How many baseball players in the major league are allowed to play on game day?

Answer 1

Before I answer the question, I need to clarify something here.

There are several rosters for each Major League team. You have the Forty-man roster, which is a roster of all protected players, and the 25-man roster, or the active roster. Players on the 7- or-15-day disabled list are on the 40-man roster. Players on the 60-day disabled list are not on the 40-man roster.

The active roster is a roster of players eligible to play on any given day and is limited to 25 men from Opening Day to August 31. So, from Opening Day through August 31, the maximum number of players that can appear in a game is 25.

As a practical matter, it is very rare that all 25 men on an active roster would appear in a game. The next day's starting pitcher would almost never appear in a game. Often-times, since many teams carry only 2 catchers, it would be semi-rare for the backup catcher to appear in case of injury to the starting catcher, but it happens rather frequently. So, while 25 *could* appear - for each team for a total of 50 - , it is unlikely that more than 23 *would* appear.

An exception to this rule might be a suspended game (tied late in the game or that a visiting team had just taken the lead and the home team did not have a chance to catch up and that could not continue for curfew reasons, lighting malfunctions, legal reasons or weather-related reasons) where one or both teams made a roster move between dates, the additional players *might* be eligible to play when the suspended game is resumed. It happened between the Braves and the Mets in 1978(?). So, under a suspended game, more than 25 men might be eligible to appear in a game. This is governed by Rule 4.12.

On September 1, a team can call up the remainder of its 40-man roster. So, after September 1 through the end of the season, the maximum that could participate in a game is 40 for each team for a total of 80 between the two teams.