Miami Marlins: Don Mattingly is right on September rosters
The Miami Marlins manager could have been seen as attacking the conditions of his own game on Saturday evening, but he has a very good point on the condition of September rosters
When the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies executed one of the most unique games in recent memory on Saturday night, manager Don Mattingly spoke out publicly against the system, and he even made a suggestion that would seem to work for all sides.
The Marlins and Phillies played to a 5-4 victory where not one pitcher for either side pitched more than 2 innings, and not a single pitcher batted, both statistical oddities, per Elias Sports Bureau.
After the game, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly suggested that September roster rules that allow 40 players to be utilized AND active for every game was the culprit, and he couldn’t even blame a manager, especially one in contention, for taking advantage of the rules. It’s just that those rules are altered for just one month of the season, and oddly, the final month of the season when teams are chasing playoff dreams and should be preparing for October or the offseason, not re-learning how the game is played.
Mattingly’s suggestion is not a new one. In searching, I found articles dating back at least a decade suggesting the same thing. However, he may now be the most prominent person in the game to have publicly endorsed the idea.
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The Miami Marlins, like every other team in baseball, functions for the first five months of the season under rules that there are 25 men available each game and bullpen and bench strategy is based around those 25 players.
In September, however, teams are allowed to carry 40, and on top of that, they are allowed to utilize all 40 players every single day, often leading to pitching and bench moves that would not be seen in the regular season. This has already led to another oddity this season as the Angels utilized 8 pitchers to hurl a shutout, and nearly pitched a perfect inning without a single pitcher even completing two full innings of work.
Designating 25 players each game during September as a team’s “active” roster for that game, akin to what the NFL does before each Sunday, would be a more-than-reasonable compromise. That would keep all 40 players still technically active and accruing service time, yet only 25 available to aid in keeping the game on the field resembling the one we all know and love.
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It’s been a tough season for Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly, but on this one, he’s got the right idea, and it’d benefit not just his team, but the entire game.