Playoff teams have made their Wild Card round rosters official. Boston Red Sox fans were delighted by Garrett Crochet's activation. On the other side, New York Yankees fans were greeted by the surprise addition of Giancarlo Stanton, but Aaron Judge won't be active to face Boston.
After the initial excitement wore off, Greg Joyce, a Yankees beat reporter for the New York Post, noticed an oddity on the Yankees roster: they were only carrying 10 pitchers into the Wild Card round. While the first round of the playoffs usually requires fewer arms because it is only a best-of-three series, most teams carry 11 or 12 pitchers, of which three will be starters. That gives most teams eight or nine relievers to work with in case anything odd happens. The Yankees are the only team of the eight to carry only 10 pitchers into the Wild Card round.
The Yankees are taking a big risk carrying only seven relief options. With Cam Schlittler, Max Fried, and Gerrit Cole named as the three starters, they will be using Ryan Yarbrough, Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn, David Bednar, John Schreiber, Will Warren, and Carlos Rodón as their relief options. It could be hubris, thinking they will only play two games, or strategy, but either way, it's a big risk.
The Yankees are creating self-imposed problems if the series doesn't go to their plan
No Ryan Weathers on the Yankees' ALWCS roster. Ryan Yarbrough and John Schreiber made it.
— Greg Joyce (@GJoyce9) September 29, 2026
They go 10 pitchers, 16 position players, allowing Aaron Boone to get aggressive with his bench.
The biggest problem this poses for New York is how much extra pressure this will put on their starters. If one gets pulled early from a start, the bullpen will be heavily used. Even if they use one of their starters in bulk relief, that still shortens their options a lot more than other teams who have the extra arms. If one game goes to extra innings and the series gets pushed to a third game, all of their relievers will be tired by the final game of the series.
This is why the Red Sox need to attack their starters and knock them out of the game early. The Yankees decided they wanted flexibility on offense, but it leaves their pitching staff exposed. If the Red Sox can put some runs on the Yankees' starting pitchers, or have long at-bats that run up the pitch count, they can put themselves in an excellent spot to get to the division series.
New York made its choice. The Yankees have decided to trust their starting pitchers — an undeniably skilled group — but that trust also comes with the extra stress of knowing that there aren't as many arms behind them as usual. The goal is always to get to the bullpen as early as possible, but the Red Sox know now that they need to push extra hard to knock out the starters early.
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