I don’t understand how the 15-day, 30-day, day-to-day, etc. disabled lists work in Major League Baseball.
Let’s say I’m on a major-league roster. On June 4th I injure my… soul. The team witch-doctor checks it out and says to wait it out. On June 5th my soul is still injured and the team witch-doctor says I’ll probably be out for two weeks. I’m placed on the 15-day DL.
Does that mean I cannot come back to play until June 20th? If my soul gets better before then, can I come back to play?
Lets say you slide into second base. Old styx that wiley old shortstop tags you… REALLY HARD in the soul!..
Trainer comes out and says that your soul is pretty nicked up and you should warm up the old golf clubs for 15 days. Bingo you just got 2 weeks paid vacation time!
That allows the team to draw from their player pool in the minor leagues without violating the 25 man roster limit. They will bring up a player who might be having a “hot streak” or just someone they just might want to take a hard look at in a major league setting.
For more extensive injuries the team may require that you do some rehab time in the minors to get back into major league condition before coming off the injured list.
Yes, that’s correct. Once placed on the 15-day DL, you must sit out at least 15 days. In practice, a player has usually missed some days already before he is placed on the DL. It’s not 15-days from when you’re placed on the list, necessarily, but 15 days from the last game you played.
The point of this rule is to allow teams to bring up a replacement for an injured player without havingto remove him from the roster. By placing a 15-day minimum, that keeps a team from manipulating the system to make roster replacements.
MLB now has just two lsits, the 15-day and the 60-day disabled list.
“Day-to-day” merely indicates the player is injured, but will probably recover in a day or so without having to go on the DL. If you bruise your arm on Monday, you may not be able to play Tuesday or Wednesday, but can return on Thursday. The player is not on the DL, but sits out the games (or is only used in a limited capacity – a pinch hitter, for instance) to rest the injury. A player can’t be brought up to replace him on the roster.
If the injury doesn’t respond, then the player is put on the DL.
Also…
You can go from the 15 day to the 60 day but not from the 60 to the 15.
Another important consideration is that when a player is placed on the 60-day DL, he no longer counts toward the 40-man roster, giving the GM more flexibility in bringing up a replacement.
Zev Steinhardt
When did they get rid of the 30-day DL? I could have sworn it was in existence at some point, but I can’t remember when.
But you can also be put on the disabled list retroactively to some date. I’m not really sure how that works… can that be done if you’ve been listed as day-to-day since the injury? Or only if you haven’t played at all since the injury?
The only limitation on retroactively placing someone on the DL is the last game they played. So a player who is ‘day to day’ for 3 days may be placed on the DL retroactive to the day he was hurt provided he has not appeared in a game in the intervening time.
As for the ‘30 day’ DL I can vaguely remember it. But I’ve been following baseball for almost 30 years pretty closely. For all I know it went away in the 50s or something.
I found this page, which may or may not be entirely accurate:
This kind of corresponds to my memory. I seem to recall Jeff Stone of the Phillies being placed on that 30-day DL for a groin pull. He played for Philadelphia from 1983-1987, so that might be true.