2024 Roster Challenge Is Live

 

We are off and running! This year’s roster challenge had 12 brave people step forward to answer the call. As usual, some interesting trends developed and are worth taking note.

First off, there are no identical ballots, which continues to be pretty wild!

 

Second, a few minor-league deals went down after camp opened, because why wouldn’t they? Old friend Danny Vogelbach is back in town and a clear upgrade over a few of the existing bench options. He could be the reason why the perfect ballot remains elusive once again this year.

 

The following 21 players appear on all lists submitted:

 

Chris Bassitt

José Berríos

Yimi García

Kevin Gausman

Chad Green

Yusei Kikuchi

Tim Mayza

Jordan Romano

Erik Swanson

Danny Jansen

Alejandro Kirk

Bo Bichette

Cavan Biggio

Santiago Espinal

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa

Davis Schneider

Kevin Kiermaier

George Springer

Daulton Varsho

Justin Turner

 

If anyone out of this group does not make the opening day roster, this thing will get interesting in a hurry.

 

The next group of players are found on 11 of 12 ballots.

 

Génesis Cabrera

Trevor Richards

Alek Manoah

 

The Manoah omission prompted an exchange with the ballot holder. It came down to “gotta go off script." If you have eyes on winning this challenge outright, we could not agree more.

 

The next group of players appear on less than half the ballots:

 

Nate Pearson

Spencer Horwitz

Orelvis Martinez

Nathan Lukes

Mitch White

Yariel Rodriguez

 

We absolutely love the Orelvis pick, but do not see a world where he breaks camp with the big club since we already have a dozen or so players who can play second base. Somewhat surprised that the person who the braintrust gave 30-plus million dollars to this offseason was not picked more often.

 

And finally, the long shots/dart throws/probably-not-going-to-happen guys:

 

Bowden Francis

Robbie Grossman

 

Here are the tiebreakers for all ballots submitted:

 

Our Boy Jesse 18-11-2

Last Row 500’s 15-16

Jays are my 2^nd favourite team 16-14

Winter of Discontent 15-14

MLB.com 16-16

MLB Depth Charts 13-19

@1BJW 16-15

Swedish Meatballs 15-14-1

The Ant Farm 18-12

Jimmy Triggs 16-16

I Like Nuts 14-16

Blue Jay Hunter 18-14

We wish everyone good luck, and many thanks for playing!

Click here to see all the ballots