FanGraphs Opening Day Tracker 2025
I discovered a really fun tool this offseason: the FanGraphs Opening Day Tracker. In the past, I used to rely on the official rosters / non-roster invitees posted on each team’s official site, coupled with MLB.com’s fantasy rankings, to try and project starting lineups and rotations. But now I’ve found that Jason Martinez and the Roster Resource team has already done the work.
In this tracker, players are separated into projected roles: lineup regular, platoon vs. RHP/LHP, bench, starting rotation, closer, setup, middle relief, etc. FanGraphs also goes above and beyond by projecting plate appearances and innings pitched for each player. When I saw this, I immediately added columns for these categories to my comprehensive fantasy point database for 2025. So now with a quick sort, I can guess which sign has the most potential heading into this season.
A couple things to keep in mind when looking at this graph: Players counts everyone on a 40-person roster plus all players who were at one time in Major League Spring Training camp, even if they have since been released. Also, while the Lineup Regular and Starting Rotation columns DO NOT count players on the IL, injured playesr ARE included in the the projected PA and IP columns. And last but not least, quantity of projected playing time does not necessarily translate to quality.
With that said, Pisces has the most overall players, but only by a nose ahead of Leo and Libra. Is it any surprise that Aquarius and Capricorn (the two signs that occur farthest from MLB games being played) have the fewest players? In terms of batting, the Cancer Crabs have the most projected lineup regulars and plate appearances, by a pretty wide margin. They also have the most total projected platoon batters, with 14 – that’s one ahead of Pisces, with no other sign having more than 10 total.
I was surprised to see Leo in front as far as projected innings pitched, since I always thought of Gemini as the most pitching-rich sign. In fact, there were three signs that finished above the Twins in Proj IP, with Virgo and Libra also passing the 5,000 mark. Virgo is tied with the most projected relievers (closer, setup, middle, and long combined) with 26, just one ahead of both Leo and Gemini.
No sign has a more dominant projection at the back end of the bullpen than Sagittarius, with a whopping seven (7!) projected closers. After the Archers, there’s a big tie for second place (five teams with four closers each). And then Scorpio brings up the rear with not a single pitcher projected to be the primary ninth inning option.