Report: MLB wants to crack down on teams manipulating the disabled list
Major League Baseball teams are always looking for ways around the rules. We wouldn’t necessarily call it cheating, but the phrase here might be “If you’re not manipulating the rules, you’re not trying.”
One area where that’s always been prominent is the disabled list. If a team’s in a roster crunch and the most obvious player to send down is one they don’t necessarily want to lose, but is out of options and would be exposed to the waiver process, then sometimes that player ends up heading to the disabled list with a vague injury. That effectively protects the team from losing the player and allows the player to continue collecting an MLB salary and service time.
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It’s usually pretty obvious when this rules is being stretched, but the league never seemed to pay attention. That could change now though. Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal reports that after a recent conversation with Red Sox manager John Farrell, it appears the league will focus on that specific aspect of the rules and is looking to crack down on teams deemed to be abusing them.
No official word has come down, but Red Sox manager John Farrell said his understanding is that Major League Baseball plans to crack down on the so-called “phantom DL” and require increased documentation for injuries requiring DL stints. That would make it more difficult for teams to manipulate roster rules by abusing the disabled list.
“With it just being 10 days, I think the DL will be scrutinized even greater to try to control that,” Farrell said. “I think there’s going to be doctor documentation required for every move that’s made to the DL. On the surface, it looks like it could be manipulated. But I think the backup evidence is going to be much more in-depth.”
Teams are typically very tight-lipped with injury information, particularly to the media. We’ve seen that secrecy spill over to trade negotiations too. San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller was suspended last season for not supplying the proper injury information during trade negotiations with Boston and Miami, so this might be an all-encompassing way to keep teams honest at the most basic level.
As Farrell also hinted, the disabled list changing to 10 days may have made it even more tempting to manipulate the system and bring up fresh players.
Details of the documentation MLB might require and how they plan to enforce the restrictions are not clear. Maybe we’ll know more before the season starts, or maybe we’ll find if and when MLB determines teams are still pushing the limit. Either way, if there’s any truth to this at all, we’ll notice a steep decline in fifth starters and last men on the bench hitting the DL with tweaked muscles or general soreness.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
