Photo: Cheryl Pursell
Sometimes it happens with flurry of moves and sometimes it’s a deft and graceful series of roster updates–but there’s perhaps a roster reckoning on the horizon. We’ll have to see how it plays out, but tomorrow (Monday, May 2) is the day that the big league rosters need to go from 28 to 26, I’ve been told. They’re allowed to have a maximum 14 pitchers out of the 26, until later in May when that limit should drop to 13, barring another rules modification.
But what are the roster rules for Triple-A? That’s an excellent question, because I’m having some difficulty finding anything concrete on that front, for 2022 and for April into May. It has been generally accepted that the Triple-A rosters have been expanded just as the big leagues have, to accommodate the condensed Spring Training for many of the players who may be on the 40-man roster and had been locked out. And is the taxi squad still a thing? I haven’t heard much talk of such when the Phillies went to Miami and on to Denver earlier this month.
So we’ll look to Double-A for guidance, as Reading’s roster has held true–at least I think it has–through April.
Reading currently has 23 pitchers on the roster.
-1 Restricted List
-4 60-Day Injured List
-1 7-Day Injured List
17 Pitchers
3 Catchers, active.
9 infielders
-1 Restricted
-1 7-Day IL
7 Infielders
5 outfielders
-1 60-Day IL
-2 7-Day IL
2 Outfielders
So if my counting is right, that’s 29 active players, 4 on the 7-day I.L. for a total of 33.
Also, remember that there could be a mis-count somewhere or that information hasn’t been entered yet, or properly, leading to public-facing information that is inaccurate. But now let’s do the IronPigs:
24 pitchers
-1 60-Day IL
-3 7-Day IL
20 Pitchers
3 Catchers
8 Infielders
-1 7-Day (Guthrie)
-1 60-Day (Brito, who has been swinging a bat still working his way back in Clearwater)
6 Infielders
4 Outfielders
-1 7-Day (Williams, whose injury is not known)
3 Outfielders
So that leaves 32 active players, which fits with an expanded roster nugget I read earlier in the season. That will likely reduce to 30, with 28 active on game day, as we saw last season. If my messy counting and math above is correct, that leaves two players that need to be moved, plus the two who will come from the Phillies. Four roster moves tomorrow?
Could be, and I’m not going to speculate on who goes where in this particular post, but recall that there are a multitude of roster possibilities, including but not limited to:
Send player to Reading
Put player on Injured List
Change Injured List Status
Put player on “Development List”
Release or Trade Player
So it might not be quite as exciting as I would make it out to be, but there should be some moves made, at the very least.
And one more thing: There’s a couple more guys in Reading who might be candidates to move up to Triple-A this young season. LHP Zach Warren has already been promoted, but I see 40-man player RHP Fancisco Morales with a 0.00 ERA repeating Double-A and working as a reliever, and LHP Erik Miller with a 0.90 ERA also as a reliever (his starts have been bullpen games.) Plus there’s Braden Zarbnisky who was here a bit last season and is sporting a 0.93 ERA. RHP Noah Skirrow has been the best of their starters, with a 2.63 ERA, but that’s over only three starts, so I’d like to see a little more there. With any Reading moves, also keep in mind that the team is in Portland, Maine, while the IronPigs are in Syracuse, NY. Not impossible to move players, but perhaps some moves will need to be made more comfortably on May 9 when both teams return home.
Finally, thanks for making it this far. I’m likely one of very few people who cares about such things, but I like to see guys advance and I like to cheer on my teams–and that’s always more fun when you know who the players are.
See you at the park,
@Kram207
Featured Image by Jack Mitroka
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