It’s on Again: 27-Man Rosters Open Season

Baseball teams and players reversed course again today and decided to expand rosters to 27 players for the first three weeks of the season.

The sides reached a verbal agreement to expand rosters on March 19, the day they agreed to a new four-year labor contract. But the roster deal collapsed last week when they couldn’t agree on how it would affect outright assignments.

Teams will have to reduce to the normal minimum of 24 players and maximum of 25 on May 1. A proposed change that would have lowered the five-inning requirement for starters to get a victory was dropped.

Michael Weiner, a lawyer for the union, said the outline for the agreement was made over the weekend in telephone conversations between union head Donald Fehr and Deputy Commissioner Stephen Greenberg.

“Don Fehr and I are pleased that both sides could reach an agreement on an issue of such significance to the players, managers and fans,” Chuck O’Connor, the owners’ chief negotiator, said in a statement.

Teams will designate up to three additional players to management’s Player Relations Committee, which will inform the union of the names. The identities of those players will not be made known to players, agents or other teams.

Normally, players sent outright to the minors for a second time, or players with more than three years of major league service sent outright for the first time, can elect to become free agents.

Under today’s agreement, the union will allow teams to request advance waivers through Sunday and ask additional players to agree to waive their right to free agency if they are sent to the minors outright.

“If this is the first outright, it still counts as the first outright,” Weiner said.