Team Rosters

Retrosheet roster files (.ROS) record official rosters for every team in a given season, linking player IDs with full names, batting handedness, throwing handedness, and primary positions.

Usage

import retrosheetpy as rs

# Download & parse 2024 MLB rosters
rosters = rs.rosters(year=2024, backend="polars")

# Look at Los Angeles Dodgers roster
dodgers = rosters.filter(rosters["team"] == "LAN")
print(dodgers.select(["player_id", "first_name", "last_name", "bats", "throws", "position"]))

Schema Reference

Column	Type	Example	Description
`player_id`	`string`	`ohtas001`	Unique 8-character Retrosheet player ID
`last_name`	`string`	`Ohtani`	Player surname
`first_name`	`string`	`Shohei`	Player given name
`bats`	`string`	`L`, `R`, `B`	Batting handedness (`L` = Left, `R` = Right, `B` = Both/Switch)
`throws`	`string`	`R`, `L`	Throwing handedness (`R` = Right, `L` = Left)
`team`	`string`	`LAN`	Team code for this season
`position`	`string`	`DH`, `P`, `SS`	Primary fielding position
`year`	`int32`	`2024`	Season year

Multi-Year Roster Tracking

You can track a player's team changes across multiple seasons:

import retrosheetpy as rs

# Fetch rosters from 2018 to 2024
multi_ros = rs.rosters(year=range(2018, 2025), backend="polars")

# Filter for a specific player
shohei_career = multi_ros.filter(multi_ros["player_id"] == "ohtas001")
print(shohei_career.select(["year", "team", "position"]))