Quick Note On The DL

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 25, 2010 12:32 PM PDT in Miscellaneous

Bit from T.R. Sullivan I hadn't heard yet. I assume 'T.R.' stands for 'The Real,' which is really annoying, I think.

Friday is an important date. If a player starts the season on the disabled list, a club can back-date the move nine days. That would be Friday. But not if he's played in a Cactus League game. In that case, he could only be backdated to his last Cactus League game.

Not sure if the M's are going to put Cliff Lee and/or Jack Hannahan on the DL - it all depends on how they're doing. But if they did, and neither Hannahan nor Lee played in another Cactus League game, they would be eligible to come off on April 10th, the sixth game of the regular season.

So, a DL stint doesn't necessarily mean a missed two weeks. (Ed. note: as mentioned in the comments, remember that this was the situation with Ichiro a year ago.)

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So what was the reason Ichiro was out the full two weeks last year?

@ERiC_UW

by lailaihei on Mar 25, 2010 12:57 PM PDT reply actions

He wasn't. He only missed 9 days.

by Sec 108 on Mar 25, 2010 1:00 PM PDT up reply actions

Although if Cliff Lee is going to miss just a short amount of time

Why wouldn’t you just leave him on the active roster and let him serve his suspension while he heals?

by Droid Rage on Mar 25, 2010 1:14 PM PDT via mobile reply actions

I think that is a possibility, but without a day off until April 15th, it might be difficult to go with an 11-man pitching staff with only four starters.

If the team decides to use a 12-man pitching staff, I could definitely see the team opting to keep Lee off the DL and let him “serve” his suspension the first week and get healthy.

However, I think the team will place Lee on the DL and then serve his suspension when he comes off. This will allow the team to track his health for the first nine days and have the flexibility to bring him back in 14-20 days— depending on where they think he is health-wise and retroactively place him on the DL plus the suspension. Better to lose 1-4 starts early in the season to ensure health than to come back too soon and have an injury linger throughout the other 25+ starts.

by Wilder. on Mar 25, 2010 2:01 PM PDT up reply actions

Because if he's not healthy after the suspension then you're in trouble

And realistically, we can’t expect Lee to go from zero to ready by the first weekend of the season anyway.

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 25, 2010 2:15 PM PDT up reply actions

On the other hand, keeping Lee on he active roster

but not starting him would allow him to serve out his suspension while recuperating. Assuming the absurd ruling is held up in the first place.

De Gutibus non disputandum est

by Bearskin Rugburn on Mar 25, 2010 1:18 PM PDT reply actions

Anyone know how the DL rules affect the rest of the roster?

I know there’s some tricks in there as far as bringing guys up and sending them down, and the 40 man, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. In cases like this I typically assume they’re trying to avoid floating a player through waivers.

by Kermit. on Mar 25, 2010 1:39 PM PDT reply actions

My understanding is a player doesn't lose an option when he is replacing a player on the DL.

But that might be limited to a certain amount of days. So if you place someone on the 15-day DL, you can call a player up and send him back down without losing an option. However, if you place someone on the 60-day DL and the player you call up stays on the roster 30+ of those days, then you have to use an option to send him back down.

I think I have the correct idea, but I am not certain.

by Wilder. on Mar 25, 2010 2:07 PM PDT up reply actions

Sort of

If a player is called up from the minors and then sent back within 20 days, no option is used. It doesn’t matter why he was called up – it doesn’t have to be a DL replacement.

If you send a guy back to the minors, you cannot call him back up within 10 days unless he is replacing a DL’d player.

by davidcameron on Mar 25, 2010 2:13 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs

That's what I thought.

Just wanted to be sure I wasn’t missing some obscure loophole.

by ToddK on Mar 25, 2010 3:16 PM PDT up reply actions

Just curious: do you need to contact the Mariners or MLB directly to get this information, or do they have a place where they spell it all out?

by Decatur on Mar 26, 2010 12:21 AM PDT up reply actions

Options - lets get it right

Options are counted by the year, not by the number of times a player goes up and down. Players are allowed 3 options in their first 6 years. You are optioned if you are on the 40 man roster and assigned to the minors. It doesn’t matter if you start on the 25 man roster or not. Any player with a major league contract who is assigned to a minor league team has been optioned. Once optioned for the year, you can go back and forth at will (except when you are sent down during the season you have to stay down for at least 10 days unless somebody on the 25 man roster is injured).

The option rules are among the most misunderstood rules by the casual fan. Any player who is on the 40 man roster and not in the majors has been optioned. Players without options can be optioned if they clear waivers.

by New England Fan on Mar 25, 2010 4:39 PM PDT reply actions