Baseball Rosters Go Back to 27 Players for Three Weeks

Baseball teams and players reversed course again Monday 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.

“This is going to take a big load off, not just the pitchers, but the whole team. I’m extremely happy,” Dodger reliever Jim Gott said.

Said Boston Manager Joe Morgan: “I think we should have left it at 27 in the first place. It’s going to help the nameless three.”

Michael Weiner, an attorney for the union, said the outline for the agreement was made over the weekend in telephone conversations between union executive director 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.

Said Fehr: “Just look at it as the aftermath of a long negotiation. Thankfully it was straightened out reasonably quickly.”

“This is the best way to do it,” Dodger infielder Mickey Hatcher said. “We were looking at a situation where the risk of injury would be very serious. This takes a lot of the pressure off. We can save a lot of wear and tear on the pitching staff.”

Teams will designate up to three additional players to management’s Player Relations Committee, which will inform the union of the names. The identity 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 Monday’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 sent to the minors outright.

“If this is the first outright, it still counts as the first outright,” Weiner said. “The theory is that extra players designated as additional players should be no better or worse off than they would have been at the end of spring training, except for the obvious fact that they’re going to be better off in that they’re going to get major league service and major league salary for this expansion period.”

Fehr was disappointed the proposed change about innings for starting pitchers was dropped.

“That’s too bad,” he said. “It was meant to keep pitchers from trying too hard early in the season to go any kind of distance.”

Oakland general manager Sandy Alderson wasn’t surprised.

“We’ve kind of anticipated it for a week or so,” Alderson said. “The clubs were for it. The player agents were for it. There didn’t seem to be any reason the PRC and the players’ association ought to be against it.”