George Springer’s promotion to the big leagues unofficially sets in motion one of the most enjoyable times of year to be a baseball fan. In the course of the next couple of months, a steady stream of top prospects will now make their way to MLB.
It happens every year, and 2014 will not be an exception. Oscar Taveras of the St. Louis Cardinals, Gregory Polanco of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jon Singleton of the Astros and Archie Bradley of the Arizona Diamondbacks are among the triple-A players worth keeping an eye on, while Kyle Zimmer of the Kansas City Royals and Eddie Butler of the Colorado Rockies are among the double-A players poised to make an impact before long. There’s a lot of talent on the way.
So why did the Houston Astros wait this long to promote a potential star who hit 37 home runs in the minor leagues last year? It’s not as though their current lineup is so stacked that they can’t accommodate a power bat like Springer’s.
It comes down to two considerations. First, teams want to be sure their players have developed enough at the minor league level. There’s little point in calling a player up when his game still has holes.
Second, teams wait because there’s a major incentive to do so. A few weeks of patience now allows clubs to retain a player for seven seasons before he reaches free agency, rather than six. Players need 172 days of service time to get credit for a full year, and only 166 of the days on baseball’s 2014 calendar remain, including Wednesday. That means players promoted after this week can be retained through 2020, rather than 2019.
Teams publicly deny that service time is a major consideration, but it’s no coincidence that top prospects such as David Price and Bryce Harper routinely make their debuts after the first few weeks of April. Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement incentivizes teams to wait, and teams respond with patience.
(It’s worth noting that Springer can be called up a little earlier than some of his peers since he wasn’t on Houston’s 40-man roster and therefore wasn’t on a minor league option. Someone on the 40-man roster like teammate Jon Singleton must spend 20 days of the season in the minor leagues before teams can recall them free of worry. So for some of the prospects above, the wait won’t end for a few more days.)
Toronto Blue Jays prospects Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are both walking more than five batters per nine innings pitched at triple-A and double-A, respectively. Presumably the Blue Jays would like to see improved command from the young right-handers before promoting them. The question is likely secondary anyway, since Toronto’s five starters are healthy and J.A. Happ is on the roster as a reliever, ready to start should the team need an additional arm.
(Waiting until mid-season also makes sense for teams looking to save additional money, since players called up now project as super two players following the 2016 season and would go through the potentially lucrative arbitration process four times, rather than the usual three.)
Soon Springer will have some company. Teams around baseball will soon follow the Astros’ lead and promote the next crop of impact players. It’s a fun time of year to be a baseball fan.
