Yankees: The owners and players are in line to make a big trade

The Yankees were undermanned last night when their third baseman came up with back spasms. And although the Yankees threw one away to the Angels, it was not due to a lack of communication between their pitcher and catcher. An agreement between owners and players will address both issues.

When Yankees third baseman, Chase Headley, informed Joe Girardi that he was experiencing back spasms before last night’s game with the Angels, Girardi had no other choice but to remake his lineup inserting reserve infielder, Ronald Torreyes, in Headley’s spot.

These circumstances are not unusual, and there are some who say they happen all too often in major league baseball.

The contest last night was also punctuated by a series of visits to the mound by Yankees catcher, Gary Sanchez, and Angels backstop, Martin Maldonado. I didn’t count the exact number, but let’s say that the visits were noticeable.

The owners and players are working on a fix for both issues that we could see as early as the 2018 season.

The fixes will come in the form of a trade

The owners, and more specifically, Commissioner Rob Manfred, want speedier games. Almost to the point of obsession, Manfred claims that fans are being driven away by three-hour games, even though a typical NFL game is the same length and it takes 30 minutes to play the last two minutes of an NBA contest.

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Nevertheless, Manfred will win this battle and next season it appears likely that the players will agree to a 20-second clock that counts down the time between pitches delivered to the plate. The idea was tested in the Arizona Fall League this past winter and there doesn’t seem to be significant opposition to at least giving a try.

In return for that, the players are insisting that a 26th man is added to each team’s roster. In a word, these means jobs for thirty men in the big leagues. For the owners, though, it means, in one word, money. A half-million dollars plus benefits for each player added.

The 26th man

It’s questionable whether or not a 26th man would have helped the Yankees last night. And that’s because, in all likelihood, the Yankees will carry an extra pitcher when the rule is adopted as opposed to a position player.

And with the changes in the game of baseball that accent a reliance on the bullpen, it’s likely that most teams will follow the Yankees.

Which, in effect, paves the way for more additions to the roster in the future, adding a 27th or even a 28th player to accommodate a manager’s need for flexibility in today’s game.

One idea that I find particularly interesting is to have a 28-man roster with no call-ups in September. The expansion of rosters to 40 players does not result in an even playing field for the simple reason that it’s prejudicial against teams that can’t afford to carry those many players, while paying them a pro-rated major league minimum salary.

If the players can prove to the owners that the money involved for 28 players over the course of a full season is a wash when compared to paying an additional fifteen players for one month in September, the idea could easily take hold.

Mound visits and a clock

Baseball is, I believe, the only sport not governed by the clock. In theory, a ballgame could last forever. Baseball is, in fact, our National Pastime. We pass the time of day with baseball on the back porch or in the bleachers and few seem to care and the line in Jack Norwith’s “Take me out to the ballgame”, “I don’t care if I ever get back” takes on special meaning to most fans of baseball.

Nevertheless, we live in a time when people are multitasking on multi forms of technology, and for many, there are only so many hours in a day. Or at least, that’s what we are led to believe.

For the Yankees, having a twenty-second clock between pitches would not seem to be a problem given the staff’s current makeup. Both Michael Pineda and Luis Severino now take the ball from the catcher standing on the mound and are already looking in for the sign to deliver the next pitch.

But in last night’s YES Network telecast, the question of mound visits came up, and Mickael Kay lobbed the question to Al Leiter, who was quick on the draw with a terse answer, “I didn’t like them.”

Look what happens when a catcher sneaks up on a pitcher for a pitcher (funny):

In typical fashion, though, the former Yankees pitcher, who had a territorial view of the pitcher’s mound in the first place, went on to explain: (paraphrasing)

“Look, we go over these guys before the game and we decide that we’re going to get a certain hitter out with a down and in slider. What’s changed between then and now? Just put the sign down and let me throw my pitch.”

And just as typical, Kay came back with, “Well, if they’re allowed to do it, why not?” Which also makes sense since there is no rule that states an umpire must grant time to a catcher for a mound visit.

And the real kicker last night was that on a couple of occasions, neither Sanchez or Maldonado appeared to ask for time, taking it upon themselves to trot out to the mound, leaving the umpire with no choice but to follow them out there to keep the game moving.

Let’s get it done

Rob Manfred has the power and the full support of the owners and, therefore, he’s an unstoppable force. And there will be more changes on the way regarding the pace of play once he gets the clock through.

From where the players sit, their primary concern has to be with the paychecks they bring home, just like any other working person.

And a scenario is foreseeable where the players keep upping the ante by one additional man on the roster for every time they accede to Manfred on his obsession with a pace of play change in the rules.

Major League Baseball, however, is barking up the wrong tree when it comes to pace of play. The real culprit is the commercial breaks between every half inning. Do the math. A two-minute break to sell Budweiser, two times an inning, times nine innings equals thirty-six “no action” minutes in each game.

But then again, who am I to think these greedy bastards will ever do anything about that?

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