according to MLB\u2019s rule book<\/a>. To qualify for a two-way designation, players must meet the following criteria in either the current season or any of the two previous seasons:<\/p>\nPitched at least 20 major-league innings
\nStarted at least 20 games as a position player or DH, with at least three plate appearances in each of those games<\/p>\n
With his two-way designation, Ohtani does not count against the Dodgers\u2019 pitcher total on their active roster, another luxury for a franchise with an enormous payroll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never understood it,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cIt\u2019s an offensive rule, essentially. It\u2019s a rule to help offense, more than anything, if you ask me. And then there\u2019s one team that\u2019s allowed to carry basically one of both, and he gets special consideration, which is probably the most bizarre rule. For one team.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Opening Day through Aug. 31 and during the playoffs, teams are limited to carrying 13 pitchers on the active 26-man roster.<\/p>\n
The circumstances don\u2019t matter \u2014 the Cubs are capped at 13 pitchers even when two members of their season-opening rotation are on the injured list (Matthew Boyd and Cade Horton) and three late-inning relievers (Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey and Daniel Palencia) are also sidelined.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not another player like that,\u201d Counsell said, \u201cbut one team gets different rules for that player.\u201d<\/p>\n
When rosters expand Sept. 1 through the end of the regular season, 14 pitchers are allowed on the active 28-man roster.<\/p>\n
The Cubs will visit Dodger Stadium this weekend for a three-game series against the two-time defending World Series champions. Ohtani\u2019s next start is scheduled for Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants, meaning the Cubs will prepare for the four-time MVP as a left-handed hitter and a base-running threat rather than a Cy Young Award contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is it certainly benefits us because we have the player,\u201d said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts when asked about Counsell\u2019s comments. \u201cBut that\u2019s something that any team that had Ohtani would have that player. We\u2019re more than willing for other teams to go out and find a player who can do both. He\u2019s an exception because he\u2019s an exceptional player. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 The Athletic\u2019s Fabian Ardaya contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 While dealing with a cluster of injuries on his pitching staff, Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,24,57,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-680281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago-cubs","10":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","11":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116442404050230295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}