Major League Baseball’s wild-card game is in its fifth year, and it doesn’t sound as if it’s going away. Speaking to reporters before Tuesday’s single-elimination matchup between Toronto and Baltimore, commissioner Rob Manfred expressed support for the format. “In terms of the games themselves, I understand that baseball doesn’t usually have one-game knockouts, but I do believe these two games get our playoff season off to a really exciting start,” said Manfred. “I’ve gone to the wild card games, each of them, the last two seasons. The atmospheres in the ballparks are phenomenal, and I think it gives a great jump start to our playoff season.”
Manfred also touched on several other pertinent topics as the league and the players’ association continue working toward a new collective bargaining agreement. Here’s a roundup (courtesy of the Associated Press and Jim Caple of ESPN.com):
- For the first five months of the regular season, all major league teams play with a 25-man active roster. When Sept. 1 rolls around, that number increases to 40. September doesn’t quite resemble the rest of the regular season as a result, and Manfred isn’t a fan. “I don’t think 18 pitchers in a game is a good thing,” Manfred said of the increase in pitching changes that September brings. “I do believe in a reform of those rules, again protecting the benefits that are available to players, I’m not looking to take away service time or anything like that, but I do think it would make sense to get to a situation where we played out September games closer to the rules that we play with the rest of the year.”
- Home runs have skyrocketed across the majors in recent seasons, leading to questions about whether the ball is juiced. Manfred shot down that idea, saying, “We are absolutely convinced this issue is not driven by a difference in the baseball. My own view is the spike is related to the way the game is being played now, the way we are training hitters from a very young age. We have not been able to find any external cause that explains the spike in home runs.” Whatever the reason, batters hit nearly 1,500 more HRs this season than they did in 2014 (5,610 to 4,186), while the league’s homer-to-fly ball rate was at 9.5 percent two years ago compared to 12.8 percent in 2016.
- In terms of putting together a schedule, 32 teams would be better than the current total of 30, according to Manfred. However, he’s not on board with expansion until the stadium situations with the Athletics and Rays are figured out.
- Manfred left open the possibility of eventually introducing an award to honor former Marlins ace Jose Fernandez, who died in a boating accident Sept. 25. “I understand there’s some strong feelings on this topic,” Manfred stated. “It’s not the right time of year to be thinking about additional awards. But it’s an issue we’ll talk about during the offseason. Obviously, we recognize the significance of Jose in terms of his importance to the Marlins franchise, and the fact that he was symbolic of the next generation of players.”
- MLB has come out in support of the Save America’s Pastime Act, a piece of legislation that limits the pay and benefits of minor league players. When Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star (Twitter link) pressed Manfred on that Tuesday, the commissioner commented, “We’re not opposed to paying minor league players any particular wage. What we are opposed to is the imposition of administrative requirements in terms of keeping track of hours and overtime.” Manfred also referred to those requirements as “impractical” and wondered aloud whether extra batting practice or going to the gym would qualify as overtime. “For us it’s really not about the money so much as the burden that would be imposed,” he added.
I still think MLB could limit pitching changes simply by making a rule that managers have to submit a bullpen card along with a lineup card prior to each game in September. The BP card would be limited to 7 relievers(Closer, 2 setup, 3 middle and 1 long). It allows teams to still carry 40 players while limiting the amount of pitching changes. In case of extra innings, the BP card expands to accommodate.
Keeping rosters at 40 in September seems to be optimal as it allows non-contenders a chance to see how rookies do while it also allows contenders to rest players late in the season which in turn gives us the best post-season experience possible.
Thats a great idea!
A “daily roster” proposal like Doc’s could keep the 40-man roster with a 25-man active roster designated before each game, which by allowing de-activation of the four SP not pitching that day would afford managers significant flexibility.
I don’t like the early-season expanded rosters some others have suggested below, though. More time means fewer tough decisions and potentially less waiver wire activity and late off-season player movement.
Perfect
As for reducing pitching changes, I’d like to see a new rule requiring every reliever to either complete each inning that he enters or begins or pitch to at least three batters before being replaced (with no “batter faced” awarded for issuing an intentional walk).
Any pitcher who can’t face at least three batters per game without repeatedly jeopardizing his team’s chances of winning every doesn’t belong in the majors.
Potential benefits include fewer game-slowing pitching changes and one-batter relief “specialists” and more offense spurred without significant rule changes.
I support this idea.. Kids still get to come up and get experience of not just playing ,but being in a MLB clubhouse/bullpen; bullpens arms aren’t over taxed by extra inning games and they can rotate on/off days, but there are still no dumb “3 batter minimum” rules
So what does he want to do about September call ups compared to the regular season? I don’t get it. How about expanding the main rosters.
I agree totally. Expanding the MLB rosters by a couple of players would be a great idea. Particularly for NL teams that need to perform double switches burn a lot more players.
I’m for 27 players on the ’25 man roster’ (as it is now). Two players are on “rest” everyday. And I’ve concocted a way to keep it from being two SPs all the time.
Roster expansion to somewhere between 26 to 28 has been brought up a few times in the past and with the new CBA coming up I’m a little surprised it isn’t being brought up again.
The bottom line is this. Minor League players get paid a pittance for what is in effect more than a full time job. This whole issue goes away if teams just put up more money to minor leaguers. The concept that it will put minor league teams into bankruptcy is a load of BS. Until a Minor League team shows me their balance sheets, I don’t believe it will cause hardship and even in the likely event it did, MLB teams could all kick in extra to their farm systems.
If Manfred doesn’t address this in a meaningful way, it will eventually cause labor disputes in the minors and that doesn’t help any of us fans.
it is the major league teams that pay for minor leaguers’ salaries.
Hall of famer Ozzie smith worked in the San Diego’s Padres owners’ garden in the offseason because of the low pay he was getting playing MLB baseball.
Minor league baseball players have a choice. They should leave if they know there is little chance of making it to the show. If they don’t know what they are getting into, then that is on them. If they leave in droves there will be no choice but to pay them better or organizations risk losing the team?
If the Minors League players can’t live off what they get oh well thats on them its a sport they can go find a real job & suck it up like the rest of us!
Pretty sure plenty of minor leaguers do get jobs in the off season – and think about this… it’s pretty damn hard to get a well paying job if the employer knows you’ll be gone 9 months out of the year.
That being said – what is the minimum signing bonus a player sees after being drafted? Does that chunk of money get amounted for when discussing player wages?
I bet the binus doesn’t but if they want a wage its going to backfire on the ones that get these big signing bonus! This topic wont get very much more movement if the bonus gets brought up like you did! If the minor league players end up getting something more it could cause teams to cut bonus pay and sign less player for the minors and draft less! Could lead to less draft rounds and international signings as well! This could be a big problem for baseball as a business & sport!
After the top dozen or so rounds signing bonuses drop quite a bit. Later rounds some bonuses are just a few thousand dollars, and of course those bonuses are taxed and agents take a cut too.
This argument isn’t about elite prospects and high draft picks. This is about the scrubs; the guys who have trained their whole lives to do a job and are now barely able to make ends meet while doing it. Baseball is making money hand over fist. Just this season the Padres ate 55 million dollars to make Matt Kemp and James Shields go away. Teams can afford to provide their minor leaguers with a living wage.
Its about all the player not just the scrubs, still shouldn’t happen! Only thing the teams should do is give an allowance for rent up to a certain amount and food allowance but thats it!
Room and board up to a certain amount? And “that’s it!” You ever read the 13th Amendment?
Like company scrip? Minor leaguers get a food per diem, something like 20 bucks a day, but as has been widely reported, players who struggle to get by financially pocket that money instead of spending it on food, which leads to a negative externality; i.e., poor nutrition, as players wait for the minor league clubhouse spread, which is usually food of dubious nutritional quality – mostly low-end cold cuts, cheap bread and the kind of sad looking vegetables you see in a supermarket deli “veggie platter.” Obviously poor nutrition can lead to poor outcomes on the field for a professional athlete.
I’m not quite sure why this rankles you so much; it’s not your money.
But here’s an example. Lets say you are really good with computers. You go to college, maybe grad school, spend a ton of money on education and 6-8 years of your life learning technology. You graduate at the top of your fielld, but when you get done with school there’s only one company hiring – and they offer you like 9 bucks an hour and tell you, hey, you can always get a part-time job at the 7-11 at night.
That’s the situatioin most minor leaguers are in. They sacrificed most of their lives to get good at the game – baseball isn’t cheap, with equpent and the exorbitant costs involved with the travel teams most serious ballplayers end up on as teenagers. They’ve been playing the game 15 years by the time they’re drafted and signed by the only company in town – one whose profits are through the roof. They should make a living doing the thing they’ve trained to do all their lives. That’s simply common human decency.
Several +1 for this.
You’re forgetting that Major League Baseball is a business like all other business. Teams aren’t just trying to be able to make ends meet, they want to make a significant amount of money in profit. A business will not invest in added expenses if these expenses aren’t conducive to profit. How does paying minor leaguers more enable profit? Hint, it doesn’t.
Bottom-line, the fact that you have pursued something for your entire life does not entitle you to anything. Workers are not paid on what it deemed ethically right by society. They are paid by the value of their labor to the company, or in this case, their talent.
“Common human decency” is an extremely subjective term, especially in the business world. If all companies operated based on “common human decency,” everyone would have a job, and we would all hold hands and sing kumbayah in front of our mansions.
The world doesn’t work that way, and neither does Major League Baseball.
Which round? Third day guys often get less than $10,000.
Players get $25-$30 food per diem per day but are also fed before the game and after and not the “dubious nutritional qualities” type of food as you call it. If either team rolled into the stadium with only that type of food both clubbies heads would roll. Players run the roost in clubhouses.
Don’t act like these players are the same as every other person in the world. Most of these guys are coming from situations where they owe very little to nothing in college debt, are provided food and places to live at little to no expense for them for 9-10 months a year and if they choose to play/are assigned to a winter and/or fall league, they continue to make money while being provided for. Do they make less then people should, sure. But I’d be far more concerned about the people who make just as little as them and don’t have all the added benefits of being an MiLB player.
You act like people who are good at something should be immediately given gobs of money. I hate to break it to you but the vast majority of people have to shovel sh–, make squat, and work for whoever will hire them before they reap the rewards of the hard work.
10k, and some players in the first 10 rounds only got that amount (see Yankees and college seniors). That is because teams have to overpay certain high school players that they really want, less they go to a college program.
Ditto
Probably “common human decency” was too vague, sure. These players provide massive surplus value to their organization and have no way to negotiate better contracts for themselves. Maybe this isn’t a baseball question but a philosophical one: at what point does profit motive take a backseat to ethics?
Nobody ever bought a ticket to a baseball game to see the owner sit in his suite. Likewise, no owner ever had to rehab from Tommy John surgery or take a fastball off his chin. The players take massive risks and it only seems right that they get paid enough to make a living; at least enough that they don’t have to pocket their meal money to pay the rent. .
It is their choice to take these risks, and it is their prerogative to take the salary they’re given or otherwise. The average minor league salary earns a player above the poverty line.
Honus Wagner played baseball for peanuts and never complained.
Agreed. There are approximately 200 players in each minor league system. Giving them all an extra $20,000 would only cost $4,000,000. That’s nothing in relation to their budget.
Right because Minor league player have to pay rent, and come out of pocket of l;limited funds while playing the schedule as majors and not having the. Plus Its not up to them on whether they can or cant make it, that’s on the team who has so much control over minor league players and when they get called up. They have 3 full years of getting paid next to nothing before they attempt to get anything in return
The jealousy streams out of you like fumes from an untreated sewer. Why do you hate players so much? Every one of your comments seems to demand punishment of them.
That’s just simplistric. So basically you’ll find a situation where only the trust fund babies get to play baseball and people of lower incomes end up leaving to pursue “real jobs like the rest of us”.
You know what that means? Less talented players playing ball, maybe moving to other sports or yeah… just doing a regular job.
What that means to you? Because clearly all you care about is yourself… is less talented players in baseball and therefore worse entertainment. I don’t want to see a bunch of frat boys who’s mommy and daddies can afford to pay for their apartments, cars and pursuing their dreams.
That’s just a selfish and entitled attitude. Why shouldn’t people get paid a living wage?
30 men major league squads if man-f is taking away september call-ups.
and regarding minor league compensation, building or procuring dorms for players and providing meals would go looooooooong way to help players live in humane conditions.
Manfred, please recall the ridiculous rule that awards home field advantage in the WS for the league winning the all-star game.
I understand why it was put in place originally. Wait a minute, I take that back, I don’t understand why this was ever considered? If anyone took the All-star game seriously then maybe it would be fair.
Ya the home field advantage thing is a joke, but at the very least, they need to get rid of the fan voting if homefield remains a thing. You can’t have guys like alcides Escobar or Omar infante playing a role in who has an advantage
Im with you the home field is a joke and I hate fan voting it has ruined the game as well
STRONG AGREE!!!!
You can either make it count OR have fan voting, not both – unless you let managers pick the team and give the fans the last player vote, let them vote 1 player in.
I agree. I also thought this Allstar game was supposed to rotate between a NL and a AL park each year. from 2015-2018, they are all NL parks. What gives?
Agreed. That was an overreaction to the tie All-Star game when both teams ran out of pitchers in like the 11th inning. If you’re going to make the ASG count for “home field” in the WS then you need to eliminate the rule that each team must be represented by a player in the game, eliminate fan voting and allow the managers to simply pick the best 25 players from their league to play, and treat it as a real game. As it is set up now it’s an exhibition – no pitcher ever goes more than 2 innings, almost no player gets more than 2 ABs, and in the end you’re watching some barely-decent scrub from a bad team pinch-hitting against Andrew Miller or something. The way the game is set up hamstrings a manager’s ability to manage towards a win.
Obviously MLB isn’t going to do away with fan voting or the one-player-per-team requirement, so the only other option is to get rid of the silly “home-field-advantage” rule.
Overreaction to this and no reaction to steroids and the hall of fame.
Thanks, Bud!
How about April call ups to give teams longer looks than just spring training. Then there can be the dog days after that
My only concern if rosters are expanded too far, say 30 players, that it would take away the importance of starting pitchers. Teams might move to 3 or 4 man rotations and play bullpen games the 4th and 5th time through. Some might see the positives in that because who wants to see Nolasco get lit up ever fifth day but it changes the game too much in my opinion. In the end, the game may end up that way at some point to reduce pitching injuries.
Just make a rule that all relief pitchers have to pitch to at least 3 hitters and that ends that problem. No one is going to miss the LOOGY.
Thats Stupid!
What are your objections to three-batter minimums?
The mighty MLB needing special interest legislation from Congress to keep from having to pay minor leaguers the minimum wage? “For us it’s really not about the money so much as the burden that would be imposed,”
Of course. Money has nothing to do with.
There lucky enough to be playing a game for a living, if this gets passed it will ruin baseball! Less players drafted, less players signed internationally! also read above most of these players get big a** bonus for signing and the bonus would stop as well if you have your way! Get a real job if you don’t like it!
Man you are wrong. If you worked your whole life and finally got a job and yours bosses bosses who were making more money than anytime in the history of your company all got together and agreed to a law that allowed them to pay you LESS THAN the required minimum federal wage would you just throw your hands up and say “shucks, I guess Ill go stop persuing my dream?”
These minor leaguers work their behinds off at minimum deserve to be compensated to the federal minimums that are afforded to other industries. Please show some empathy.
BS
Good counterpoint
That’s nonsense. The overwhelming majority of minor league players do not sign for big-dollar bonuses–that’s reserved for on;y the top tier. And, MLB acts in concert with the NCAA to force kids to make a choice before they should have to–in what other industry would you be required to give up a college eligibility just because you discussed employment with a private employer?
Let’s not forget something–nobody goes out to the park to watch a bunch of lawyers in suits argue over the application of Federal labor laws. They go to see talent–the talent that minor leaguers show glimpses of.
Idea 1: Expanding active rosters to maybe 27 or 28 with a limit on who can actually be active in a particular game on a particular day. So you scratch a couple guys (yesterday’s starter, a third catcher, someone who is “day-to-day” but not DL’ed) and when you turn in your lineup card it’s locked in for the day.
Idea 2: Instead of rosters expanding on Sep 1, rosters shrink to 25 on May 1. So instead of F-ing up pennant races, teams have some time after spring training and before May 1 to sort out positional battles and see which marginal players are going to stick. It would be a big waiver wire extravaganza.
I think expanding regular season rosters to between 26-28 would be a huge benefit to teams, instead of them wearing out their relief pitchers and then losing them to TJ surgery. Then, rosters could expand to 36-38 on 9/1 with the managers pre-selecting (the 30-34 players) who will be playing that day prior to the game. In case of extra innings, the manager can select 2 additional relief pitchers as soon as the game goes extras. In terms of minor league pay – 95% of the players are making next to nothing – most save half of their per diem/meal money; as do many of the coaches. Minor league pay could be raised 20% per month, per player and the owners won’t suffer.
So there’s more HR because the quality of pitching at the lower end is very bad, but he doesn’t want more of those pitchers to get more in-game experience in September so they won’t be as bad? Only a quarter of the league are contenders in September, the rest are bringing up young players to get experience – taking that away because you don’t like the 1 in 10 games that use a ton of players is flat out dumb.
Only a quarter of the league is contention in September? 8 out of 30 teams (27%) actually make the playoffs. On Sept 1 of this year, 15 of the 30 teams were within very realistic (less than 4 game) striking distance of their division or WC.
As for the Wild Card, I say keep the one-game playoff but re-balance each team’s schedule to de-emphasize in-division play.
Weighted schedules made sense when only Division winners advanced, but with two Wild Card teams making the postseason on win totals alone I think it’s time each team’s schedule is as much like the schedules of every other team in its league as possible.
It’s just that it’s a bear to set up two 15-team leagues in 5-team divisions with interleague play WITHOUT an unbalanced schedule, and actually have a schedule that’s fair and makes sense. The schedule is WAY more fair and competitive than it used to be before they flipped the Astros… but they’re kind of stuck with this formula until they add or subtract two teams.
It was easy with the good ole 8-team leagues and no interleague play. Everyone played the same schedule by the end of the year and the schedule was neutral. Two 15-team leagues is mathematically really complicated.
Yes, I agree JD396. I can’t remember whose column it was but read about how the relative ease of “re-balancing” with either 28 or 32 teams versus the near impossibility of doing it with the current 30.
And I believe that writer’s math favored 32 teams and a 154-game schedule, which I prefer to the current 162-game schedule as well.
I’m willing to wait for expansion if that’s what it takes, even though MLB pitching could be spread even more thin by the addition of two teams.
Please leave baseball alone. No more frivolous rules. Keep adding all these rules that cater to non-baseball fans and you’re going to end up like the NFL. Saturated with nonsense rules