Last Monday, we began the 2026 edition of our annual Making the Team Meter by revealing a team that, despite coming into camp with three injuries in the starting rotation and their shortstop recovering from shoulder surgery, had only a handful of bullpen spots and a bench spot truly up for grabs. Fast forward nine days, and…surprisingly, not all that much has changed. While the team has begun the process of trimming down the roster, the number of players still at the World Baseball Classic has meant
that the team has been less aggressive than usual at sending guys down to the minor league camp.
Despite this relative lack of cuts, we can look at usage, individual performance, and comments by Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman to get a sense as to how these few roster battles are shaping up, and begin to more firmly project the anticipated Opening Day roster.
As a reminder, here’s the key that we’re using:
Also, a bit of housekeeping for this series: to help keep things clear as the roster shapes up, players who were cut or put on the injured list prior to last week have been removed from the list, while those optioned to the minor league camp since last week’s post will see their status changed this week before dropping off the list next week. For our purposes, this means that Gerrit Cole and Anthony Volpe will be dropped from the list, while Spencer Jones will remain here for this week (but will drop off next week).
Let’s start with the pitching staff.
The Yankees’ first round of cuts have hit the pitching staff hardest, with Travis MacGregor, Drake Fellows, Chase Hampton, Adam Kloffenstein, and Elmer Rodríguez being optioned to the minors over the past few days. None of this are surprising, with perhaps the possible exception of Rodríguez. The right-handed starter had sparked a lot of discussion with his two spring training appearances before heading off to join the Puerto Rico squad for the World Baseball Classic. He then continued his strong spring, allowing just one hit in three scoreless innings in an exhibition against the Red Sox, then three shutout innings against Cuba this past Monday. Ultimately, although the Yankees have quite a bit of injuries in the rotation, they’re not so desperate that they feel the need to have one of their top pitching prospects skip Triple-A (he had just one start with the Scranton RailRiders last season).
The main core of the Yankees’ pitching staff has not changed up to this point. Now that he has made an appearance, Cam Schlittler shifts from yellow to green, as there is not currently any concern over his availability for Opening Day. Judging from what he’s said when speaking to the media, I think if Gerrit Cole had his way, Carlos Lagrange would start the season in the rotation, but he’s not the general manager, and frankly, the team will look to see him cut down his walk rate before he becomes a plausible option in the rotation.
On the other hand, the battle for the bullpen has gotten…not exactly clearer, but interesting. The three favorites heading into the spring have not exactly played well. From the outside looking in, Angel Chivilli has probably played himself out of a job, given his eight earned runs in 4.2 innings, but then again, Fernando Cruz had an ERA above nine last spring, and then once the season starter, became one of Aaron Boone’s most reliable bullpen arms. Fellow former Rockie Jake Bird, acquired last winter, has put together an up and down spring, flashing an ability to generate strikeouts while also struggling to avoid hard contact. Rule 5 Draft selection Cade Winquest has also struggled this spring, but needs to remain with the big league club all season or else he returns to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Some of the lesser-known arms, meanwhile, have put together some strong performances. Yerry De los Santos, who was solid in 25 appearances last season, has yet to allow a run this spring. Brent Headrick, meanwhile, has struck out eight in 3.2 innings, and is also a lefty. Osvaldo Bido has only taken the hill twice so far, but he looked solid in both appearances and is out of options, so he might be a dark horse candidate to make the roster. Still, at this point, it’s anyone’s game — and as we saw with Ryan Yarbrough last year, it’s possible that the last pitchers in the bullpen aren’t even currently employed by the Yankees.
Next up, the catchers.
Last week, I listed Austin Wells as green and J.C. Escarra as yellow, noting that the Yankees could opt to roll with Ben Rice as the backup catcher. However, I did say, “If Rice exclusively plays first base this week, then we can safely assume it’ll be Wells and Escarra.” Well, Rice has yet to don the catcher’s gear for a game, and so barring a last-minute trade, we can safely assume that the Yankees will be rostering both Wells and Escarra.
Last, and certainly not least, the position players:
Thanks to the number of important Yankees position players in the World Baseball Classic — Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Paul Goldschmidt, José Caballero, and Amed Rosario — the Bombers have only optioned one to Triple-A, prospect Spencer Jones, and they have given extensive playing time to a bunch of depth options ostensibly competing for a roster spot. Most years, analyzing how the Yankees have been utilizing these players would go a long way towards projecting the Opening Day roster. But thanks to the fact that the Yankees have been healthy so far (knock on wood), there’s currently only one bench spot available, and who it goes to will depend less on who performances well enough to force their way onto the roster, and more on how the team will fit together the best.
At the moment, Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario will join Escarra on the bench, giving the Yankees a pair of right-handed bench bats to balance out their very left-handed lineup; FanGraphs even considers them platoon partners with Ben Rice (unlikely, although Rice’s days off will certainly line up with tough lefties) and Ryan McMahon (very plausible). For the final spot, there are two ways the Yankees can approach the final spot: Randal Grichuk or a shortstop.
Ever since Grichuk signed to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, everybody immediately pegged him for the final spot. Headed into his age-35 season, Grichuk has made a career out of his ability to hit left-handed pitching, and while it’s certainly possible that his 89 wRC+ against southpaws last year was the beginning of his decline, there’s enough red in his Statcast data to at least roll the dice. If he shows that he has something left in the tank, the Yankees can bench Trent Grisham against lefties (he had a .182/.303/.348 slash line against them last season) and shift Cody Bellinger to center, exchanging defense for offense against southpaws.
This possibility, however, can only occur if Ryan McMahon shows an ability to serve as Caballero’s backup at shortstop, which has so far been a mixed bag. If the team opts to go with more of a sure thing for the spot — and, given the organization’s emphasis on infield defense in recent years, that is a very plausible outcome — then any one of the infielders in camp theoretically has a shot. Judging from the organization’s tendencies the last few springs, Paul DeJong and Max Schuemann should be considered the favorites, the former due to his track record, and the latter to his strong performance this spring and ability to also serve as a backup in the outfield. Note that Oswaldo Cabrera, who would normally be the default option here, made his return to the diamond this week; we’ll see how the organization uses him over the next week before we can truly judge whether the team will carry him on the Opening Day roster, or send him to Scranton to continue his recovery from the gruesome ankle injury that ended his 2025 early.
Aside from these players, it seems unlikely that anyone else has a realistic shot to make the Opening Day roster unless the injury bug hits. And, since there is still quite a bit of time left in the spring, and the injury bug hits every team at some point every season, only a small number of players have seen their odds shift from yellow to red — Seth Brown, because he fills the same niche as Cody Bellinger as a lefty outfielder/first baseman, but worse; Marco Luciano, because he has yet to record a hit; and Braden Shewmake, because he both has struggled to hit and bats lefty. For any of these three to make the roster, several things need to go wrong; everybody else, such as Jasson Domínguez, is only one or two injuries at most away from making the trip to San Francisco later this month.
This is where the Yankees’ Opening Day roster battles appear to stand. Tune in again next week to see how things change after another week of game action — and as always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
