{"id":810535,"date":"2026-09-21T11:27:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T11:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/810535\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T11:27:20","slug":"yankees-playoff-roster-prediction-who-makes-the-cut-with-division-dreams-dwindling-ahead-of-rays-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/810535\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees playoff roster prediction: Who makes the cut with division dreams dwindling ahead of Rays series?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly after getting walked-off by the Diamondbacks on Saturday night, the Yankees acknowledged their reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cMathematically, [it\u2019s] probably pretty tough, but you never know,\u201d Cody Bellinger said of winning the American League East<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unable to bounce back with an 8-4 loss in Sunday\u2019s series finale against Arizona, the second-place Yankees are now six games back of the division-leading Rays with seven games left in the regular season. The rivals will play four of those games against each other at Yankee Stadium this week, starting with a doubleheader on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Aaron Boone acknowledged that his team will probably have to sweep the Rays just for a crack at the division crown, as FanGraphs<\/a> gave the Yankees a measly 2.7% chance of winning the AL East before Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a chance,\u201d Cam Schlittler said, \u201cbut we gotta play our asses off a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Yankees still technically have a shot to defy the odds, the far likelier scenario is that their postseason begins on Sept. 29 at home against Boston in the Wild Card round for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, let\u2019s try to predict what the club\u2019s roster could look like for that series.<\/p>\n

Hitters (15): Ben Rice, Heliot Ramos, Spencer Jones, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, Ryan McMahon, George Lombard Jr., Paul Goldschmidt, Luis Garc\u00eda Jr., Jazz Chisholm Jr., Jos\u00e9 Caballero, Austin Wells, Ali S\u00e1nchez, Anthony Volpe, Amed Rosario<\/p>\n

With the Yankees providing minimal info on Aaron Judge\u2019s calf strain<\/a>, it can\u2019t be assumed he\u2019ll be available.<\/p>\n

Jazz Chisholm Jr. could return from a sprained thumb as soon as Tuesday. Meanwhile, Trent Grisham is still in play as a playoff option as he recovers from a hamstring strain, but Boone said that activating him before the end of the regular season is \u201ccomplicated,\u201d partly due to roster logistics.<\/p>\n

With Max Schuemann presumably the corresponding move for Chisholm, the Yankees would have to option someone else if they activated Grisham before the playoffs. That someone wouldn\u2019t be able to be recalled for 10 days barring a new injury; it seems like Jasson Dom\u00ednguez is being protected from that window in case he\u2019s needed for the Wild Card roster.<\/p>\n

Grisham has been doing baseball activities and is \u201cpretty deep into his running progression,\u201d Boone said. If he is on the Wild Card roster, the Yankees will have an interesting decision to make between him and Spencer Jones in center field.<\/p>\n

Third base could also be a conundrum, as Ryan McMahon and Jos\u00e9 Caballero don\u2019t offer much offensively, and Amed Rosario is a poor defender. He\u2019s only on the roster as an option against lefties, even though he hasn\u2019t been great against them.<\/p>\n

Another idea would be to use Volpe, who has been playing second, at third against lefties since he played a few games there in the minors this season. However, he doesn\u2019t have a strong arm, and he hasn\u2019t been working at third base since being recalled. Volpe said that the Yankees have not talked to him about manning the hot corner before the regular season ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d Boone said. \u201cFirst things first, getting Jazz back, and then we\u2019ll figure out as the week unfolds how I want to play it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volpe can also play second over Chisholm against lefties.<\/p>\n

Pitchers (11): Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Will Warren, David Bednar, Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn, Clarke Schmidt, John Schreiber, Tim Hill, Ryan Weathers<\/p>\n

As things stand, Carlos Rod\u00f3n, Max Fried, Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler are scheduled to pitch against the Rays, in that order. That would give Cole, who has struggled to get swing-and-miss<\/a>, an extra day of rest if he were to start Game 1 of the Wild Card round. Schlittler, the AL Cy Young frontrunner, would be on regular rest if tabbed for Game 1.<\/p>\n

Because the Wild Card round is a best-of-three series, Rod\u00f3n isn\u2019t needed, especially with Will Warren expected to work out of the bullpen and able to provide length.<\/p>\n

Warren, slated to make one more start this season after struggling on Sunday, is one of a few converted starters who could impact the Bombers\u2019 bullpen this postseason. Clarke Schmidt and Ryan Weathers are the others. Schmidt, being cautious in his return from Tommy John surgery, couldn\u2019t come into Sunday\u2019s game due to some bicep cramping, while Weathers isn\u2019t expected to return from a flexor strain before the regular season ends.<\/p>\n

Still, neither Boone nor pitching coach Matt Blake ruled out the idea of Weathers\u2019 first game back coming in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if \u2018comfortable\u2019 is [the right word],\u201d Blake said, \u201cbut it might be the course of action where he\u2019s the best option even though he hasn\u2019t pitched in the last three or four weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the relievers that the Yankees have leaned on all season, David Bednar, Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick headline the group. All have been used heavily, especially Headrick.<\/p>\n

The lefty allowed a grand slam to Nolan Arenado and saw his fastball velocity down an average of 1.3 mph during his major league-leading 79th appearance on Sunday, but he insisted that he feels fine physically. Boone also downplayed concerns over Headrick\u2019s ongoing velocity fluctuations, though he did say that he hopes to get him and other relievers \u201cin a good spot\u201d with some rest ahead of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

That said, the Yankees still haven\u2019t been eliminated from the AL East race. They\u2019ll keep trying to take the division from the Rays until they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to show up Tuesday,\u201d Boone said, \u201cand try and kick their butt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortly after getting walked-off by the Diamondbacks on Saturday night, the Yankees acknowledged their reality. \u201cMathematically, [it\u2019s] probably…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[1797,8125,5,4,45688,1690,62,2548,2547,297,142],"class_list":["post-810535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-yankees","tag-aaron-boone","tag-al-east","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-wild-card","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkyankees","tag-rays","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117308794063858789","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}