Who Should Make the Yankees Wild Card Series Roster?

By EJ Fagan

September 2026

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The following post comes from EJ Fagan's Substack, Baseball Is Life. It is shared with permission.

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The Wild Card Series is approaching. Who makes the 26-man roster? Let’s talk about all of the possibilities.

I’m just going to assume that the 20 following players are locks:

• Starting pitchers: Cole, Fried, Schlittler

• Relief Pitchers: Bednar, Blackburn, Headrick, Warren, Yarbrough

• Infielders: Garcia, Rice, Wells, Sanchez, Chisholm, McMahon, Lombard, Cabarello, Goldschmidt

• Outfielders: Bellinger, Ramos, Jones

That leaves six spots to fill. Here are the players on the bubble:

• Pitchers: Rodon, Hill, Fulmer, Schreiber, Weathers, Cruz

• Hitters: Stanton, Volpe, Rosario, Dominguez

The Yankees carried 12 pitchers during the 2025 Wild Card series. The roster did not include Luis Gil, the team’s #4 starter and Game 1 ALDS starter. For that reason, I’m excluding Carlos Rodon (or Gerrit Cole if they go that way) from the Wild Card roster.

I think they carry 11 this year. Hill, Fulmer and Schreiber seem like locks from this perspective. Ideally none of them pitch important innings. In 2025, only five pitchers saw action during the Wild Card series thanks in part to Cam Schlittler’s legendary Game 3 performance. If the Yankees want a 12th, they might pick the healthiest of Cruz and Weathers. I wouldn’t be shocked to see them go 11 though; they are already rostering a lot of garbage time guys.

That leaves three more hitters to add.

Stanton seems pretty likely at this point. He’ll be a pure pinch hitter, but the Yankees are going to see a ton of lefties against the Red Sox. He can’t be worse than Rosario.

Next, I’m picking Volpe. While he’s been pretty awful since coming up from Triple-A on offense, he’s a lot more versatile than he used to be. I’ve been impressed with him at second base and he could also see time at short and third base. His base running has been strong since coming up too. I’m less crazy about him even as a platoon hitter.

Finally, I’m adding Dominguez. The Yankees don’t need Rosario in the infield anymore. While he can play outfielder, he’s not much of a defensive update over Dominguez. The Martian is a pretty talented baserunner and can run into one a little better than Rosario. Amed had hit .222/.253/.545 since the All Star Break with no real platoon advantage. He’s useless even as the third right handed batter off the bench.

If Trent Grisham can hit (he’s taking BP), I’ll take him over Dominguez. It would be nice to have a lefty hitter on the bench against Sonny Gray. But he really shouldn’t touch the field.