Starting Monday, major league rosters will expand from 25 men to 40, and while most might associate the expansion with teams that are no longer in contention, it's also a chance for teams that are firmly in the playoff mix to reinvigorate their respective rosters as they make the final push for the postseason. We saw examples of this last year -- sort of -- as both Xander Bogaerts and Carlos Martinez weren't Sept. 1 call-ups, but did receive promotions late in the year to make an impact on their respective clubs' march to the World Series.
"It's not just about getting young guys looks," an AL front-office member said. "That's obviously part of it, but you can absolutely use this time to your advantage if you're a team that plans on playing in October as well. I can't tell you how many times we've seen a kid come up that you expect to just play a bit part, and he ends up being one of your key contributors to a deep postseason run. You can pretty much mark it down that it'll happen for someone."
Not all of these players are guaranteed to get called up before the end of the regular season -- and none of them are certain to receive huge amounts of playing time should they receive a promotion -- but here's a look at some potential call-ups who could make a difference over the final month of the season: