The first day of September brings mixed emotions for many. Students and teachers alike see it as the harbinger of a new school year, with all the conflicting feelings of excitement and dread that it brings. Fans of the autumn, meanwhile, celebrate the imminent return of pumpkin spice, sweater weather, and the colorful tapestry of fall foliage. Halloween enthusiasts count down the days until spooky season, and corporations look greedily at the approaching holiday shopping season.

Yankees fans have had September 1st circled on their calendar for quite a few weeks now. Although major league active rosters no longer expand to the full 40, like they did every year until 2021, the first of September still sees two roster spots added to the active roster for the stretch run. And on that day, for the second year in a row, top prospect Jasson Domínguez is expected to be added to the Yankees’ roster.

Lost in the excitement of the Martian’s return to the Bronx is the fact that, despite the two extra spots added in September, the Yankees have a roster crunch coming. At the moment, the Yankees have Anthony Rizzo, Jon Berti, Ian Hamilton, Clarke Schmidt, Lou Trivino, and Cody Poteet on rehab assignments with the Somerset Patriots, and are on track to be activated from the injured list within the first two weeks of September. Additionally, Luis Gil threw batting practice in Somerset this week, and might return from the IL after the minimum 15 days. That’s two infielders, three starting pitchers, and two relievers that the Yankees need roster spots for.

Some of these decisions, particularly when it comes to the pitching staff, are likely to be straightforward. Gil’s or Schmidt’s return will bump Will Warren from the rotation, and Phil Bickford is an easy DFA candidate to reclaim another spot on both the active and 40-man rosters. Outside these two moves, however, things become less clear. Which do the Yankees value more, Tim Mayza’s 2023 success and his remaining options, or Mark Leiter Jr.’s splitter and years of team control? Because at least one, if not both, will need to be jettisoned to make room for Hamilton and Trivino. And although the team will likely just stash Poteet in Triple-A as rotation depth, could they look at his success across four starts in 2024 and decide to try him as a multi-inning reliever for the stretch run and postseason? On top of it all, Ron Marinnacio, Nick Burdi, and Scott Effross are all sitting at Triple-A, and could be recalled at any moment.

Things are a tad clearer when it comes to position players — but not by much. Rizzo’s return likely sends the struggling Ben Rice back to Triple-A for more seasoning. The only player who could plausibly be sent down to add Berti to the roster would be Oswaldo Cabrera, and while they could do that, Cabrera’s defensive versatility and knack for high-energy plays likely keeps him around. Chances are, Berti simply takes one of the two roster expansion spots, kicking all roster crunch questions back to the pitching staff. The more difficult question for both will be getting them back on the 40-man roster, since they are currently on the 60-day injured list.

Complicating this roster crunch is the fact that these players all appear to be on different timelines to return from injury — and none of them will necessarily be back on September 1st. Depending on how their rehabs go, Rizzo and Hamilton could conceivably be back on the first; they could stay down in the minors until September 11th or September 22nd, respectively. Outside of them, though, reinforcements are more likely to arrive in the middle of the month. As noted above, Gil can’t return until the fourth anyway, and the Yankees are targeting the second week of September for Schmidt’s return to the big league hill. Because of this, the non-Martian player recalled to start the month may himself be pushed out by the roster crunch soon after.

Of course, there’s a lot of time before the Yankees need to make these decisions, which is plenty of time for the baseball gods to make the decisions for the Yankees. Even so, over the next few days, keep an eye on how the Yankees use their bench pieces and the bottom of the bullpen — it might just provide some clues as to how they’ll approach their upcoming roster crunch.