A lot of what the Yankees are currently banking on, as they face shrinking AL East odds and look to hold off the Red Sox for the top wild card, is the return of some of their best players from injury. Such a process begins with Carlos Rodón making his first start since June 28 in Baltimore, albeit at the expense of a concerning injury to Max Fried.

He likely won't be the only Yankee to return this week, as Aaron Boone implied on Sunday that Cody Bellinger could return from a month-long absence during the upcoming homestand with Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, and even Clarke Schmidt following in the coming weeks.

With a good chunk of the team's playoff roster still working their way back, the team is going to have to make some tough decisions down the stretch to fit everyone on the roster, and while the September roster expansion to 28 will help, a few of these players might find themselves sent back to Triple-A or worse, designated for assignment.

1. Ali Sánchez

There is no injured Yankee who could be coming for Sánchez's roster spot, but he's the lone case of someone who has to fight someone currently taking at-bats in Triple-A, especially with three different backstops with MLB experience currently with the RailRiders.

The Yankees promoted Sánchez to give life to a black hole of a catching room back in June, and to his credit, he currently has the best offensive numbers in the room, but he's still only posted an 81 OPS+ in just 64 plate appearances as a guy who is firmly behind a suddenly rejuvenated Austin Wells in the rotation.

With his offense not moving the needle, he's needed to be good defensively, which, aside from his framing, has not been the case. His horrendous attempted pickoff in Chicago might've cost the Yankees a game against the White Sox. Just this Sunday, he let a ball skip away that moved the tying run to third with one out, which allowed Ernie Clement to send the game to extras with a sac fly.

The Yankees haven't hidden their intentions to re-evaluate the catching room in the past few weeks, signing two different MLB veterans: Christian Bethancourt and Mitch Garver, who've split time with incumbent third catcher J.C. Escarra down in the minors. Their experience, coupled with the timing of the signings, implies that the plan might just be to use September 1 as a target date to make a change at backup catcher.

2. Amed Rosario

The Yankees planned to utilize Rosario as a backup third baseman who would platoon with Ryan McMahon and do what he's done throughout his career — crush left-handed pitching. But this season has gone anything but according to plan for the Yankees and Rosario.

The 30-year-old, who entered this season with a career OPS of over .800 against left-handed pitching, has been horrid in his specific role, slashing a career-low .195/.242/.373 in 128 plate appearances against lefties. For the first time in his career, he's been a reverse-splits player, managing to be more effective against righties instead.

For much of the season, due to the injuries and lack of offensive depth, keeping Rosario was fine, as the team hoped for the bat to turn around, but as the cavalry returns, he might find himself as the odd man out. His defense, while always poor, has reached another level of bad this season, eliminating the possibility of a platoon with McMahon, who's been a more effective hitter of late. With José Caballero being more versatile and not much of a downgrade offensively as a bench bat, where does Rosario fit?

3. / 4. Tim Hill & Ryan Yarbrough

The Yankees' bullpen was not fortified at the trade deadline, so there's no unit on the roster that is more in flux as the stretch run begins than the arm barn. Four relievers are locked into leverage roles, but the rest are completely up in the air.

The plan for the Yankees, prior to putting Fried on the injured list, was to put one of the team's starters in the bullpen as a long-man who would bolster the unit come playoff time, and while that plan seems to be on hold, the possibility exists as long as Fried's injury isn't season-ending. The question becomes, who's on the chopping block?

The two guys with options, Yerry De los Santos and Bradley Hanner, are likely at the top of the list, but one could soon be replaced by the return of Clarke Schmidt. If Fried can't return in time to fully build up as a starter, he might be a multi-inning left-handed reliever, something that would specifically hurt a guy like Yarbrough or Hill.

Yarbrough's season has been a weird one, as he's only entered 29 games and pitched 45 innings despite having the role of a multi-inning, low-leverage reliever who usually eats plenty of innings over the course of the season. The problem is that, when you play so many close games due to a bad offense and excellent pitching, those lanes dry up. That makes Yarbrough, whose surface-level numbers remain more than playable, expendable.

One guy that the Yankees could also consider leaving out is one they definitely don't want to, Tim Hill. A 2024 signing, Hill has been one of many successes for Brian Cashman in finding a leverage reliever via dumpster diving, but the 36-year-old has regressed heavily in 2026 to the point where he's only thrown into leverage in absolute emergencies. Before his save on Sunday, the struggling Hill had not appeared in a tie game or close lead situation in the final three innings since late July.

5. Spencer Jones

All the players listed above are guys that fans likely wouldn't bat an eye at them being cut, but this one would definitely ruffle some feathers, even if it might just be a math issue.

Jones has steadily improved through his stints in the majors this year, reducing his strikeout and chase rates while doing much more damage than he did when he initially broke in, earning a vote of confidence when he was kept over Jasson Domínguez two weeks ago. All in all, it's been a successful season for a guy that many believed would drown in the big leagues.

The problem is that the Yankees might not want to keep five outfielders down the stretch and into the postseason. Bellinger's return in the coming days likely won't lead to Jones' demotion, but when Judge and/or Stanton return? There might just not be enough space for everyone with Heliot Ramos entrenched as a fourth outfielder/platoon bat, four players entrenched in the 1B/DH slog, and Caballero as the utility infielder.

The only path for Jones to remain on the roster for the rest of the regular season with all these impending returns might be the Yankees electing to go 15/13 when rosters expand to 28. Most teams would gladly take the opportunity to add a ninth reliever to the bullpen in these spots, but the considerable bullpen depth issues that the team currently has could cause them to keep Jones over a guy like Hanner on the periphery.

Get Yankees On SI straight to your inbox: sign up for our free newsletter here.