The Opener: Non-Roster Invitees, Roster Moves, Opt Outs

Happy Opening Day eve! With just one more day to go before 2025 regular season begins, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on today:

1. NRIs to be added:

As teams finish finalizing their Opening Day rosters, plenty of 40-man roster churn should be expected. Brendan Rodgers, Cam Smith, Sean Newcomb, Brad Keller, Randy Dobnak, and Cavan Biggio are all expected to be added to their respective club’s 40-man after making the Opening Day roster as non-roster invitees to Spring Training, and those are just the names reported yesterday. Teams with full 40-man rosters will need to make corresponding moves to clear space for their new additions. For many clubs, that will be as simple as transferring an injured player to the 60-day injured list. Others already have an open 40-man spot after passing a player through waivers or returning a Rule 5 pick. Still, some will need to designate a player for assignment in order to make room for their newly-rostered players, which creates the possibility for further turnover.

2. Other roster moves incoming:

Other moves not involving NRIs should be expected, as well. For example, the Diamondbacks are reportedly poised to sign southpaw Jalen Beeks and will need to make a 40-man roster move before that becomes official. While Beeks is slated to join the roster in Arizona, there are some expected outgoing roster moves as well. The Mets are expected to place outfielder Alexander Canario on waivers, for instance. The recent influx of free agents available after the weekend’s Article XX(B) opt outs could lead to more signings besides Beeks, and there will likely be a few more out-of-options players squeezed off their clubs’ Opening Day rosters over the next day or so. Astros outfielder/first baseman/catcher Cooper Hummel is reportedly one such player.

3. Last minute opt-out opportunities:

While the majority of opt-out opportunities in players’ minor league deals coincided with the uniform Article XX(B) opt outs that occurred over the weekend, a handful of stragglers have come through in the days since. Right-hander Dan Altavilla opted out of his minor league deal with the White Sox and was granted his release yesterday. Aside from more straightforward opt-out opportunities, players could have upward mobility clauses they could trigger to force their clubs to offer them up to rivals willing to offer them a major league roster spot such as the one utilized by right-hander Nick Anderson earlier this week.