Law: The times are changing
According to ESPN Senior Writer Keith Law, baseball has undergone dramatic changes in thought with respect to bringing up valuable prospects on September 1 merely as a reward for a successful minor league season. Law asserts that teams only want to promote their prospects if they are prepared to play at the major League level and there is an opportunity for them to play on a regular basis.
The economic contributions to these changes are clear; promoting a player to the Majors as a September call-up adds approximately 30-days to the player’s service time. This enables the player to reach arbitration or free agency sooner than desired by the team or if the added service time is to be compensated for, the team must wait 30-days longer than desired to recall said player.
September 1 is no longer a monumental day because if a team has a void to fill and a talented prospect capable of filling said void, the team will promote the prospect when needed, as opposed to waiting for some arbitrary September 1 deadline. Relevant examples include the Braves’ Dansby Swanson, the National’s Lucas Giolito, and our own Andrew Benintendi.
As a result, Law does not anticipate more than one or two major prospects to be called up during the period of expanded rosters that commences today.
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