrong for assignment. Miami also optioned bullpen arm Zach Pop to Triple-A Jacksonville. The moves satisfy the requirement to cut active rosters from 28 to 26, and Armstrong’s designation brings Miami’s 40-man roster total to 39.
A designation was the only way to remove Armstrong from the big league roster. Like many of the players who have lost their 40-man spots in recent days, he is out of minor league option years. Once the Fish determined that Armstrong wasn’t going to stick in the majors, they had no choice but to risk losing him on waivers.
Armstrong made seven appearances during the season’s first month. He served up ten runs (eight of them earned) in 6 2/3 innings, striking out five while issuing three walks. The 31-year-old had a longer run in the majors last year, tallying 36 frames of 6.75 ERA ball between the Orioles and Rays. Outrighted by Tampa Bay at the end of the season, he hooked on with Miami via minor league deal in Spring Training and cracked the Opening Day roster.
While Armstrong hasn’t gotten great results at the MLB level over the past couple seasons, he posted excellent numbers in Triple-A last year. The righty has also averaged a personal-high 94.9 MPH on his fastball thus far in 2022. If another team doesn’t take a shot on Armstrong via waivers in the coming days, he’d have the right to refuse a minor league assignment by virtue of his previous career outrights.
Example of why both the 26 man MLB Roster and the Team 40 man roster are antiquated and obsolete for today’s game.
52 man rosters like the NFL?
It is only antiquated because on the position player side players don’t want to play everyday anymore and injuries are much more prevalent in todays game with supposed better conditioning. On the pitching side everything is about max effort and innings limits and constantly trying to shuttle pitchers back and forth for “fresh arms”.
I didn’t propose any specific adjustments to roster sizes, only provided an observation that with all the shuttling of players back and forth as well as the frequency of DFA’s, both of these arbitrary roster limits are well past their time as being realistic for today’s game.. Isn’t it high time that the MLB Owners and MLBPA pulled their collective heads out of the sand and took action??
The Roster system gives fringe players a better chance of playing. It also ensures a distribution of players.
As for players being optioned several times a season, that’s because Front offices have an unsustainable approach to the game. Everything is about max effort. At least with the to-ing and fro-ing there is some effort to reduce injury..
It seems to me a major problem is player conditioning for the immediate explosive performance with a lack of consideration for the length of the season
Ugh I really want Pop to work out…but he always has a moment where he has a terrible game and they sit him for a bunch of games. Meanwhile other relievers can get hit 4 games in a row and keep getting put out there. When Pop is on he looks really nasty. He wasnt the one who gave his sinker the nickname “the sinker From Hell” so I hope wherever he ends up some team learns to get the best out of him (because it seems it’s not the Marlins)
I see some potential upside in Pop. but we do see that the leash on him is shorter than others for some reason.
Jah, nows a time to Hop on Pop
He was selected in the rule 5 draft before he was ready. If he would have been ready the Orioles would not have exposed him to the draft. Marlins satisfied the requirement to keep him all season and now own his rights allowing them to send him down and finish his development. He will be a quality major league reliever.
Armstrong on the roster was always a bit of a stretch…
The poor get poorer-er.