Position Player Playing Time Changes: March 25, 2026

by Jon Becker

March 25, 2026

Junfu Han – USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Welcome to the first Position Player Playing Time Changes roundup of 2026! Normally, you can expect this to hit RotoGraphs on Tuesday afternoons, but we’re publishing here on Wednesday since there’s much more clarity with Opening Day rosters now than there was 24 hours ago. As a reminder for how this works, I use our database of playing time projections, managed by RosterResource wizard Jason Martin 마틴ez, to query significant changes over a certain period of time. Mostly, that’ll be over a weeklong period — between roundups — but I’m using March 1 as the cutoff for this first one. As for what qualifies as significant, this is every change of at least 10% (70 plate appearances) in either direction in that time period. So this’ll be a longer list than usual, chock-full of info:

Significant Projected Playing Time Changes, 3/1 to 3/24

Name	Team	Positions	March 1 Proj. PA	Current Proj. PA	PA Change	Reason
TJ Rumfield	COL	1B, DH	105	420	315	From NRI to starting 1B
Dominic Smith	ATL	DH, 1B	7	210	203	Profar suspension = open DH time
Jorbit Vivas	WSN	2B	7	196	189	Trade from NYY + Opening Day spot
Kevin McGonigle	DET	3B, SS	371	546	175	Made the Opening Day roster
Brett Sullivan	COL	C	14	168	154	Won the backup catcher job
Ryan Vilade	TBR	1B, 2B, LF, RF	56	203	147	Made the Opening Day roster
Jeimer Candelario	LAA	2B, 3B, 1B	7	147	140	Made the Opening Day roster
Reese McGuire	CHW	C	14	147	133	Signed to replace Kyle Teel while he is out injured
Brandon Lockridge	MIL	CF, LF, RF	42	168	126	Won bench role over Blake Perkins
Oswald Peraza	LAA	2B, 3B, SS	147	273	126	Strong spring + Vaughn Grissom injury
Austin Slater	MIA	LF, RF	28	147	119	Should get plenty of time vs LHP after Tigers release
Will Brennan	SFG	CF, LF, RF	70	189	119	Bryce Eldridge sent down
Mauricio Dubón	ATL	2B, 3B, CF, LF, RF, SS	336	448	112	Jurickson Profar suspension
Santiago Espinal	LAD	2B, 3B, 1B, SS	21	133	112	Made the Opening Day roster
Justin Crawford	PHI	CF, LF	427	532	105	No obvious platoon partner = more PA
Matt Vierling	DET	3B, CF, LF, RF	224	322	98	Great spring training
Will Benson	CIN	CF, LF, RF	217	315	98	JJ Bleday optioned out
CJ Kayfus	CLE	1B, DH, RF	238	336	98	Made the Opening Day roster
Tristan Gray	MIN	1B, 2B, 3B, SS	63	154	91	Made the Opening Day roster
Max Muncy	ATH	2B, 3B, SS	315	406	91	Made the Opening Day roster
Jordan Lawlar	ARI	2B, 3B, CF, DH, LF, SS	427	518	91	Taking well to OF, should be plenty of playing time
Nelson Velázquez	STL	RF	21	105	84	Didn’t make the roster but still had a great spring training
Adam Frazier	LAA	2B, 3B, 1B, LF	182	259	77	Made the Opening Day roster
Eli White	ATL	CF, LF, RF	63	140	77	Profar suspension
Alex Freeland	LAD	2B, 3B, SS	84	161	77	Won roster spot over Hyeseong Kim 김혜성
Mitch Garver	SEA	C	49	119	70	Won backup role C job over Andrew Knizner
Dylan Carlson	CHC	RF, LF, CF	14	84	70	Seiya Suzuki injury
Jacob Young	WSN	CF	315	385	70	Dylan Crews optioned
Cam Smith	HOU	RF, CF	469	539	70	Strong spring + CF flex
Andrew Knizner	SEA	C	84	14	-70	Lost backup C job to Garver
Blake Perkins	MIL	CF	217	147	-70	Lost backup OF job to Lockridge
José Tena	WSN	2B, 3B, SS	301	231	-70	Vivas trade cuts into PT
Zach McKinstry	DET	1B, 2B, 3B, DH, LF, RF, SS	455	378	-77	Less time vs. RHP with McGonigle on roster
César Salazar	HOU	C	182	105	-77	Lost backup C job to Christian Vázquez
Taylor Walls	TBR	SS, 2B, 3B	301	224	-77	Starting season on IL
Parker Meadows	DET	CF	525	448	-77	Matt Vierling will play more than expected
Nolan Jones	CLE	CF, LF, RF	133	42	-91	Outrighted to minors
Tommy Edman	LAD	2B, CF, SS	504	406	-98	Clarified injury timeline, now late May
Zach Cole	HOU	CF, LF, RF	420	322	-98	Ended spring training hitting well, but a jumbled OF PT picture
Kyle Teel	CHW	C, DH	497	399	-98	Hamstring injury in WBC
Troy Johnston	COL	1B, DH	259	154	-105	Lost starting 1B job to TJ Rumfield
Kyle Stowers	MIA	LF, RF, CF, DH	609	504	-105	Starting season on IL
JJ Bleday	CIN	LF, RF, CF	336	231	-105	Optioned to minors
Johnathan Rodríguez	CLE	RF, LF, DH	175	63	-112	Optioned to minors
Michael Helman	TEX	CF, SS, 2B, LF	175	63	-112	Optioned to minors
Colby Thomas	ATH	CF, LF, RF	259	147	-112	Optioned to minors
Christian Moore	LAA	2B	448	336	-112	Optioned to minors
Vaughn Grissom	LAA	1B, 2B, 3B, SS	259	140	-119	Starting season on IL
Justyn-Henry Malloy	TBR	DH, LF, RF	203	84	-119	Optioned to minors
Jhostynxon Garcia	PIT	CF, DH, LF, RF	308	182	-126	Optioned to minors
Dylan Crews	WSN	CF, RF	595	469	-126	Optioned to minors
Bryce Eldridge	SFG	1B, DH	448	308	-140	Optioned to minors
Braxton Fulford	COL	C	224	70	-154	Optioned to minors
Wenceel Pérez	DET	RF, LF, CF	469	301	-168	Optioned to minors