I agree on the hate on MM, but if you wanted Yandy at his spot or perhaps Urshela on opening day, wouldn't that affect their prospect status ? I mean with how many years of organizational control (options).
I remember a situation with Carrasco years ago where we added him AFTER the season started rather than have him on opening day roster since it affected how many years we can use options on him.
I'm half talking out of my ass since I'm at work, but I'd like to know.
Gio has already debuted, so his timetable doesn't matter as a prospect...his service clock already started, and he's no longer considered a prospect anymore because he exceeded rookie limits in 2015. We already know how long we control him.
And yeah. If you hold a player down in the minors for at least 12 days of the season, it's impossible for them to reach the 172 days it takes to accrue a full season of service time, so you are granted an extra year of team control with the player. What the Cubs did with Bryant a few years ago.
Of course, the concern with doing that is you will most likely make the player a Super 2 player if he manages to stick with the MLB club all season (have to go to arbitration before the player hits 3 years of service)...Naquin, who we have an extra year of team control with because he only posted 163 days of service, is going to be a Super 2 player, for example.
They could decide to have Diaz up to start the season until Kip is back, but then place him back in the minors for a few months in order to give them the 7th year of control and lower the odds of him being a Super 2.
But we just need Diaz to help bridge the gap to Kipnis, which makes this situation interesting...of course, I'd much prefer him in the UTIL role over Gonzalez and Martinez, but this organization tends to value the 7th year, and avoiding Super 2s...what they did with Lindor and is why we waited so long to debut him (he's a 7 year guy, and a non Super 2 guy), and which is why Naquin was the 1st rookie to make the Opening Day roster in a few decades I believe.