We’ve already covered some notable roster additions for the Guardians and Mets as the Division Series begins, and the Royals are sticking with the same 26 players used in the Wild Card Series against the Orioles. Now that all eight teams in the LDS rounds have revealed their rosters, here are the details…
- The Padres made two changes from their NLDS roster, adding left-hander Martin Perez and right-hander Alek Jacob and removing Joe Musgrove and infielder Nick Ahmed. Musgrove was obviously out due to his impending Tommy John surgery, while replacing Ahmed with a pitcher gives San Diego 13 pitchers to go with 13 position players. Perez is one of five southpaws on San Diego’s roster, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (X link) was among those who noted that the Padres are guarding themselves as best they can against Shohei Ohtani and other powerful left-handed Dodgers bats.
- The Dodgers will go with an even mix of 13 batters and 13 pitchers, and rookie Edgardo Henriquez has made the list of available arms. Henriquez only made his MLB debut on September 24 and he has played in just three games as a big leaguer, but Los Angeles will give the hard-throwing righty a look in October to add some velocity to the bullpen. It’s probably safe to assume that Henriquez wouldn’t have made the cut if the Dodgers weren’t ravaged by pitching injuries, yet the rookie also got the nod over veteran Joe Kelly, who had an inconsistent year but was pitching well after returning from the IL in mid-September. On the position player side, L.A. didn’t include either Kevin Kiermaier or James Outman, so Andy Pages will be the only true backup outfielder along with utilitymen Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor in the bench mix.
- The Phillies will use 14 position players and 12 pitchers in their NLDS matchup with the Mets, with left-hander Kolby Allard joining the relief corps. Allard has worked as something of a swingman throughout his career, and this ability of covering multiple innings earned Allard the spot, as manager Rob Thomson told MLB.com’s Paul Casella and other reporters. “He’s going to probably give us the most length if we get into an extra-inning game….so I just wanted as much length as we could get,” Thomson said. Utilityman Weston Wilson also got the Phils’ last bench spot, as Casella observes that Wilson brings more positional versatility than outfielder Cal Stevenson.
- The Yankees went heavier on position players (15) than pitchers (11) for their ALDS roster against the Royals. Anthony Rizzo is missing the series due to two broken fingers and DJ LeMahieu wasn’t yet activated from the injured list, but New York still has plenty of room on its bench, including pinch-running specialist Duke Ellis. The Yankees appear to be loading up on bats to take on the Royals’ tough rotation and more porous bullpen, which left right-hander Marcus Stroman off the ALDS roster as the odd man out of the starting staff.
- The Tigers made just one change from their Wild Card Series roster, as rookie righty Keider Montero has been included in place of Casey Mize. Montero posted a 4.76 ERA over 98 1/3 innings in his first Major League season, starting 16 of 19 games. This doesn’t necessarily mean Montero will start against the Guardians in the ALDS, however, as Detroit’s pitching staff (apart from ace Tarik Skubal) is very malleable in terms of specific roles.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
That stroman deal was so bad
YankeesBleacherCreature
Enjoy watching the series!
johnsilver
YBC- Tell me Trevino isn’t catching him.. KC runs more than Boston does and we both know what Boston did to Stroman..
YankeesBleacherCreature
Wells is starting tonight. Stroman isn’t in this series.
UncleJesse
Stroman ain’t no Madison Bumgarner, that’s for sure. Hell, he isn’t even on Barry Zito’s level.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Marcus stroman future San Francisco giants pitcher
cpdpoet
The Weston Wilson show continues…..
Jerry Hairston Jr's Toupee
Dodgers gunna miss Kiermaier’s defense in center. But I understand. His bat is just so awful….
Jerry Hairston Jr's Toupee
But so are Taylor and E. Hernandez’s….
B-rocker
Taylor Finished the season strong, slashing .345 (20-for-58)/.433/.586 with 16 runs, five doubles, three homers and nine RBI in his last 25 games since the beginning of September…finished September with the fifth best batting average in the National League, while ranking sixth in the league in OPS and ninth in OBP
B-rocker
Kiké hit .308 in Sept.
BlueSkies_LA
And the other reason he is on the roster is the Padres are loading up on LHP, not to mention, he’s been a postseason monster in the past. Altogether not a difficult or surprising choice.
johnsilver
Don’t forget he took Jansen deep right after the AS break vs Boston, turning a loss into a win for the LAD..
TradeAcuna
Why must baseball be such a b and force me to root for the Phillies with guys like Marsh on the team?! Oh, cause f the Mets and Lindor.
TradeAcuna
Why must baseball be such a b and force me to root for the Padres with guys like Tatison the team?! Oh, cause f the Dodgers..
Mojo37
such a sad, angry little man
UncleJesse
Garbage take from an account with a Trump profile pic. Shocking.
TradeAcuna
Have mercy!
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
Don’t bogart that joint TradeAcuna, pass it over to me…
DarkSide830
TradeLuisangelAcuña
YankeesBleacherCreature
Duke Ellis over DJL!
CravenMoorehead
Give me a “pinch-running specialist” any day in the playoffs over DJ LeGroundOut.
PronounsRUS
The World Series belongs on the east coast because California baseball is dumb
NYCityRiddler
RUS, never heard that before. Not sure why but it strikes me as funny. Ahahaha!
THEY LIVE!!!
Can’t stand the Mets and the Phils make me ill too.
GO DODGERS!!!
THEY LIVE!!!
Kiermaier would’ve made my roster.
highflyballintorightfield
Bigger surprise for the Dodgers was including Grove. But probably prudent to add a multi-inning mop-up option if there is a game that gets out of hand. I think the new guy was a lock considering how they used him in the last week–the last call was Grove vs Kelly. Kelly was not used in high-leverage and Grove can cover more innings.
Butter Biscuits
No Graterol for the WC series definitely sucks