Yankees: Why MLB should expand rosters for the playoffs

Shortly, the Yankees will need to select their 25 best players to take with them for the playoffs. In this kind of competition when the best are playing the best, with a whole season on the line, teams should be afforded, extra players.

The Yankees will soon sit down to make some crucial decisions about the composition of the team they will take into the playoffs. By current rules, all teams are limited to a 25-man roster, the same as during the regular season, save for the September roster expansion.

During the off-season, MLB and the Player’s Association will engage in talks that will likely result in several changes to the number of players a team can carry.

In exchange for increasing the roster size from 25 to 26, a move the players are pushing for; the owners will insist that roster expansions in September be reduced to somewhere around 27 or 28 players.

It’s all about money, of course, because any player on a team’s active roster gets paid a prorated minimum salary of $455,000. Additionally, time spent goes towards the clock ticking down on the time for a player to become arbitration eligible, something the owners see with dollar signs.

When the changes come about for the 2018 season, baseball will be better for it. But in the meantime, there is a need to make it happen now and before the 2017 playoffs begin.

It’s something that is going to happen anyway, so why not now when there’s a chance to make this year’s playoffs even more exciting than they are destined to be.

Why, for example, should the Yankees be forced to not carry someone like Jaime Garcia with them. He won’t be needed as a starter since it is likely the Yankees will only need four, but he could be valuable to the team as a long reliever.

Or, as another example, should the Yankees be forced to choose between Aaron Hicks, Clint Frazier, and Jacoby Ellsbury, assuming all are healthy, as an extra outfielder, when having that additional bat available to Joe Girardi could turn a game around.

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Traditionally, the baseball playoffs are the time when fans like me and you are joined by hundreds of thousands of fans who turn their interest to baseball for the first time. Television ratings soar, and the advertising money pours in. Office pools get started, and the talk around the water cooler gets animated.

Doesn’t it stand to reason, then, that baseball would want to put its best foot forward to allow fans the opportunity to see the very best a team has to offer instead of a watered down roster that eliminates a few of these not so “fringe” players?

A deal has already been discussed informally, and the positions of the players and owners are well known. Three weeks is more than enough time to hammer out a pact before the playoffs begin.

During the offseason, the deal could be refined as needed. But for now, all that’s needed is the will to enhance the game in time for the 2017 playoffs. Just, do it!

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