MLB: Legend calls for adjustment of the squad sizes

Don Mattingly demands a limitation of the squad in September. The manager of the Miami Marlins denounces that the “game we play for five months is not the same as the one we play in September”.

It has long been customary for active squads to be increased from 25 to 40 in September to give talents the chance to get a whiff of Major League air. But according to Mattingly, this would change the “fundamental nature” of the game, as he told reporters.

“Donnie Baseball,” as the former legend of the New York Yankees is called, has a solution to this problem. He wants teams to be allowed to use only 25 players in one game in September, while the remaining players in the 40-player squad would be designated as “taxi squads”, which would be inactive for the respective game.

Mattingly announced his opinion after a rather unusual 5-4 victory of the Philadelphia Phillies over the Marlins on Saturday. This game had two unusual statistics.

Firstly, it was only the fourth game ever in which no pitcher pitched more than two innings. Only Phillies starter Vince Velasquez and Marlins-Reliever Brett Graves got at least six outs (2 IP) each. And of the 15 pitchers used on both sides, none even came to the plate once. This had never happened before in a game without designated hitter since 1900.

It went so far that Phillies manager Gabe Kapler had already substituted two stroke men in the second inning with Asdrual Cabrera and Justin Bour.

Mattingly, however, showed understanding for this approach: “If you are in the playoff race and have the chance to use a pinch runner early, then so do you.”

However, he also said: “But we must try to prepare for 16 pitcher: And if you have four or five lefties in the bullpen, you can bring one each time the opponent brings a lefthanded batsman. And you just can’t do that during the first five months of the season.”

This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.