February 26, 2008
Special Rules and Rewards
The Athletics and Red Sox players will receive as much as $50,000 each for their appearance in Tokyo. Plus, there are special roster rules in effect:
All travel expenses will be covered for 30 players from both teams, although the clubs can bring additional players if they pay the extra travel costs. There will be 28-man rosters for the two regular-season games, but the teams must designate three players as inactive for the games in order to comply with the 25-man regular-season limit.
That ensures that the three players designated as inactive will not lose two days of service time. The three inactive players almost assuredly will be the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 starters, who are not expected to work in the two games but could pitch in the exhibition games against Japanese teams that precede the season opener March 25.
So teams will be able to carry extra hitters and or extra relievers, giving each manager more flexibility than he might have in a normal regular season game.
Won't this also allow these two teams extra time, compared to the rest of MLB, before they have to make their final roster cuts? If the final cuts come down to guys who are out of options, that might be a significant advantage!
Question: If they take 30 players, but only 28 are allowed on the roster, what's the status of the extra 2 guys? Do they have to be on the 40 man roster? Or will they be a couple minor league pitchers for the exhibition game(s)?
Were these similar to the rules for the Yankees - Mariners series in Japan a couple of years ago?
