By this time next week, MLB will have thrown their first pitch. Before that, they'll pitch several players on to the DL. Injuries often become the deciding factor in many of those last-minute roster decisions. A player may be healthy now, but might have missed opportunities to impress the coaching staff earlier in the spring due to even minor injuries.
We'll begin the season with a number of big-name players on the DL, but remember that at the start of the season, there's a bit of a loophole. Teams can put players on the DL with a "retroactive move," in essence post-dating the start of the DL stint. This year, it means that a player that has not played in a major league exhibition game from March 22 can come off early, as soon as April 6.
To do this, the players have to be held out of games, and you can see several teams doing this around the league. A player can play in minor league games and preserve the retro move, so as with Derek Jeter and others, they've essentially already started the process. Look for a number of these moves to happen this week, giving a short-term roster relief that will allow a team to bring a 26th or 27th player north, delaying that hard final roster decision a bit more.
There's a lot of injuries to check out around the league, as there will be every week of the season, so powered by Yasiel Puig, let's get to it:
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