For those who are among the nerdiest of baseball nerds, the expansion of the rosters on September 1 is among the banner events on the annual calendar.
You could dismiss this as loser talk if you want. If you’re coldly focused on the bottom line of each season’s ultimate goal and less interested in the journey, then the opportunity to get a look at unproven youngsters is probably a triviality and a distraction.
But if you can enjoy the process and relish the incremental moments that make up a year in the life of a baseball team, then having the opportunity to see a few of your team’s most promising future stars making their big league debuts can be fun and memorable. It’s certainly one of my favourite times of the year.
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I remember quite fondly the September 1993 call up of Huck Flener, who in addition to having one of the great baseball names ever looked quite good through the first four of his six outings that fall. He stands out in retrospect, though oddly the presence of a couple of kids named Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green barely registered that year.
If you are predisposed to love this particular set of annual transactions, then this season might be the most impressive bounty of additions in memory. With 35 gentlemen currently on the active roster, the Jays’ have actually managed to supersede the size of the All-Star Game rosters by one.
This isn’t just an expanded roster. It’s an expansive roster.
There have been moments in recent years where fans would have welcomed the addition of eight-to-ten players on the September rosters if only because it would have given us the chance to see a young player in uniform. Last year, some fans were disappointed down the stretch by the absence of Marcus Stroman and A.J. Jimenez, the latter of whom somehow managed to find himself on the outside looking in again.
In general, there’s a good and rational argument from the point of view of the management of a baseball club for not larding up the roster with excess bodies just for the sake of novelty. There’s a rhythm to the baseball season, and preserving players’ regular roles with some modest supplemental help is likely the best approach to keep your team happy and productive. So as much as it can be a bummer to hear that Goldie McPhenom is going to be shut down for the year or head to Arizona for the annual fall league, you can understand the thought process.
This season is different, though, and from a competitive point of view, it actually makes a great deal of sense for the Toronto Blue Jays to carry 34 guys – now that Chad Jenkins’ freak injury has him sidelined – for the remainder of the season.
It’s pretty much universally agreed that one of the Jays’ primary weaknesses this year has been a lack of depth. Or to be more specific, a lack of Major League talent amongst the bench players or replacement players shipped in from Buffalo to fill a spot.
It’s like the old joke about the restaurant with bad food but generous portions: If you’re lacking quality in your depth, it probably doesn’t hurt to make up for it in quantity.
Having the extra bodies on the bench was a key to last night’s game, as John Gibbons was able to send lefty-masher John Mayberry Jr. to the plate, then swap him out with Colby Rasmus once Rays skipper Joe Maddon’s hand was forced. One go-ahead homer later, and you’re left thinking “Dang, that’s a nice piece of managing, and as fun as baseball gets.”
If nothing else, it’s certainly a far cry from the days of the three-man bench where two guys were probably unavailable.
As the Blue Jays scuffled through August, their roster was filled with platoon players around whom Gibbons would often need manage. Moreover, the bullpen looked ragged and torn by multiple long outings and extra-inning marathons, with few dependable options in high-leverage situations.
If the added depth this year is not of all-star calibre or possibly not even above replacement level, the options that are provided to Gibbons to maximize value out of this roster in a valiant effort at making something meaningful out of this September are welcome.
