It’s our final Monday before Opening Day, and you know what that means: It’s time for the finale of the 2025 Pinstripe Alley Making the Team Meter. Most years, the roster would largely be set by this point, with just one or two spots up for grabs, and we would use this post as an opportunity to preview all the different options the Yankees have remaining. Two years ago, for example, DJ LeMahieu’s late-spring injury meant that a bench spot was suddenly made available, and three years ago, the competition
for the final spot in the rotation (between Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez) and the fourth outfield job (between Willie Calhoun, Estevan Florial, and Rafael Ortega) were still in full swing.
This year, however, a rather healthy roster — a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one — combined with the Yankees’ early start to the season has meant that the roster is pretty much already set; our main task today is, in fact, to review how we got here.
As always, in case you need it, I’ve included the key below as a refresher. I’d also like to remind you that, like last week, players who were cut or removed from the injured list prior to last Monday will not appear on these lists, while those cut in the last seven days will.
As always, let’s start with the pitchers:
For the first time I can remember, the Yankees look to head into Opening Day with the pitching staff they entered the spring with. Max Fried gets the ball on Wednesday, as expected. Cam Schlittler — the only pitcher with anything resembling a health issue this spring, when he had some back problems early — follows up with the start on Friday. Judging from this past weekend, Will Warren seems lined up to begin the season as the No. 3 starter. Despite his struggles this spring, Ryan Weathers will be the fourth starter. In fact, at this stage, the only question for the last week is whether the Yankees will open the season using four or five starters, as the team’s large number of off-days in the first week and a half allow them to roll with just four starters the first two spins through the order. After yesterday’s game, we received that answer: they will use a four-man rotation to start the season.
What the Yankees decide to do with Luis Gil will shape their plans for the bullpen. At the moment, David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Fernando Cruz, Tim Hill, Ryan Yarbrough, and Paul Blackburn have six of the eight spots lined up, leaving either two (if the team opts to have Gil piggyback one of the other starters) or three (if they send Gil to Triple-A for the first two turns through the rotation) spots up for grabs. Over the course of this week, we began to see a little bit into the Yankees’ thought process here, as Angel Chivilli, Carson Coleman, Bradley Hanner, Carlos Lagrange, Kervin Castro, Yerry de los Santos, and Yovanny Cruz were cut from big league camp.
That leaves Osvaldo Bido, Jake Bird, Brent Headrick, and Cade Winquest competing for spots. Speaking to the YES Network during the fourth inning of yesterday’s game, manager Aaron Boone indicated that the Yankees were still evaluating their options, and would not make a decision regarding until either Monday (so, today) or Tuesday. The direction the Yankees go here will depend a large part on their priorities. If the Yankees want to ensure that they hold onto all four arms — which is something they tend to value, at least early in the year — they’ll go with Bido and Winquest, as these two must remain with the Major League club (Bido is out of options and Winquest is a Rule 5 Draft pick), while Bird and Headrick have options remaining. If their focus is purely on performance this spring, then Headrick, who has 12 strikeouts in seven innings of work, and Bido, who has allowed just one run in six innings, probably get the nod. Meanwhile, Bird is the only one with anything resembling a meaningful track record, and Boone has continued to praise Winquest throughout the spring, leading some reporters to (in my opinion, preemptively) assert that he has won a job on the Opening Day roster.
Regardless of who the Yankees give the preliminary nod to, however, there’s no guarantee that they’ll actually spend much time in the Bronx, or even stick on the roster all the way to Opening Day. The Yankees have a tendency to acquire bullpen arms through waivers or the trade market at roster cutdowns: they signed Yarbrough the same exact day the final Making the Team Meter post went live last season, acquired Jake Cousins and J.T. Brubaker during the last weekend of March two years ago, brought in Colten Brewer Brewer during the same weekend in 2023, and traded for Miguel Castro and David McKay during the first four days of April in 2022. Will we see the pattern repeat this year? Only time will tell.
Behind the plate, the situation is much less complex:
Interestingly enough, manager Aaron Boone said this week that the Yankees will be carrying three catchers on their Opening Day roster, which told us that the organization still considers Ben Rice to be a catcher even as he’s being groomed to be the long-term first baseman; that was reinforced on Sunday, as Rice got some action behind the plate (and J.C. Escarra at first base!) in the later innings, catching some of the team’s high-leverage relievers. That might give us a clue as to who will be getting sent to Triple-A when Anthony Volpe returns from the injured list — but since we’re focused here on Opening Day, and not the first of May, that’s a conversation for another day. The health of the roster could look very different by then as well.
Last, and certainly not least, the rest of the position players:
With the entire lineup staying healthy throughout the spring — no small feat — the only real question mark these last few weeks have been how the Yankees would fill out their final bench spot. Over the last seven days, it became obvious that the Yankees were going to hand the final bench spot to Randal Grichuk. Speaking to reporters last week, Boone said that he felt comfortable having Ryan McMahon fill in at shortstop from time to time; an understandable plan, albeit one that anyone who read last week’s MTTM knows I disagree with wholeheartedly. Then on Wednesday, Paul DeJong revealed to reporters that he would not be exercising his veteran opt-out, and would report to Triple-A Scranton if he did not earn a roster spot in the spring. Friday saw the organization option Jasson Domínguez to Triple-A, a move that had been long expected, and on Saturday, Oswaldo Cabrera and Max Schuemann joined him. And on Sunday, the team traded Jorbit Vivas to the Washington Nationals for minor-league pitcher Sean Paul Liñan, as the former was out of options.
Thanks to this flurry of news, the Yankees’ collection of position players is now set. From left to right, Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, and Aaron Judge are the three starting outfielders, while McMahon, José Caballero, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Ben Rice will be the Opening Day infield, third to first, and Giancarlo Stanton serving as the everyday designated hitter. When facing lefties, Grichuk and Amed Rosario will likely replace Grisham and McMahon, respectively, with Bellinger shifting from left to center. Paul Goldschmidt backs up Rice at first, with the bulk of his playing time coming against hard lefties.
The last few years, questions still remained in the spring’s final days, even if the roster was ostensibly set. Last year, for example, we followed rumors that the team was still looking to add another infielder or a right-handed bat to replace Oswald Peraza and/or Pablo Reyes on the bench. This year, though, the combination of health and proactive planning has meant that the Yankees have Domínguez and Cabrera — two players who were in the starting lineup on Opening Day last season — beginning the year in Scranton. And so, barring something that comes out of nowhere today or tomorrow, this will be lineup that will start the season.
And so, we have the first draft of the 2026 New York Yankees. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below!
