State of the 40-man roster looking ahead to September

Four days before rosters expand, the Yankees have one open spot on their 40-man roster, which makes it easy to call up one player like Andrew Bailey, James Pazos or Rico Noel who’s not currently on the roster. If they want to add more than one, they’ll have to make room by cutting someone else loose. Here’s the current state of the 40-man roster as we look ahead to reinforcements arriving early next week. 

ON THE ACTIVE ROSTER (24)
Pitchers: Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi, Luis Severino, Ivan Nova, Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Justin Wilson, Adam Warren, Chasen Shreve, Branden Pinder
Hitters: Brian McCann, John Ryan Murphy, Mark Teixeira, Greg Bird, Stephen Drew, Didi Gregorius, Brendan Ryan, Chase Headley, Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Chris Young, Alex Rodriguez

Right now the Yankees have an open spot on their active roster. Given the injuries to Teixeira and Ellsbury, it’s possible the Yankees could call up an extra position player for this weekend, but that would leave them with a short bullpen. They could activate Bryan Mitchell from the disabled list, or they could use that open 40-man spot to go ahead and bring up a guy like Andrew Bailey (if that’s in the plans).

IMMEDIATE IMPACT WITH FUTURE UPSIDE (6)
Pitchers: Bryan Mitchell, Nick Rumbelow, Nick Goody
Hitters: Gary Sanchez, Rob Refsnyder, Slade Heathcott

Players who have a combination of significant long-term upside with an obvious short-term role to play. In other words, these seem to be the most obvious call-up candidates. Mitchell will obviously come off the disabled list when he’s ready (he actually could be activated sooner rather than later), and both Goody and Rumbelow will surely come back as soon as they’re eligible. Adding Sanchez seems to depend entirely upon his health. He hurt his hamstring on Wednesday and is currently on the Triple-A disabled list.

YOUNGISH PLAYERS WITH EXPERIENCE (5)
Pitchers: Caleb Cotham, Chris Martin
Hitters: Cole Figueroa, Jose Pirela, Dustin Ackley

Not the names who get considerable attention on prospect rankings, but each of these guys is in his mid-to-late 20s and has played in the big leagues this season (even veteran Ackley is only a year and a half older than Pirela). A guy like Figueroa probably doesn’t have much future in the organization, so he could be an easy DFA candidate (perhaps Martin and Cotham as well). A guy like Ackley was clearly acquired with next season in mind, so he’ll almost certain sticking around (probably Pirela as well). Could add all six of these guys. Could DFA a few of them to open spots for others. Pirela doesn’t get much prospect attention, but his Triple-A numbers are once again impressive.

60-DAY DISABLED LIST CANDIDATES (3)
Pitchers: Domingo German, Jacob Lindgren, CC Sabathia
Hitters: None

Sabathia believes he will back, so the 60-day disabled list is not in the plans for him. But he’s one the disabled list at the moment, and if his knee doesn’t respond to rest and rehab, his plan could change. If Sabathia can’t pitch again this year, the Yankees might as well give his roster spot to someone else. Lindgren would surely be a call-up lock, but he’s not even throwing bullpens yet. German had season-ending surgery, but the Yankees might prefer not to give him a month of service time by putting him on the 60-day.

PROSPECT WITH AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE (1)
Pitchers: None
Hitters: Tyler Austin

Unlike anyone else on the 40-man, Austin’s hit enough in the past that the Yankees protected him from the Rule 5 draft last offseason, and the team says they haven’t given up on his offensive potential, yet Austin struggled so much in Triple-A that he was demoted to Double-A mid-season. His numbers have improved in Trenton, but he hasn’t performed at a level that suggests he can help the Yankees immediately. Would the Yankees call him up anyway, would they consider designating him for assignment, or will they simply keep him on the roster without promoting him?

Associated Press photos

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