PROPOSED RULE:
The expansion of rosters to 26 players, with a 12-pitcher maximum
Here’s another one that stinks of artificial manipulation. What’s the point in adding a roster spot if you’re limiting the number of pitchers a team can carry? Is baseball in dire need of having every team carry a five-man bench?
First off, limiting every team to 12 pitchers severely increases the chance of injury, which the players’ union ought to be fighting if the rule wasn’t paired with an increase in roster size that adds 30 major league jobs across the league. It’d make fringe pitchers drastically more important, just as it would for any pitchers still carrying minor league options (and we think MLB already has a problem undervaluing veterans).
The other part of this rule that should be scary is that star players, who fans are paying high prices to see live, will play less and less regularly. There used to be an honor attached to playing 162 games. Cal Ripken Jr. will be forever celebrated for doing just that. But with fiveman benches, managers will utilize depth to keep their regulars even more well-rested. Endurance and durability become less important.
As for the Brock Holts of the world? There’d no longer be much of a need. Player versatility, something the Red Sox value, is less important when there are more roster spots. And how hypocritical to want to eliminate specialization on the pitching side, but add it to the position player side. No thanks.