Colorado Rockies: Will they have expanded rosters when the regular season comes?

According to The Athletic, once the regular season starts, we may see expanded rosters so that as many games can be played, including possible doubleheaders.

C. Trent Rosecrans, The Athletic‘s beat reporter for the Cincinnati Reds, recently reported that that Reds GM Dick Williams said that there’s a possibility that MLB rosters will be expanded (temporarily) from the new standard of the 26-man active roster. Obviously, this would be a big change for the Colorado Rockies and the other MLB teams because it would signal to some other big changes.

If extra players are agreed to on the roster for the entirety of the season, that likely means that the Commissioner’s office and the MLBPA agreed on playing the full 162 game slate.

That would also likely mean that they have decided to eliminate some off-days and add a few scheduled doubleheaders.

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Rockies manager Bud Black was asked about the possibility of doubleheaders during a conference call on Thursday, which included Rox Pile.

"“In theory, yeah, I think all of us would be up for some sort of doubleheader situation,” Black said. “The thing that’s going to be in front of all of us is it’s going to be the same for everybody. It’s got to make sense for the clubs and the players.”"

As our colleagues over at Blog Red Machine noted yesterday, doubleheaders are not common in today’s age but, for example, in 1944, the Chicago White Sox played 44 doubleheaders.

The season could be rearranged too so that since the season will likely have to go long, the later games could be played in domes or warm weather climates.

If temporary roster expansion does happen, it will be interesting to see if there will be a pitcher limit like there was supposed to be in 2020 (13 pitcher limit on the 26-man roster). In theory, more pitchers (in particular, starting pitchers) would be needed if doubleheaders are agreed upon.

In addition, if a roster expansion is agreed upon for the entire season and games have to be played well into October and the minor league season goes well into September or October as well, what will that mean “September call-ups?” Will it be “October” or “November call-ups” or, if rosters are expanded for the entire season, will they ditch the call-up system for 2020?

That will be one of the dozens of questions that will have to be answered in the coming weeks as we come closer to when the coronavirus should be eradicated and humans can hopefully return to normal life as soon as possible.