Forgive me if there is another thread that covers end-of-season player additions and the subsequent actions to make valid rosters, but I feel this topic warrants more conversation.
Specifically, how do leagues manage when a team carries an invalid roster into the offseason? Our league has had this be an issue in back-to-back years.
My assumption: Teams should have to cut players in order to have a valid roster when entering the offseason. But cuts after the season have no cap penalties. Incentivizing bidding practices that go against the spirit of the game.
If a commissioner has to get involved to effectively undo last minute additions of a now invalid team, should they consider awarding said players to the other teams that bid?
I think this is just rule 1a stuff repackaged. You have to set expectations with your league and set rules accordingly. It’s basically the same as being illegal at any other time in the year, except the penalty of “not setting lineups” isn’t a penalty. It’s still lousy to the other people in your league and should be treated as such.
In league 1 we have a shared understanding that teams should try to be legal by the end of the last day of the MLB regular season. Since teams can cut players up until arbitration, there’s a little room for leeway on that deadline, but teams should be under their roster and cap limits, and its up to commissioners and leagues to figure out their thresholds for strictness, etc.
The word ‘just’ here isn’t to diminish the problem you stated, but to say this is simply the equivalent problem, and anyone who tries to justify it by saying somehow its a different problem is maybe more trouble than they are worth.