Roster idea

[Marlins]

Hey guys, I know this out of the blue and not really something anyone has been pining for, but had an idea. As the league has matured lately and we seem to have a really good set of GMs now, I feel like we can look at deregulation. We already got rid of the trade reviews we used to have due to having good GMs, how about we get rid of the required 10 man draft spots? I dont think we really have any GMs anyway who dont really want to have a farm system anyway, so why should we regulate the number of players each team has from specific time periods?

Operationally, if this is something we can agree on, I dont think we should just immediately drop the 10 player draft roster spot requirement. But I propose we in turn also maybe increase the total roster size from 55 to 60? My thoughts on timeline would be:
-Roster rules remain the same for the entire 2023 season and up to next year's draft
-With the draft next year, we allow players to make picks without dropping anyone to make space, up to 5 picks total (beyond 5th guy drafted, they would have to drop a player).
-By the end of the draft, everyone then must have no more than 60 total players but no limitations on needing certain # of spots for 22- or 23- guys (in fact at that point we can completely get rid of the draft year designation)

Curious everyone's idea if this something worth looking at more. There still would be more details to work out rules-wise (do we have a waiver period after the draft for people who didnt make 5 picks in the draft, how do we handle trades during the draft if it pushes rosters over 55, etc), but we could discuss if you guys think this idea has legs.

[Guardians]

I do always struggle with guys I drop that I don't want to drop, so part of me likes the idea of bumping up to 60. However, part of me likes that there are always some decent guys out there. I'm not sure if 150 fewer guys out there really kills the free agent pool or not. Part of me thinks it will.

The other factor I consider is that if we don't force people to draft, you could really quickly get teams that get old quick and if they are borderline participants (we have several), I could see those teams getting bad quickly. That is the whole idea behind the draft roster. I do think many people will still invest in youth, but I could see many who don't.

I guess we have to decide if keeping the current framework helps or if removing it would create problems for the league. I'd be interested in other thoughts. I'm on the fence.

[Marlins]

Have you looked at some of the teams' 10 man draft rosters? They are not using it to prep for the future anyway. It's not doing its job as is of forcing teams to have robust farm systems.

[Marlins]

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Every year during the draft we have a roll over of rosters as teams make difficult drops to make room for new draftees. By implementing the roster spot increase during the draft, we would just have one year with less of a turnover.

Regarding opening up everyone's extra spots once the draft completes, can OOPSS deal with putting all FAs on waivers at once? If not, we could just do a one time waiver period by email after the draft for any teams who have opens spots still.

To answer the question of why bother doing this, I feel like we're still going to have way fewer players than MLB organizations have in the majors and minors. Feel like 60 players will allow teams competing to have plenty of spots for good depth as well as keeping a farm system and allow rebuilding teams plenty of spots for prospects while still having no problem keeping 25 healthy players all year with projections.

[Reds]

It seems we went down this road when we expanded to 55 a while back rather than eliminate the draft roster. I have the same concerns I did then. Increasing the roster size would deplete the free agent pool further making it more difficult to replacements for injured or underperforming players.

There should be some reservations about releasing players from your roster and if we keep increasing the roster size those will eventually go away. Why watch the waiver wire if there is never anyone decent to claim?

[Marlins]

That is a good point Ken. I was thinking about this from the prospect point of view, but this would also mean there might be fewer options to pick up should a team have an emergency need due to injury.

[Cardinals]

It seems we went down this road when we expanded to 55 a while back rather than eliminate the draft roster. I have the same concerns I did then. Increasing the roster size would deplete the free agent pool further making it more difficult to replacements for injured or underperforming players.

There should be some reservations about releasing players from your roster and if we keep increasing the roster size those will eventually go away. Why watch the waiver wire if there is never anyone decent to claim?

I agree with this. I think something we could play with is reducing the draftee requirement, rather than eradicating it in general.