Friday, September 4, 2015

ENABLE THE DISABLED LIST

As most MLB fans know, if a Major League player incurs an injury, his team has the option to place him on one of the designated disabled lists.  The activating date/term would standardly qualify the day after the injured player last played.  If the player continues to be inactive (essentially becoming a spectator) since he last played, his team would then have the option to begin the disabled list’s timeframe in a retroactive manner, but the retroactivity cannot exceed 5 days prior to the date they place the player on the list. 

For instance, if a player last played on August 15th, but the team contemplated their decision until August 23rd, then the team can’t choose to begin the player’s disabled time from August 15th because more than 5 days have passed.  The team would have to instead begin the activation date within the current 5 days.  In the aforementioned example, the team could either choose August 23rd as the activation date or they can choose any of the 5 days prior to August 23rd (in other words, no earlier than August 18th).

MLB has 3 disabled lists for teams to choose from:

7-day disabled list:
This option offers a 7-day period which can only be used for players diagnosed with concussions or concussion-like conditions.

15-day disabled list:
This option is most commonly used by teams. It is typically utilized for what is believed to be a minor injury.

60-day disabled list:
This option is obviously used for major injuries or conditions.  Common examples include broken bones, surgeries, or severe bruises or sprains.

Placing a player onto any of the above lists correlates to one or both of the team's rosters, where the player would be transferred from the roster(s) to the disabled list.  Then, upon the vacated spot, the team would gain an opening/inclusion spot for an uncounted player.

To expound more about the rosters, here are basic definitions of the two types:

25-man roster:
This roster comprises of the 25 players officially listed to the umpires before the start of each MLB game.  Most teams will typically designate 12 pitchers and 13 hitters to form the total, but teams are not confined to any specific integers to form the sum.  They can interchange the breakdown of players named before each game.  Since I am writing this in September, it's worth noting that the 25-man roster can actually have more than 25 players only from September 1st through the last day of the 162-game season.  That allows teams to include some minor league players to help rest their regulars and also offers teams and their fans to see some of their potential stars in a Major League game.

40-man roster:
This is basically the 25-player team as described above with an additional 15 players.  This roster is crucial for the present and future of a team as it designates the 40 players a team considers their best.  Players that aren't included on this roster are vulnerable to other teams' acquisitions, in certain conditions.

Now that you've (hopefully) read and (with aspirin) understood the above, I can begin my gripe.  Why do teams constantly avoid placing players onto the 15-day disabled list?  If a player's injury is questionable and he can't physically play for more than a few days, the team becomes somewhat crippled.  Of course, teams that aren't competing don't overly care; but, to competitive teams it's a huge disadvantage in close-scoring or extra-inning type of games.  They are essentially playing with only 24 players.  Additionally, if the injured player is a pitcher, being a player short could consequentially strain the pitching staff in a domino effect for their team’s forthcoming games.

Now, at last, I get to write about my disabled list gripe:  Today, the Yankees finally placed Mark Teixeira on the 15-day disabled list (retroactive to August 27th).  His injury occurred all the way back on August 17th, when he fouled off a pitch into his right leg/shin.  That day, the doctors took x-rays and declared that Teixeira did not have a broken bone.  As days/games passed, the Yankees continued to analyze Teixeira’s condition on a daily basis, while playing games without the 25th player, so to speak.  Then, on August 25th (over a week after the incurred injury) Teixeira convinced the Yankees that he was able to play.  The Yankees foolishly obliged, later finding out that Teixeira’s judgment was wrong as he couldn’t bear the pain that day.  Listening to Teixeira, was the Yankees second mistake!

Their first mistake was much worse!!  They failed to place Teixeira on the disabled list initially.  8 days is way too long to compete with essentially 24 players while their opponents had 25.  Then, as a third mistake, they continued to play even more games without Teixeira able to play.  Again, the 25-man roster did expand a few days ago, but one can argue that the Yankees disabled themselves for the 17 days Teixeira was unavailable as a player!

While the Yankees are usually overprotective when it comes to reinstating or enabling their potentially recovered players, this was an instance where they uncharacteristically and clearly misjudged Mark Teixeira’s condition…twice.  As a Yankees’ fan, their failed actions clearly disappointed me.  Even if the doctors’ diagnoses are at fault regarding Teixeira’s condition, the final playing decision ultimately falls under the Yankees’ responsibility.  I expected them to act with over-precaution, as they usually do, especially for a player like Teixeira who has a medical history of taking longer than most to heal.


The Yankees and almost all of the MLB teams constantly fail to utilize the 15-day disabled list and, instead, contemplate too long.  We all make mistakes and so do our favorite teams; but, repeating the same mistake is unfathomable to me.  As a fan of a competing team (and especially as a fan of the Yankees), every win/loss can factor into making the regular or wildcard playoffs and can sometimes determine home-field advantage.  I'd rather take a chance on the negative repercussions of placing a player on the 15-day disabled list too early than the much greater repercussions of not!!!  Enable the disabled list!

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