No team in MLB is inclined to use the bullpen less (let alone carry an extra position player) it seems.
“....let us carry 14 pitchers,” Snyder said, “and I’ll put my hand in the air.”
“Ultimately we’re solving for winning games, and not five starters or six starters,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said. “I think the knee-jerk reaction is, when you engage in risky behaviors, one way to mitigate risk is to do them less. But we have to think about the burden it places on others.”
Some of the burden is a byproduct of roster limits. Teams can carry no more than 13 pitchers, meaning a sixth starter would come at the expense of an eighth reliever, and teams are hesitant to make that concession. The burden would fall on that sixth starter to earn his keep, on every other starter to work deeper into games, on each reliever to pitch more often, on each manager to better allocate workload, and on each front office to maintain depth and flexibility. It’s more complicated than simply acquiring six starters and pitching them once a week.
And, frankly, there’s no guarantee a six-man rotation would solve the underlying issues of starting pitchers getting hurt or exiting games in the fifth inning.
“I don’t think you’re going to talk to many starting pitchers who are in favor of a six-man rotation,” Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito said. “It’s not really conducive to what we’re trying to do to help the team.”
