Where there are sports, there are injuries. Every professional sport treats its injured players in a variety of ways. For Major League Baseball, players who are unable to play because of injury are placed on the disabled list, or DL for short. Teams place injured players on the DL for an extended period of time in order to make room for a healthier person for their active roster. Teams have two choices when placing their players on the DL. For minor injuries, teams can choose to have the player land on the 15-day DL. For those with more serious ailments, teams can place their players on the 60-day DL.
15-Day DL
A player who finds himself on the 15-day DL is not allowed to play for 15 consecutive days. If a player on the DL is still unable to return to the field after 15 days because of the injury, the team can keep him on the DL until he is healthy enough. He cannot come back any sooner than the 15 days. According to rule 3.17 in Major League Baseball, any player on the DL is permitted to take part in pregame activities but cannot "enter the playing surface at any time or for any purpose during the game." While on the DL, a player may be sent to the minor leagues for rehabilitation. According to baseball-reference.com, the modern 15-day DL was put in effect in 1984. It was a 10-day DL prior to that year.
60-Day DL
For those players who require more time than a couple of weeks on the DL, the second option is the 60-day DL. These players' injuries are more severe and take more time to heal than those of players placed on the 15-day DL. As is the case with the 15-day DL, players on the 60-day DL can eventually recuperate in the minor leagues but cannot return to the majors until at least 60 consecutive days have passed. A player can be moved from 15-day DL status to 60-day, but a player on the 60-day DL cannot move to the 15-day DL.
Roster Sizes
In Major League Baseball, teams have two different rosters. There is the active roster, which comprises 25 players who play during the regular season. There is also a 40-man roster called the expanded roster. The club's roster gets expanded when the regular season is over, and the postseason or playoffs begins. When a player is put on the DL, another player who was either previously on the DL, a free agent, traded or called up from the minors is put in his place. Those on the 15-day DL still occupy a spot on the expanded roster, whereas those on the 60-day DL do not.
Day to Day
When a player is injured and he cannot participate in baseball activities, he can be listed as "day to day." This means that the team is not sure whether the player is injured enough to be placed on the DL. During this time, the player is still part of the active roster, but he is monitored closely so the team can determine whether he will be put on the DL or only miss a couple of games.
Retroactive
If the club's medical staff determines that the player who was listed as day to day has to be placed on the DL, the team can put him on the DL, retroactive to the day he last played in a game. Since the player wasn't playing during that time, he had already started the healing process, so the team doesn't have to play shorthanded longer than necessary.
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