Sept. 1 has traditionally been the day MLB rosters could expand past their April-to-August limit.
For many years, that limit was 25, but teams could in theory activate everyone on their 40-man roster. In practice, most teams worked with 30-35 active players.
With the recent CBA changes, teams now have active rosters of 26 players through Aug. 31, and can add only two players in September, for a 28-man limit.
In practice, this has changed the previous “give the kids a chance to play” September into a “let’s re-activate guys on the injured list” month.
Today, the Cubs did one of those things by activating lefthander Jordan Wicks from the 60-day injured list and placing him on the active roster.