Why those minor league deals are important

There's been some spirited debate in NatsTown over the past couple of days sparked by the announcement that the Nationals had signed Heath Bell to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league spring training. People are wondering why the Nats would need to invest time, money and innings on a guy on the downside of his career, a pitcher obviously past his prime. Or, in the case of yesterday's news that third baseman Ian Stewart had signed a minor league deal, an infielder who has fallen out of favor with two organizations.

Bell and Stewart's signings - and the inevitable forthcoming announcement of a bunch of minor league deals with spring training invitations and non-roster invites - is probably a good opportunity to explain the need for such transactions. Every club makes them around this time each year, and though some folks don't understand the reasoning, it's actually pretty sound.

It's all in the numbers, of course.

You all know there are 25 men on the roster during the season, a 40-man roster from which players can be moved freely between the minors and the majors, and lots of players who aren't on the 40-man who populate the Nats' farm rosters on seven teams: rookie-level squads in the Dominican Summer League and Gulf Coast League, short-season Single-A Auburn, low-Single-A Hagerstown, high Single-A Potomac, Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse.

Come spring training, those players are divided into two groups: those attending major league camp and those assigned to minor league camp. Obviously, the latter group is bigger, but the focus is on the guys with lockers assigned at Space Coast Stadium.

Each offseason, general manager Mike Rizzo and his player development staff carefully examine the players under contract to the Nationals, slotting them where they'll be most useful. In the pre-Internet days, this was done on a huge magnetic board in the GM's office; while those boards still exist, the era of laptops and shared Google documents makes sharing and updating this information much easier. Plus, you don't have to worry about some player's magnetic nameplate slipping off the board.

Organizations are divided into positional needs - catcher, pitcher, first base and so on. This creates a depth chart, from the guys expected to man positions at the major league level down to the rawest of rookies. But with a finite number of picks in the First-Year Player Draft and a budget that must be adhered to, not every position is well-stocked. Sometimes, you're a little thin on second basemen or left-handed situational relievers or right-handed-hitting outfielders.

So each offseason, teams set out to fill specific needs. Maybe it's a guy with significant major league experience who will be a placeholder at Triple-A until the prospect a level lower is ready. Maybe there's an injury concern in your starting outfield and you want to make sure you have another guy ready to step in. Maybe you just have an affinity for a guy you crossed paths with and want to give him a shot to showcase himself in hopes of continued employment. All are ways guys like Bell or Chad Tracy circa 2012 end up in spring training.

Spring training itself requires extra bodies. You can't build up pitch counts and stretch out arms without having a sufficient number of pitchers in the clubhouse - well, you can, but you risk injuring a most valuable commodity. So for the early stages of Grapefruit League games, where guys pitch an inning or two at the most, teams need lots of pitchers to get through all those innings. And since you don't always want your starting pitchers or key relievers throwing all those innings in live batting practice, or your minor leaguers are on carefully monitored pitch counts and innings limits, sometimes you add a few guys from outside the organization. And in case of injury or ineffectiveness, you can never have enough pitching. It's a cliche because it's true. Since you've got all those pitchers - particularly in the workout phase of camp, where groups of six or seven hurlers throw at a time to get their arms in shape - you need catchers. Lots of 'em. So you might see the occasional Single-A or Double-A backstop with little or no major league experience invited to camp. Once the pitching staff is pared down, so is the catching corps. But for a while, there's strength - and sound thinking - in numbers.

Once games begin, you have to remember that you're getting the field players who will populate your 25-man roster back in game shape. Nobody's ready to play nine innings. So you ease them into it. They start at two or three innings a game and work up from there. But who replaces your starting second baseman in those early games? Even your backup infielder isn't ready to play six innings, so you'd better have a capable guy ready to go. That's another avenue for the guys on minor league deals or non-roster invites. It keeps your starting players fresh and allows those backup guys to strut their stuff. When you have to choose between releasing them or assigning them to the minors, maybe they've done enough to impress another club. And maybe that club has something you need and a trade is born.

The Nationals' base in Viera, Fla. - a 75-minute one-way trip is their shortest each spring - is another reason for extra hands. While major league clubs are supposed to field representative teams when they travel, no team sends all of its frontline players on the road. Sometimes, it's better to leave a guy behind, let him get some work in the cage or on the back fields. No veteran wants to make all the two-hour, one-way bus trips. So you spot in your group of invites to give guys like Ryan Zimmerman or Jayson Werth a blow. As teams get closer to opening day, the regulars play more and the ranks of the reserves are thinned out.

Then there's competition - it's the key to every camp. Even guys with a guaranteed spot need to be pushed a little, and who better to do the pushing than a young, hungry farm guy or a fringe major leaguer trying to maintain salary and service time? Guys like Bell may seem like fool's gold, but they can push an Aaron Barrett or A.J. Cole to be better pitchers. And the presence of some veterans is a calculated move, since managers and GMs recognize that a veteran's counsel and influence can be critical in the development of a young talent. I always liked to make a mental note of locker stall placement in the clubhouse; you'd be surprised how many times those experienced guys in camp on minor league deals wind up lockering next to the hottest prospects.

And if you think it's all about the money, think again. Sure, for some guys it's a very necessary paycheck, especially those guys who feel like they're running out of chances. But there's nothing wrong with being an organizational guy, a player with a role for which you're well-compensated and get to continue playing the game you love. Remember Crash Davis in "Bull Durham," whose sole role was to mentor young Nuke LaLoosh? As soon as Nuke was called to the show, Crash needed to find a new job. But there's nothing wrong with, say, being a catcher with an uncanny ability to get the most out of young pitchers. Maybe it's not your ticket to the majors, but maybe it is your way to sustained employment.

Every guy in camp has a specific reason to be there, be it the position he plays, the experience he brings, or the hand he throws or bats with. And every one of those seemingly innocuous transactions announced in December and early January is actually a calculated move designed with the long haul of a major league season in mind.