Yankees officially announce 2019 ALDS roster

The Yankees kept their cards close to their chest, but today, they finally unveiled their roster for the ALDS versus the Twins. After days and weeks of speculating about what shape the roster would take, we now know which 25 players will don the pinstripes for this series.

The discussion surrounding the roster, of course, mostly concerned players on the bubble. Who would take the final spots in the bullpen? Would the team take a defensive replacement/pinch-runner, like Tyler Wade? Would Luke Voit make the team? We have our answers now.

After struggling all September, Voit did manage his way onto the roster. We’ll see how the Yankees choose to deploy their position players, with Voit and Edwin Encarnacion providing a bit of redundancy at the cold corner. It appears the Yankees will go with a bench of Gio Urshela, Austin Romine, Cameron Maybin, and Wade, though Urshela certainly could find his way into the starting lineup.

At the back end of the bullpen, Jonathan Loaisiga, Luis Cessa, and Tyler Lyons grabbed roster spots. Lyons only pitched 8.2 innings with the team, yielding four runs, but it looks like the Yankees wanted another lefty in the bullpen. In total, the Yankees will take 13 position players and 12 pitchers into the series.

As Aaron Boone announced yesterday, CC Sabathia will not be on the active roster because of issues with his throwing shoulder. James Paxton will start Game One, Masahiro Tanaka will start Game Two, and Luis Severino will start Game Three. It remains unclear how the team plans to attack a potential fourth game.

Take a look at the full roster:

There’s nothing too shocking here, though imagine telling yourself seven months ago that the likes of Urshela and Maybin would be playoff roster locks.

The Yankees aren’t at full health, but they’re about as close to it as they’ve been all year. This is a championship-caliber roster, one capable of winning any game against any team. Now, they just have to go do it. Let’s go Yankees.