FanPost

Strasburg and the Playoff Roster

Are the Nationals expected to make any roster moves before the August 31 deadline to account for playoff roster rules? If Strasburg is going to be shutdown, then I can't imagine they would spot their opponents a roster spot and have him sit on the bench unable to be used throughout the playoffs.

From Wikipedia, the eligibility rules are:

To be eligible for a team’s playoff roster a player must be on any of the following: (a) the 25 man active roster, (b) the disabled list, (c) the bereavement list, or (d) the suspended list as of August 31 at midnight. The only exception is that a player on the 60-day disabled list may be replaced by another player from the team's 40-man roster (as of August 31) who plays the same position (i.e. position player for position player, or pitcher for pitcher), with the approval of the commissioner of baseball.

That means that as it stands now, the eligible players would be the current 25 plus Chien-Ming Wang, Henry Rodriguez, Mark DeRosa, and Jhonatan Solano.

Now, I'm assuming that you would replace Strasburg with a reliever for the post-season, since you don't use a five man rotation in the playoffs. That in mind, I kind of think as Wang as a non-option (sure, you could move Det back to the pen, but...why?). Also, as much as I'd like to see Oh Henry come in in a playoff situation -- I would start a pool on which seat his first pitch lands in, since it would either go over or through the protective net -- I'm just skeptical if that's really our best option? Or do we stick with the bullpen as-is and bring in a position player (DeRosa or Solano)? Is it a possibility that after he's done, he lands on the 60-day "disabled" list to call up one of the other pitchers?

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