"The correlation between spending and wins has been declining for many years now -- to the point of almost zero last year. Young players provide more WAR than ever before." -- Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski, as said to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald on Aug. 22, 2016

To the September call-up, there was a season. Sept. 1 and its attendant roster expansion once meant that MLB teams would recall or purchase the contracts of their top prospects in the upper minors, even if those players weren't coming up to play regularly. But two shifts, one regarding how teams manage players' service time and another having to do with the rapid contributions major league-ready players can make, have led us to the point that the concept of the meaningful September call-up has died without so much as a wake to celebrate its life.

The rub now is that teams no longer want to bring up top prospects unless they're ready to play and will have an opportunity to do so, either in an everyday role, as part of the rotation or as a significant piece in the bullpen. That all but precludes the old tradition of bringing up prospects on or after Sept. 1 merely to get them acclimated to the majors because doing so gives the players about 30 days of service time and might mean adding them to the 40-man roster before it's necessary.