We knew the season would start with a 30-man roster and it made sense. These are unprecedented times so this is how we start to adapt. It made sense to do....and it still does. But will MLB continue with the 30-man roster? Rob Manfred is calling this a "fluid" situation so we will wait and see. The original plan was for teams to reduce to a 28-man roster on Thursday, read more HERE. Cutting two more roster spots wouldn't be a big deal any other season.
But welcome to 2020 where COVID-19 has changed everything. We are almost two weeks into a pandemic-shortened 60-game season and COVID-19 has forced 17 postponements in 10 days. The Miami Marlins had 18 positive tests in their organization and now MLB is closely monitoring the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. We knew this was going to be a challenge. We knew there would be positive tests.
But welcome to 2020 where COVID-19 has changed everything. We are almost two weeks into a pandemic-shortened 60-game season and COVID-19 has forced 17 postponements in 10 days. The Miami Marlins had 18 positive tests in their organization and now MLB is closely monitoring the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. We knew this was going to be a challenge. We knew there would be positive tests.
So why are we making this more complicated? COVID-19 isn't going anywhere and there are bound to be more team outbreaks. As a result, there will be numerous forced doubleheaders that just won't be avoidable which means more fatigue and injury risk also. The padded rosters will make it easier to keep players rested and being rested is more important now than ever. The more rest these guys get the best chance they have of avoiding game injuries as well as fighting off this virus if they do get it. Didn't Rob Manfred say that health of these players is their top priority?
He DID. So why are we even considering this? Manfred believes we can have a credible season and still get through the postseason, but the credibility is already in question. The Marlins have 18 players that have been infected, that's a lot. No one expected the Marlins to compete for an NL East title this season, all of baseball knows that. But the Marlins still want to put as competitive team on the field as possible. They are already missing a lot of their most important players, so fielding any sort of representative team becomes even harder if baseball takes away two more options from them.
Manfred is right about one thing, it is not realistic to think that there will be no more positive cases. So as we have already seen the beginning of this short season impacted there's no reason to think schedules wont be affected even more.
The idea of a roster reduction at this point would be careless. Manfred enforced this 60-game shortened season so now he needs to own it. He needs to do the right thing and take off some of this roster size pressure. It's absurd and irresponsible.
It's time that we see some real leadership within the game. The rosters need to stay at 30, there's no logical reason to reduce them. I really hope MLB does the right thing here.
It's time that we see some real leadership within the game. The rosters need to stay at 30, there's no logical reason to reduce them. I really hope MLB does the right thing here.
Yes, no roster reduction. Can't imagine Manfred will do that.
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