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There has been a lot of speculation as to whether MLB rosters would be expanded from 26 to 28 for the month of April. The reason for this would be to help reduce the risk of injury to pitchers, who won’t have a full Spring Training this year. From the time camps officially opened on March 13 or 14 until Opening Day, that’s only about four and a half weeks of camp, four weeks or fewer worth of games.
Looks like that’s going to happen:
Source: rosters almost certain to expand from 26 to 28 for most of April. No restriction on how many pitchers can be active in that period. Not finalized yet. But this is the plan right now.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) March 22, 2022
The twist here is that it had been widely assumed that rosters would be required to be 14 pitchers and 14 position players if they were expanded to 28. But Joel Sherman’s tweet indicates that there won’t be a limit on the number of pitchers. That being the case, I can easily see teams wanting 15 pitchers, especially since they won’t have to burn pinch-hitters for pitchers with the universal DH in place.
Many pitchers won’t be able to ramp up past five innings and 75-80 pitches before Spring Training ends April 5, so having extra bullpen arms around will be a big help.
Once this becomes official I’ll have another look into who the Cubs might keep around for relief help during April, or for however long the roster expansion lasts.