10 September call-ups to watch, from Ethan Salas and Lazaro Montes to Will Smith and Tommy Pham

The calendar flipping to September means MLB rosters expand from 26 to 28, with only one of the new players allowed to be a pitcher. The expansion is not quite as generous as it was before 2022, when clubs were able to activate as many players as they wanted from their 40-man roster, so dugouts and bullpens aren’t as comically crowded as they used to be. 

But even with a limited sample of bonus big leaguers, the 60 additional roster spots league-wide can make a big difference down the stretch. That’s true both for teams chasing postseason berths and for those assessing their talent with an eye toward the future. 

Advertisement

Here are 10 interesting September call-ups to monitor over the final month of the regular season, some of whom already introduced themselves on Tuesday.

Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2026 NFL season

C Ethan Salas, San Diego Padres

Salas was born in Florida but spent his formative baseball years in Venezuela, which allowed him to sign with the Padres as an international free agent in January 2023, with a gargantuan $5.6 million signing bonus signifying him as the clear-cut best player in his class. Bucking convention for international prospects who sign as 16-year-olds, San Diego sent Salas to the low minors just a few months after signing, and he held his own against far older competition. But Salas’ first full season at High-A in 2024 did not go nearly as smoothly (.599 OPS), and then he barely played in 2025 due to injury, dampening his immense prospect stock despite his still being one of the youngest top prospects in the minors. 

Advertisement

Finally healthy again to start 2026 and ready to remind everyone why he was considered so special, Salas went to Double-A to start the season — still a teenager, incredibly — and shined for four months before being bumped to Triple-A and producing even more. Now he’s in the majors as a 20-year-old catcher, the new youngest player in baseball (Konnor Griffin is a couple months older), and potentially getting real playing time at a pivotal position for a Padres team making a push for the final NL wild-card spot. While Salas likely has a long career ahead of him, this September (and October) should provide quite the stage for him to make his first impressions as a major-leaguer.

C Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers

One of the faces of this era of Dodgers baseball endured the first prolonged injury of his career this year, as Smith had been sidelined since early June due to neck inflammation until he was activated Tuesday. This isn’t your typical September call-up, of course, but the timing worked out as such, and Smith’s return is crucial for the Dodgers on both sides of the ball. 

Advertisement

The 31-year-old needs to get back up to speed defensively, including developing a rapport with Tarik Skubal before October, but his bat is arguably more important at this juncture, considering the Dodgers’ recent offensive struggles. It’s worth noting that Smith was mired in his worst season at the plate (.720 OPS) before he landed on the injured list, but his underlying data still paints the picture of an impact bat, so perhaps the results will start to follow in September. Dalton Rushing was also activated for L.A. on Tuesday, but his forearm injury is likely to prevent him from catching again this season, meaning he’ll be limited to a bench role as a lefty bat, with Hunter Feduccia assuming backup catching duties behind Smith.

Subscribe to Yahoo! Sports MLB on YouTube for videos, podcasts and more

OF Lazaro Montes, Seattle Mariners

It took all of one game for Montes to demonstrate what makes him special, as the 21-year-old Cuban smashed his first career homer to straightaway center field in his major-league debut on Tuesday at Fenway and showed off his fun-loving personality in the dugout all night long.

Montes is a delightful human being who has loved every second of his climb through the minors, and now he has the chance to bring some much-needed good vibes to a Seattle dugout that has been downright morose in recent weeks as the Mariners have plummeted down the standings. Montes’ longstanding issues making contact will likely result in some volatility at the plate, but it’s impossible to deny the positive energy he brings every day, not to mention the thunderous, left-handed power he adds to the lineup.

Advertisement

RHP Ronel Blanco, Houston Astros

A late-blooming breakout in 2024 — the then-30-year-old Blanco threw a no-hitter in his first start of the season and formed a three-headed monster atop the Astros’ rotation with Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez — the right-hander has faded from relevance since undergoing Tommy John surgery in June 2025. Houston was hoping Blanco could reestablish himself as a rotation fixture upon completing his rehab this summer, but he posted a 7.71 ERA across five starts in July and August before being sent back to Triple-A. 

Recalled as a September call-up, Blanco delivered four scoreless innings in Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to the White Sox, so perhaps he is back in the mix to stick in the rotation as the Astros try to claim one of the most underwhelming division titles in baseball history. Houston’s pitching staff needs all the help it can get, and any semblance of stability provided by Blanco over the next few weeks could make an enormous difference.

SS Kyren Paris, Los Angeles Angels

For a couple of weeks to begin the 2025 season, it looked like the Angels had a budding star on their hands in Paris, who homered five times and stole four bases in his first 10 games while bouncing between second base and center field. But Paris’ swing-and-miss issues sunk him shortly thereafter, as he hit just .129/.193/.198 with one home run over his next 33 games before being sent to Triple-A, where he continued to struggle. 

Advertisement

Seeking a more thorough reset, the Angels sent the 24-year-old Paris to Double-A to begin 2026, and things seemed to get even worse, as he posted a .527 OPS across 31 games. But Paris was promoted back to Triple-A in June and got back to mashing while mostly playing shortstop in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League; his 139 wRC+ ranked seventh among PCL regulars. That was enough to earn him an invite back to the big-league club, but Paris’ chances of entrenching himself as a core piece in Anaheim are cloudy, considering the depth chart ahead of him. It’ll be interesting to see how the Angels work this once-promising and dynamic athlete into the mix in September.

INF/OF BJ Murray Jr., Chicago Cubs

A 15th-round pick out of Florida Atlantic University in 2021, Murray became just the 10th player born in the tiny island nation of the Bahamas to reach the big leagues when he debuted Tuesday for the Cubs. Murray made a steady climb up the Cubs’ minor-league ladder en route to his debut this week. He has primarily played first base and third base with the occasional cameo in left field, so his path to regular playing time is fairly narrow on a quality Cubs club, but there could be some at-bats available at DH, where he made his debut while batting eighth. 

And though Murray is defensively limited, his value off the bench is enhanced by his switch-hitting ability, all the more so considering how balanced his production has been from both sides of the plate: In 2026, he has hit .290/.395/.501 across 397 plate appearances batting lefty and .308/.393/.490 in 122 plate appearances batting righty. Murray notched his first big-league hit while batting right-handed on Tuesday. 

Advertisement

OF Tommy Pham, Chicago White Sox

In 2024, Pham spent the first half of the season losing a bajillion games with the White Sox before he was traded to the Cardinals alongside Erick Fedde as part of the three-team deadline swap that sent Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech to the Dodgers and Miguel Vargas to Chicago. Now Pham is back on the South Side under drastically different circumstances, brought in to provide a veteran presence for a young team making a surprising push for a division title. 

Pham has spent most of this season in Triple-A with the Mets, Orioles and Phillies, and because he was not on the 40-man roster with Philadelphia, he was eligible to be traded after the deadline, which is how he landed another stint on the South Side. With Carlos Santana and Andrew McCutchen no longer on active rosters after appearing in the majors earlier this season, the 38-year-old Pham is the second-oldest position player in MLB behind Paul Goldschmidt. 

Advertisement

C Bo Naylor, Milwaukee Brewers

Naylor was the 29th pick in the 2018 MLB Draft and got plenty of runway to assert himself as the Guardians’ franchise catcher but ultimately ran out of opportunities, especially once Cleveland traded for defensive wizard Patrick Bailey to pair with popular veteran fixture Austin Hedges behind the plate. The 26-year-old returned to Triple-A Columbus until Cleveland traded him to the Brewers before the deadline. Milwaukee kept him in Triple-A, and he found some success with the bat (.903 OPS) across 14 games before being recalled when rosters expanded. 

It’s difficult to envision Naylor garnering many, if any, starts behind the dish with star William Contreras and veteran Gary Sanchez ahead of him on the Brewers’ depth chart, but he provides a lefty bat off the bench, which Milwaukee previously lacked beyond switch-hitting rookie outfielder Luis Lara. Let’s see if Naylor can notch a big pinch-hit or two down the stretch, even if his chances of making the postseason roster seem slim.

Advertisement

RHP John Schreiber, New York Yankees

After receiving some criticism at the trade deadline for failing to supplement their bullpen, the Yankees found a way to add an experienced arm to their relief corp by claiming Schreiber off waivers from Kansas City. New York already had some left-handed funkiness in the bullpen in the form of Tim Hill, and now the Yanks have some from the right side via Schreiber, who attacks from a lower arm angle than any of the current righty relievers on the roster and has historically done a solid job of coaxing ground balls and weak contact. 

Schreiber’s form certainly dipped this season — he was readily available for a reason — but the Yankees have done well in helping veteran arms get back on track, and it would not be surprising to see Schreiber carve out a role over the final month and perhaps into October.

Advertisement

C Leo Bernal, St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals have featured an interesting assortment of catchers since franchise icon Yadier Molina retired in 2022. Free-agent signing Willson Contreras was first up to replace Molina, but that lasted only a couple of years before he moved to first base and was eventually traded. This year, the Cardinals are one of only two teams in MLB, alongside the Rangers, that have had three players appear in at least 40 games at catcher. But unlike Texas, which has entrusted catching duties to a trio of seasoned veterans, St. Louis has leaned on three players under the age of 28: the glove-first duo of Pedro Pages (56 starts) and rookie Jimmy Crooks (34 starts), plus All-Star slugger Ivan Herrera (48 starts), who spends plenty of time at DH. 

Now here comes Bernal. The 22-year-old started 70 games behind the plate for Triple-A Memphis and posted an .831 OPS. He joins Herrera as one of just eight Panamanians to appear in the big leagues this season and gives St. Louis another intriguing candidate for their catching depth chart for both the remainder of this season and 2027.