# What was the last Major League baseball team to use a regular 4-man rotation? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 9, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-major-league-baseball-team-to-use-a-regular-4-man-rotation/462779 "2008-09-09T14:24:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-major-league-baseball-team-to-use-a-regular-4-man-rotation/462779/1 "2008-09-09T14:24:28Z")
I don’t mean using a 4-man starting pitching rotation situationally, as in stretch runs or in covering someone’s time on the DL. I mean a team that named four guys on Opening Day and more or less stuck with a 4-man system wire to wire (allowing for injury replacements to any of the starters 1 through 4). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-major-league-baseball-team-to-use-a-regular-4-man-rotation/462779/2 "2008-09-09T16:35:15Z")
Depends on what you mean. Even when a four-man rotation was the norm, most teams had a “spot starter,” who would start doubleheaders and when the schedule required it. And a bad team would often go through quite a few starting pitchers in the course of a season trying to find someone who could get people out. I know that in the 70s, a four-man rotation was the norm, but by the 1980s it had switched to five-man. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-major-league-baseball-team-to-use-a-regular-4-man-rotation/462779/3 "2008-09-09T17:35:36Z")
Moved to the Game Room from GQ. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-major-league-baseball-team-to-use-a-regular-4-man-rotation/462779/4 "2008-09-09T18:25:16Z")
The 1985 Braves are probably the best answer to this question. They tried to use the old 4 man and a spot starter rotation. Note that Mahler & Bedrosian both made more starts than any would today. Their starters and starts: SP Rick Mahler 39 SP Steve Bedrosian 37 SP Pascual Perez 22 SP Len Barker 18 SP Joe Johnson 14 ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-major-league-baseball-team-to-use-a-regular-4-man-rotation/462779/5 "2008-09-10T00:55:33Z")
There was a little bit of a stir about 5 years ago when the Blue Jays said they were going to do so. As I recall, the pitchers themselves kept management from going through with it. The Rockies then sort of half-assedly experimented with it the next year.