I received a few questions about the St. Louis Cardinals post-season roster as it was set on Saturday. I thought I would provide some explanation as I understand it.
How could Eduardo Sanchez have been eligible since he was on the disabled list since June? Was it because he played in the final week of the regular season?
The eligible list of players includes those on the 25-man roster on August 31 as well as those on any inactive list, including the disabled list. His last week of the season was not relevant to this situation.
How could the Cardinals put Adron Chambers on the playoff roster since he wasn’t called up until September?
If any player on the eligible list is injured at the start of any post-season series, he can be replaced by any player who was anywhere in the organization on August 31. Though Chambers was already on the 40-man roster, he didn’t even have to be at that time. He could have been added later when needed.
But the Cardinals don’t have any injured position players, do they? I thought Chambers must replace a position player, not a pitcher?
Prior to a series, the substitutions can be any player for any player. There is no requirement for a pitcher to be displaced by a pitcher or a swapped-out position player to be replaced by another position player. For example, outfielder Chambers could have taken the place of pitcher Adam Wainwright, the latter being out for the entire year.
I was pretty sure there was a rule that said teams have to keep the same ratio of pitchers to position players they had on August 31…
That concept only applies when a player is injured during a series. In that case, he can be replaced for the next game, but only by a player from the same group (pitcher for pitcher or position player for position player). Between rounds, teams can re-balance the mix of pitchers and position players as they choose.
If that is the case, why wouldn’t teams swap out injured (tired) pitchers for fresh ones every day?
There is a penalty to ensure teams don’t just flip players in and out due to real or imagined injuries. Any player replaced during a series due to injury is ineligible for both the current and following series.
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