MLB’s proposed roster overhaul could take away one of the Pirates’ favorite roster-building crutches

The Pittsburgh Pirates have spent years emphasizing roster flexibility. Optionable relievers. Triple-A depth. Players capable of moving back and forth between Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. A bullpen spot that can seemingly belong to three different pitchers in the span of a week.

Major League Baseball’s latest collective bargaining proposal would make that style of roster construction considerably harder.

Among the ideas MLB presented to the Players Association on Thursday was the creation of weekly rosters. Teams would essentially lock in their 26-man roster every Monday, with exceptions for injuries, trades, waiver claims and certain types of leave. MLB also proposed reducing the number of times a player can be optioned to the minors during a season from five to four.

Taken together, the proposals are designed to reduce the enormous amount of roster churn that has become commonplace across baseball. For the Pirates, that could remove a particularly useful crutch.

Pittsburgh has frequently prioritized players with minor-league options because they provide an easy way to manipulate the back end of a roster. If a reliever throws multiple innings, another fresh arm can be summoned. If a bench player isn't needed for a particular stretch, he can be sent down and replaced by somebody who is.

There's nothing inherently wrong with taking advantage of the rules as they currently exist. Smart teams should exploit every available roster mechanism. The problem comes when flexibility begins substituting for quality.

A club trying to contend shouldn't need to constantly manufacture solutions for the final few spots on its roster. It should have relievers capable of pitching on consecutive days, bench players worthy of remaining in the majors and enough starting pitching durability that the bullpen isn't perpetually one long outing away from requiring reinforcements.

MLB’s proposed weekly rosters would force Pirates to build a bullpenff instead of constantly managing one

The league believes reducing transaction frequency could encourage longer outings from starting pitchers and place a greater premium on bullpen durability and strategic roster management. Teams would still have injury replacements available, but the days of treating Triple-A like an extension of the major-league bullpen could become far less common.

That would change the calculus for a team like Pittsburgh. An optionable reliever who can be cycled through the roster becomes less valuable. A dependable major-league reliever becomes more valuable. So does having a legitimate 26th man instead of simply valuing whichever player can most conveniently be moved without losing him.

MLB would somewhat offset the restriction by allowing teams to carry 14 pitchers rather than the current maximum of 13. But even then, the principle remains the same: Pick your roster and live with it for the week.

MLB's proposals are merely proposals, and the league says these changes are contingent on the players accepting a salary-cap-and-floor system — which promises to be one of the most contentious issues in the next CBA negotiations.

But if baseball eventually makes roster churn harder, Pittsburgh will have to place a little less emphasis on finding players who are convenient to move around and considerably more emphasis on building a major-league roster good enough that it doesn't constantly need to.

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