Mike,

Are you saying that a player like Marrero would NOT qualify as the required backup/2nd catcher if such a rule comes into existence?

I would think that any player that had any time behind the plate (even 1/3 inning) would qualify as "the backup". The purpose of this rule would be as a stopgap measure to the programming error that makes non-catchers too good behind the plate.

My real questions are:

1) Are we going to have an official rule for this?

2) How will it be enforced?

3) If we do end up having this 2 active catchers rule, when will the new rule be started? If it's going to be for this season, we need to this now so that we can plan ahead.

Also, even with this new rule, there will still be the rare instance of non-catchers behind the plate and I still think the programming needs to be reworked to correct the problem, rather than patch it with a rule change. For instance: I pull my SP for a pinch hitter in the 4th or 5th inning and the PH happens to be my backup catcher. My primary catcher goes down with an injury in the 6th inning...or maybe I did a double switch and the backup catcher gets injured. In these situations, we'll still have non-catchers playing the position.

Jon