Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have agreed to a 14-pitcher limit on active rosters between May 2 and May 29, the league announced this morning. As previously announced, the active rosters will still shrink from 28 players to 26 on May 2.
The league and union agreed to expand active rosters by a pair of players for the season’s first couple weeks this year. That was in response to the shortened Spring Training period that followed the lockout, with concerns that players did not have enough time to prepare for a typical regular season workload right out of the gate. That was particularly true of pitchers, who require a few weeks to gradually build their pitch counts.
Alongside the temporary roster expansion came a relaxation of the league’s 13-pitcher limit, which is being put into effect for the first time this year. Initially enacted over the 2019-20 offseason, that provision was suspended in each of the past two seasons as part of the COVID-19 health and safety protocols. It’ll make its debut in 2022, although the full extent now won’t come into play until Memorial Day.
Today’s announcement marks a small change to afford clubs a bit more freedom in managing their pitching staffs, although they’ll still have to make some cuts next Monday. Teams will need to reduce their roster by two players six days from now, and even the higher 14-pitcher threshold will force a change from the early-season status quo. The pitcher limit was scrapped…
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