DENVER –– Talk about catching a stray.
The Dodgers and Chicago Cubs don’t play for the first time this season until a three-game series this weekend. But on Monday, Cubs manager Craig Counsell already had the Dodgers top of mind.
Responding to a question about MLB rules that limit teams to carrying only 13 pitchers on their active roster, Counsell took a jab at the Dodgers and four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani –– calling a quirk in the rules that allows Ohtani to not count against that 13-pitcher maximum, thanks to his two-way status, “bizarre” in an apparently unsolicited critique.
“It’s a rule to help offense, I think, more than anything, if you ask me,” Counsell said of the rule generally, according to the Associated Press, before singling out the Dodgers: “And then there’s one team that’s allowed to carry basically one of both, and that he gets special consideration. Which is probably the most bizarre rule.”
Later, Counsell doubled down: “There’s not another player like that, but one team gets different rules for that player.”
Undoubtedly, the Dodgers gain an advantage thanks to Ohtani’s two-way status (which is granted to players who have pitched at least 20 innings and started at least 20 games as a hitter at any point in the last two years).
This season, they have been able to field a six-man starting rotation while still operating with a customary eight relievers in the bullpen.
When informed of Counsell’s remarks Monday night, however, that didn’t mean manager Dave Roberts felt any sympathy.
“The thing is, it certainly benefits us, because we have the player,” he said. “But that’s something that, any team that had Ohtani would have that player.”
“We’re more than willing for other teams to go out and find a player who can do both,” he added, sharply. “He’s an exception because he’s an exceptional player. It is what it is.”
There aren’t, of course, any other players out there who can do both –– at least nowhere near the MVP-caliber level Ohtani has repeatedly shown he can.
Roberts knows that. So do the Dodgers. Just don’t expect them to apologize soon.
After all, that roster flexibility was one of the many, many reasons they were ecstatic to get Ohtani.
And this weekend, they will try to use it to their advantage, when Counsell and the Cubs come to town starting on Friday.
