MLB rosters will stay at 28 players for a while

Active roster limits across Major League Baseball on Thursday morning will shift from 30 to 28 players, as planned. But instead of moving back to the originally-planned 26-player limit on Aug. 20, active rosters are expected to remain at 28 players for the remainder of the season.

Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic first reported the change, agreed to by MLB players and owners on Thursday, which was confirmed by ESPN. In addition, taxi squads for road trips will increase from three to five players, all designed to facilitate needed roster moves in the midst of this pandemic season.

“I think they got it right, Major League Baseball in the Players Association,” manager Dave Roberts said on a conference call Tuesday. “I think that getting it down to 28 makes it more like baseball that we know, and there’s not as much matching up potential. That extra taxi squad, I think gives everyone coverage.”

The Dodgers are currently carrying 17 pitchers and 13 position players on their active roster. Roberts has said multiple times on the road trip that the club will likely send down two pitchers to get down to 28 players on Thursday, which is an off day for the Dodgers.

Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images

Links

• Pedro Moura at The Athletic looked at some of the workout routines for Dodgers pitchers, including the CleanFuego baseball seen in the Clayton Kershaw photo on the right.
• Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register looked at defensive adjustments Justin Turner has made at third base this season.
• Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts shared video of a celebrity softball game at Dodger Stadium from 1967.
• Ed Odeven at Japan Forward looked back at how the Dodgers PR staff handled the enormous media demand during Hideo Nomo’s rookie MLB season of 1995.
• Jon Tayler at FanGraphs spoke with epidemiologist Zachary Binney about MLB’s response to COVID-19 and what can be done going forward.