Answering question about postseason rosters

Answering question about postseason rosters
BECK'S BLOG
Posted on August 30, 2011 at 5:26 pm

The question came up by chance today, but it’s been asked by readers for the last week or so: Will the Tigers make any roster moves before Sept. 1 to make sure guys are eligible for postseason rosters?

The answer is that they don’t have to. As long as the Tigers have players on the disabled list at season’s end — and with Joel Zumaya and Brad Thomas, they’ll have two — they can technically use those spots to add players to the postseason roster who weren’t up with the team on Aug. 31. In past years, they would’ve had to use a pitcher to replace a pitcher on the DL. They no longer have to do that.

Thus, for example, if the Tigers were to want Andy Dirks on the roster for the Division Series as an extra roster, they can still wait until Sept. 1 or later to call him up. They can use the rule and “replace” Zumaya with Dirks, and use Thomas’ spot on somebody else. As long as they’re in the organization before Sept. 1, they can be used as a replacement.