Before I get to my first draft of the 2026 player add/drop list, a very relevant announcement. I believe for the first time since this league expanded to ten teams, I am increasing the size of the DTBL player pool from the 400 it has been set at for almost three decades. I'm adding ten new slots to the league roster, all of which will be pitchers. There will be six additional starting pitcher slots and four more for relievers. The reason for this: as you may have noticed the past few years, there have been virtually no healthy/semi-productive pitchers remaining in the free agent pool at the end of the season. The number of pitcher injuries has been steadily increasing almost every year for quite some time now. So I'm hoping to provide a little more of a buffer for you to be able to field a full, healthy staff all the way to the end of the season. With this, I could theoretically consider allowing each team to have a third IL slot as well. But I'm not ready to go there quite yet. Let's see how things play out this season and reevaluate afterwards. Of course, if you think expanding the player pool at all is a bad idea, please let me know. The only drawback I see is that it does run the risk of slightly dampening the draft pool on the pitching side from year-to-year if breakout stars are being added to the league a year earlier. However, the turnover on the pitching side is so high anyway that I really doubt this will cause a noticeable difference.
I also decided to take away one more first base slot and move it across the diamond to third base. Increasingly, MLB teams are using first base as more of a utility position than a traditional 1B/DH only type of player occupying it every day. So it makes less sense to have significantly more 1B on the league roster than any other infield position. This year's distribution will be 31 1B, 27 2B, 28 3B and 27 SS.
Finally, perhaps more so than usual, I am very open to suggestions on changes to these lists.... especially on the pitching front. I had a hard time deciding which and how many rehabbing pitchers who won't be ready by Opening Day I should keep on the league roster. If you have thoughts on some of them I have chosen to drop, please let me know. I definitely don't want too many already injured pitchers muddying the pool, but maybe a few more would be okay?
With that, as of today, here are the players who will be added to and removed from the DTBL roster for 2026. I plan to finalize this list this upcoming weekend:
Catchers
Added:
Drake Baldwin, Moises Ballesteros, Samuel Basallo, Victor Caratini, Dillon Dingler, Harry Ford, Carter Jensen, Carson Kelly, Carlos Narvaez, Edgar Quero, Agustin Ramirez, Ben Rice, Kyle Teel
Dropped:
Miguel Amaya, Joey Bart, Luis Campusano, Travis d'Arnaud, David Fry, Mitch Garver, Jonah Heim, Kyle Higashioka, Danny Jansen, Endy Rodriguez, Jake Rogers, Connor Wong
First Basemen
Added:
Bryce Eldridge, Romy Gonzalez, Nick Kurtz, Sal Stewart
Dropped:
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Ty France, Nathanial Lowe, Carlos Santana, Michael Toglia, LaMonte Wade
Second Basemen
Added:
Luisangel Acuna, Kristian Campbell, Luke Keaschall, Chase Meidroth, Christian Moore, Lenyn Sosa
Dropped:
Thairo Estrada, Zack Gelof, Nick Gonzales, Nolan Gorman, Edouard Julien, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Gavin Lux, Michael Massey, Will Wagner
Third Basemen
Added:
Addison Barger, Brett Baty, Caleb Durbin, Marcelo Mayer, Zach McKinstry, Matt Shaw, Miguel Vargas
Dropped:
Jeimer Candelario, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Jose Miranda, Christopher Morel, Luis Rengifo
Shortstops
Added:
J.P. Crawford, Colson Montgomery, Geraldo Perdomo
Dropped:
Tyler Fitzgerald, Ha-Seong Kim
Outfielders
Added:
Roman Anthony, Harrison Bader, Dylan Beavers, Jordan Beck, Jac Caglianone, Owen Caissie, Dominic Canzone, Chase DeLauter, Trent Grisham, Austin Hays, Trevor Larnach, Ramon Laureano, Daylen Lile, Jakob Marsee, Mickey Moniak, Wenceel Perez, Victor Scott, Gavin Sheets, Chandler Simpson, Cam Smith, Kyle Stowers
Dropped:
JJ Bleday, Michael Conforto, Jake Fraley, Lourdes Gurriel, Nolan Jones, Max Kepler, Heston Kjerstad, Starling Marte, Jake McCarthy, Chas McCormick, Garrett Mitchell, Joc Pederson, Luke Raley, Anthony Santander, Leody Taveras, Lane Thomas, Matt Vierling, Jesse Winker, Masataka Yoshida, Jacob Young
Starting Pitchers
Added:
Andrew Abbott, Braxton Ashcraft, Shane Bieber, Matthew Boyd, Kyle Bradish, Kris Bubic, Edward Cabrera, Noah Cameron, Joey Cantillo, Bubba Chandler, Connelly Early, Logan Henderson, Cade Horton, Jack Leiter, Zebby Matthews, Nolan McLean, Parker Messick, Jacob Misiorowski, Casey Mize, Joe Musgrove, Ryne Nelson, David Peterson, Quinn Priester, Trevor Rogers, Roki Sasaki, Cam Schlittler, Emmet Sheehan, Shane Smith, Jose Soriano, Ryan Weather, Trey Yesavage
Dropped:
Spencer Arrighetti, Jose Berrios, Ronel Blanco, Taj Bradley, Corbin Burnes, Nestor Cortes, Kutter Crawford, Yu Darvish, Zach Efflin, Erick Fedde, Bowden Francis, Luis Gil, Tanner Houck, Pablo Lopez, Reynaldo Lopez, Seth Lugo, Tobias Myers, Reese Olson, Brandon Pfaadt, Kumar Rocker, Max Scherzer, Clarke Schmidt, Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, Justin Steele, Justin Verlander
Relief Pitchers
Added:
Scott Barlow, Clayton Beeter, Matt Brash, Garrett Cleavinger, Reid Detmers, Seranthony Dominguez, Jose Ferrer, Kevin Ginkel, Hogan Harris, Hunter Harvey, Cole Henry, Andrew Kittredge, Jordan Leasure, Mark Leiter, Phil Maton, A.J. Minter, Adrian Morejon, Riley O'Brien, Emilio Pagan, Daniel Palencia, Tyler Rogers, JoJo Romero, Cole Sands, Dennis Santana, Tony Santillan, Gregory Soto, Robert Stephenson, Justin Sterner, Matt Svanson, Grant Taylor, Abner Uribe, Will Vest, Victor Vodnik, Garrett Whitlock
Dropped:
Justin Anderson, Felix Bautista, Beau Brieske, Yennier Cano, Emmanuel Clase, Jason Foley, Chad Green, Seth Halvorsen, Liam Hendriks, Porter Hodge, Grant Holmes, Tyler Holton, Jackson Jobe, Tommy Kahnle, Orion Kerkering, Tyler Kinley, Michael Kopech, Derek Law, Jose Leclerc, Jorge Lopez, Justin Martinez, Joel Payamps, Evan Phillips, Ryan Pressly, A.J. Puk, Justin Slaten, Matt Strahm, Jesus Tinoco, Blake Treinen