questions about 40 man roster.

[Mariners44]

i was just wondering what stops a team from bringing up players on a daily basis from the 40 man to the active roster and vice versa. for example, if felix hernandez pitches on monday, why cant seattle remove him from the active roster and bring up a RP until his next start and then switch again?

[buffalobillsrul2002]

Well, one thing is that once a player starts playing on the 25-man roster, he only has 3 "option" years (meaning that after these three years, he may not be sent down to the minor leagues without his consent, hence you see so many DFAs). Beyond that though, I'm not sure what keeps teams from doing this with pitchers in their first or second year (maybe the team wants to monitor those guys between starts; that's my guess.....).

[Blindcheck]

The reason they don't play with the 25 man roster during the season is that a player who is sent to the minors and taken off the 25 man roster...must stay in the minors for 10 days (unless a player is placed on the DL and then they do not have to wait the 10 days)....Therefore, teams can't bring players up and down willy nilly

[stevethumb]

the most important is the arbitration clock for many young players but also a minor monetary concern is that each guy brought up would have to be paid on a major league contract..the minimum to be sure but still an unnecessary expense