What Is The 40 Man Roster In MLB?

Okay, so today we're talking about the 40-man roster. Now, most people I think have kind of an idea what the 40-man roster is, and as a player, I knew that I wanted to get on the 40-man roster, but I didn't exactly know all of this detail when it comes to it. So, I've taken some notes, I've gone through it. There's a lot of fine details when it comes to the 40-man roster, and so let's go through all of them today because I have a lot of experience kind of going from the 26, well back then it was the 25-man roster to the 40-man roster, and then coming off it and going on it. So, let's get into the details right now. Okay, so first off, what the hell is the 40-man roster? So, the 40-man roster is, it's comprised of the 26 players that are on the 26-man roster. It also is comprised of players that are on the injured list. So, there's a 7-day, a 10-day, and a 15-day injured list. It's a little bit different from back when I played in the Stone Age, and so if you're on the injured list, you're also on the 40-man. And then it's also made up of some other minor league players that are either in AAA or AA. I guess they could be in any level, but typically it's going to be AAA. Maybe you have a AA player on the 40-man roster. Now, if you want to call someone up to the big leagues, to the 26-man roster, they must be on the 40-man roster. So, when I got called up, I was in AAA. I was not on the 40-man roster. I ended up getting called up towards the end of the season, and in order to call me up, they had to put me on the 40-man roster. So, the first thing is when you get put on the 40-man roster, your minor league pay goes way, way up. So, let's say you get called up to the big leagues, you're put in the 40-man roster, but then you're sent down to the minor leagues. When you go to the minor leagues, which happened to me, I went to the big leagues, got sent back down to the minor leagues, you're going to make $46,000. Now, that is a huge jump because I talked about it before. You only make, I think when I was in AAA, I made $11,000 for the year. That's not for the season. It's for the year, okay? People sometimes don't realize that. I say I made $11,000 during the season, and they're like, oh, well, during the season, but you made more in the off-season. No, I didn't. You make $11,000 for the year. So, huge jump. That's the first time in the minor leagues, you're actually able to make some pretty good money. So, you make $46,000. The second time, the second year that you're on the 40-man, but you're in the minor leagues, you make $93,000. Wow. So, you're rich now. You think you are absolutely rich going from $11,000 or so to $93,000. Now, back in my day, it wasn't $93,000. I think it was like $70,000, but inflation and all that stuff. Okay. Now, if you want to add someone to the 40-man roster from the minor leagues, you're going to have to get rid of someone that's already on the 40-man roster, unless for some reason, you don't have 40 guys. You only have 39 or 38 or whatever. But typically, you're going to have 40 guys on the 40-man roster. So, how do you do that? Well, there's a couple of ways. First way you can do it, you can designate the player for assignment. We'll talk about that in a second. Another way you can do it, you can trade the player. Another way, you can release the player. And the last way is you can move them to the 60-day injured list. This has actually happened to me before. I broke my hand. They needed room on the 40-man roster for another player. I was on the 40-man roster. They ended up putting me on the 60-day injured list, which cleared some room for another player. The one good thing for me is I got paid major league salary when I was on the 60-man disabled list. So, I made minimum salary, which back then was $400,000 for having a broken wrist or excuse me, a broken hand and wrist surgery. So, it stunk that I couldn't play, but at least you get paid major league money. Okay. Now, here's another thing. If you're on 40-man roster in spring training and you do not make the big league team, you don't make the 26-man roster, you must be optioned down to the minor leagues. Now, once you spend at least 20 days down in the minor leagues, that's your option. Your option is up for the season. Now, you can be sent up and sent down and sent up and sent down and sent up and sent down, and it's still just one option. Okay. So, keep that in mind. You've probably heard about options before. An option is for that entire year, that entire season, once you've been down for 20 or more days in the minor leagues. You can't give, you can't waste like multiple options in the same year. It doesn't happen no matter how many times you come back up and down. Okay. Now, you have three option years. So, this can happen to you for three years. Now, once those three options are done, if a team wants to, once again, send you down, well, they can't do it. They have to designate you for assignment, which again, happened to me. Now, if you've been designated for assignment, that means, sorry about it, buddy, you're taking off the 40-man roster, and you must pass through waivers. So, everybody in the league has a chance to claim you. Now, the order of the waivers, I don't even know how the hell it works. All I know is this, I was claimed by the Yankees. So, I was designated for assignment by the Orioles. First time I was designated, designated for assignment by the Orioles, and I got picked up by the Yankees. When that happened, I was now on the 40-man roster of the Yankees. Now, if nobody claims you, then you can go to the minor league system. So, you're back in the minor leagues, and you're off the 40-man on whichever team designated you. So, when I was with the Orioles, and I got designated for assignment, if nobody claimed me, if everyone's like, this guy stinks, we don't want him, which eventually happened to me in my career. But if that happens, well, now you're off the 40-man, and you're back with the Orioles in the minor leagues, and you start to cry, okay, because you're off the 40-man and you're back in the minors, that's a double whammy. Now, being on the 40-man roster is very important for teams. It's important for a player, but also important for teams, because if you're on the 40-man roster, then you are protected from the Rule 5 draft. Okay, so if you were drafted or signed at 18 years old or younger, you have five seasons before you have to be added to the 40-man roster, or you are subject to the Rule 5 draft, so you will not be protected. Now, if you were drafted or signed at 19 years old or older, then you have four years to be put on the 40-man roster, or again, you are not protected, and you could be selected in the Rule 5 draft. Now, we're not going to get into the specifics of the Rule 5 draft. We can get into that in another video, but essentially, teams are going to be able to draft you and take you away from your team that you were originally with. So, being on the 40-man roster ensures that a team will not lose a player, often a prospect, to the Rule 5 draft. Okay, so I think I covered everything. This might be more confusing now than before I explained it, but there's a lot that goes in to the 40-man roster, and I didn't really know any of this when I was playing. I knew that it was good to be on the 40-man roster, but I just kind of relied on my agent. He would tell me, he'd be like, Matt, you've been designated. Matt, you're on the 40-man. Matt, this is how much you're getting paid. Matt, you know, all that stuff, right? So, I had no idea. I just played baseball, and I let my agent take care of all that stuff. I didn't learn this stuff until I got old and was no longer playing baseball. So, hopefully, I hit everything. There's so much stuff, I probably did forget something, but that's all that I know. Let me know if I missed anything in the comments section below. Subscribe to the channel. Hit the notification bell. Give it a thumbs up. All that good stuff. We'll talk to you later. If you've enjoyed this video and want to learn more about building the Elite Swing, check out our new course. We have over two hours of content, almost 30 hitting drills. We break down the exact mechanics that you're going to want to implement into your swing. I've put the link in the description if you want to go check it out.