MLB Workflow Guide

Competition Feeds

Standings, Rankings & Brackets

On average, standings are typically updated within about 15 minutes after the conclusion of each game.

Note that standings can be available for spring training, regular season, and post season. You'll need to adjust the season parameter prior to calling the schedule (Learn More: Season Types).

Current Season Standings:

Spring Training, Regular Season, Postseason

• Spring Training Standings - Includes wins and losses that are exclusively related to Spring Training and stop updating after the conclusion of Spring Training.
• Regular Season Standings - Includes wins and losses that are exclusively related to the regular season and stop updating after the conclusion of the regular season. In conjunction with the schedule, this can be used to build a playoff bracket, as described below.
• Postseason Standings - Includes wins and losses that are exclusively related to the postseason and do not include any regular season or preseason wins and losses. Note that this does not include information to build a playoff bracket; that information can be found within the Schedules & Game Day Info feed alongside the Regular Season standings.

To call standings specifically for Spring Training you would enter, for example, '2025PRE' in the season parameter. ('2025REG' for only regular season and '2025POST' for only the Postseason)

Bracket Construction: 

Because the MLB postseason playoff bracket is fully predictable based on standings, you can generate it by knowing the regular season standings followed by the winner of the postseason games.

Each of the American and National Leagues sends six teams to the playoffs. First are the three division winners in each league, sorted by overall record. Then come the next three Wild Card winners in each league, sorted by overall record, head-to-head etc. We sort these for you via the LeagueRank field in the Standings.

To build the bracket for each of the two Leagues, bear in mind the following per division, starting with the Wild Card Series.

• LeagueRanks 1 and 2 will not play in the first round, receiving a bye to the next stage.
• LeagueRank 5 faces LeagueRank 4.
• LeagueRank 3 faces LeagueRank 6.

The winners of these series then array as follows in the Division Series:

• LeagueRank 1 faces the winner of 4 vs. 5.
• LeagueRank 2 faces the winner of 3 vs. 6

Then the Championship Series game is as follows

• The winner of 1 vs. 4/5 faces the winner of 2 vs. 3/6

Players, Teams & Rosters

MLB Players, Teams, and Rosters are all updated throughout the calendar year. During the MLB season, all transactions will be updated within minutes of official announcement, ensuring that 26-man rosters are always up-to-date. Players getting called up, sent down, designated for assignment, traded, and more are all tracked in our Transactions endpoint.

During Spring Training, all players on the 40-man roster will be marked with Status: "Active".  Non-roster invitees are assigned a Non-Roster Inviteestatus once teams announce the invites prior to the start of Spring Training. By the conclusion of Spring Training, players that earn roster spots on the 26-man roster will have a status of Active, players on the 40-man but not on the 26-man roster are marked as 40 Man Active, and players in the Minor Leagues who are not on the 40-man roster are marked as Minors.

Each year, starting on September 1st, teams are allowed to carry two additional players on their active roster, bringing the total roster size to 28 players. Once these players are recalled, they will be assigned a roster status of Active.

Players on any of the injured lists, bereavement list, paternity list, restricted list, suspended list, etc. are all tracked via the Status field and injury fields will be populated with additional details. 

• Player profiles include data fields such as name, status, position, jersey, batting/throwing hand, height/weight, birthplace, college, high school, MLB debut, and experience.
• Team profiles include data fields such as name, division, team colors (hexadecimal format), home stadium, managers, hitting coaches, and pitching coaches.
• Rosters are not available for MLB All Star Game; however, each team will be provided a TeamID.
• All MLB PlayerID's start with 100.

Free Agency

Officially, players become free agents the day after the conclusion of the World Series. However, there is a 5-day window immediately following in which these players cannot sign with a new team. This window serves as an exclusive window in which teams can retain their departing free agents.

Trade Deadlines

Each year, the trade deadline is within the dates: July 31st and August 3rd. The Commisioner's Office has the flexibility to set the date to avoid conflicting with any games.

MLB Draft Coverage

The MLB Draft is not covered live. Following the MLB Draft, players are not guaranteed to sign with the major league team that drafted them. As such, players will be created, added to teams, and assigned the appropriate roster status once they officially sign a contract with their respective MLB team. They will typically be assigned to one of the team's minor league affiliates to begin their career.

Available Data Points

A full list of available data fields can be found here:

• PlayerBasic
• TeamBasic
• Team

Venues & Officials

Our MLB Stadiums endpoint includes stadium information for all MLB stadiums, Spring Training ballparks, and neutral sites.

Venues:

• While MLB stadiums remain relatively static, when a new stadium is built or a neutral site is scheduled to host a game for the first time, SportsDataIO creates a profile for each new stadium and adds it to the MLB Stadiums feed.
• MLB stadium details include geographical coordinates, altitude, capacity, outfield wall distances, stadium playing surface, home plate directions, and stadium type (outdoor, dome, or retractable dome).
• During the offseason, if changes to the stadium are made, such as capacity or outfield wall distances, SportsDataIO will update the appropriate information once updated figures are made available.
• SportsDataIO tracks full details for all MLB ballparks, including Spring Training and neutral site venues.

Officials:

SportsDataIO does not track umpires. 

Event Feeds

Schedules & Game Day Info

Spring Training Schedule

• The Spring Training schedule is typically released during the summer (typically August) of the current season (for the next year's Spring Training). Example: the 2026 Spring Training schedule would be released August 2025
• Once the schedule is officially released, our records are updated and become available.
• Spring Training games begin in late February and continue through late March/Early April at the latest.

Regular Season Schedule

• The MLB will release the matchup-only schedule on a specific date which varies year-to-year (in 2024 it was after the All-Star Game). We do not create games during this time.
• The full regular season schedule will be made available once game times are known, which usually happens in early to mid-January.

Postseason Schedule

• MLB playoff series games are created prior to the series starting. If the series ends before all scheduled games are played, the originally scheduled games will still show up in the API, but they will have a NotNecessary status.
• Games for the next round of the playoffs do not get created until the previous rounds are fully completed and both teams in the series are known.
• Note that many times, if necessary games of the series, may have a NULL start time until the game is confirmed to occur.

Game Day Info

• Weather forecast includes data such as high/low temp, wind chill, wind speed, wind direction, and description (light rain, mostly sunny, etc)
• Day and time of games are in the Eastern Time Zone
• Weather data is released 5 days in advance of a game and kept up to date leading up to the start of the game, updating every 2 hours.

Postponed Games

If an MLB game is postponed due to weather (or any other reason), we set Game.Status = "Postponed" for the game in question. Postponed games are essentially canceled, as they have no chance to be played to completion (unlike Suspended games; see below). When the MLB announces the date/time of the make-up game, we create a new Game record for the make-up game. In order to tie the postponed & make-up games together, we set the following fields on the both Game records: RescheduledGameID and RescheduledFromGameID


Suspended Games

If an MLB game is suspended due to weather (or any other reason), we set Game.Status = "Suspended" for the game in question. Suspended games are halted, but still have a chance to be played to completion. If a Suspended game resumes, we set Game.Status = "InProgress" and continue to cover the game. Note that a Suspended game will retain the original Game record; a new GameID will NOT be created. Use the SuspensionResumeDay and SuspensionResumeDateTime fields to track when the game will return to an in-progress status.

Scores & Game State

Schedules are updated when initially released by the league and kept up-to-date throughout the season, plus additional game day info.

• Schedule records includes teams, date & time and status: Scheduled, InProgress, Final, Suspended, Delayed, Postponed, Canceled.
• Postponed, Rescheduled, and Delayed games are all updated in real time and tracked through our Schedules feed.
• Game day info includes things like game status, starting pitcher, first pitch time, TV Channel, weather forecast, teams playing and VenueID.

The Games by Date (Live & Final) endpoint is the most useful to get the most up-to-date information on game statuses (delays, postponements, scheduled vs. in progress). Here you will see full scores and gameday info delivered live and post-game. Live data includes innings, scores, pitch count, weather, etc.

Inning statuses: NULL, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.

• For MLB, we also have an inning half field and that will return as T (top), B (bottom), or NULL

• Use the Inning (1,2, 3, etc.) and InningHalf fields (T (top), B (bottom), null) to track games live.

Final Only (No Game State)

• Final score results are delivered after the event is final and are delivered in innings and total score values. Final scores are available around 5-10 minutes after each game concludes.

A full list of available score details can be found here: 

Game

ScoreBasic

Live & Final (With Game State)

• Live Game coverage is delivered when an event Status field switches from "Scheduled" to "InProgress"
• Game State data is updated alongside all other live in-game data, with a delay approximately 15-20s behind TV broadcast.
• Live scores are delivered in inning and total score values.
• Final Scores are available at the conclusion of each event.

A full list of available game state details can be found here:

Game

ScoreBasic

For MLB, we also have an inning half field and that will return as T (top), B (bottom), or NULL

Team & Player Stats

Scores and Game State are updated live during all games, along with the final score being provided after the game is completed and verified.

• MLB Score feeds will provide live updates to detail what inning as well as if the game is in the top or bottom half of the inning.
• Game State includes things like Current Inning, Current Pitcher, Current Batter, Current Count, On Deck Batter, and Runners on Base. 

Final Only

• MLB team and player stats delivered after the event is final - typically 5-10 minutes after each game concludes.
• Each game's final player stats are added to a player's and team's Season Stats once the game's final player stats are verified by our team (approximately 1 hour after each game is completed).
• To determine if a MLB player played in a game, use the Games field. Any player who played in the game will see their games field = 1.
• The only players who receive a PlayerGame record are players who played in the game.

Live & Final

• MLB team and player Game Stats delivered as "Live" include live updates throughout the game, typically 15-20 seconds behind the TV broadcast.
• Each game's final player stats are added to a player's and team's Season Stats once the game's final player stats are verified by our team (approx 1 hour after each game is completed).
• To determine if a MLB player played in a game, use the Games field. Any player who played in the game will see their games field = 1.
• The only players who will have a playergame record are players who played in the game. 

A full list of available stats can be found here:

PlayerGame

TeamGame

Play by Play

Play by Play feeds includes a description of every play that is made throughout the game, players involved, and the result.

• Coverage includes a breakdown of every play including a description of the pitch, the result of the pitch, the result of the at bat, players that were involved, the stats earned by involved players on the play, the result of the play and starting/ending Game State info (e.g. current pitcher, current hitter, on deck hitter at start and end of the play).
• Play by Play is delivered "pitch by pitch" for the MLB.

Final Only

• Final Play by Play feeds are available approximately 30 to 60 minutes after the game.
• A full list of available stats can be found here:
  • Play
• Includes a breakdown of every pitch and every play/at-bat throughout all games, including a description of the pitch/play, all player(s) that were involved, and the stats awarded to all involved players.

Live & Final

• Live Play by Play typically updates between 15 and 20 seconds behind TV broadcast.
• A full list of available stats can be found here:
  • Play

• Includes a breakdown of every pitch and every play/at-bat throughout all games, including a description of the pitch/play, all player(s) that were involved, and the stats awarded to all involved players.

Player Feeds

Depth Charts, Lineups & Injuries

Depth Charts

• Depth charts are updated in real-time throughout the year to account for roster moves, injuries, positional battles, and more. This includes the duration of the MLB offseason.
• Free agents will not appear in our Depth Charts endpoint. Depth charts are specific to each team, so only players on a team will appear in the depth chart.
• While official sources are always preferred, credible media reports are also used to determine the latest depth chart news.
• There are significant interdependencies between Transactions, Injuries, and Depth Charts:
  • Players who are not on the Active roster (e.g. players on any injured list) are not assigned a depth chart position.
  • Players who have an InjuryStatus of Questionable will be assigned a depth chart number, as it is not confirmed that they will miss the game.
  • Players who have a day-to-day injury, but are still on the Active roster, will maintain their depth chart position. In these cases, however, the player will be marked with the appropriate InjuryStatus on any Injuries endpoint, and as such their backup on the depth chart should be considered "top" for the purpose of the immediate next game.
  • It is important, when using Depth Chart information, to cross-reference it against injury status, to ensure that the most accurate depth chart is used for any given game.
  • Players can be in multiple positions of the depth chart, as many MLB players are used in utility roles. Players, however can only be the starter (number 1) at a single position.

Projected and Confirmed Lineups

Projected Lineups & Batting Order

• Projected lineups are generated using a default lineup that is based on depth charts, player usage, roster status, and opposing pitcher handedness. Projected lineups are based on the most recent trends but lineups vary almost daily, so changes and updates should be expected until lineups are confirmed.
• InjuryStatus should be leveraged for projected lineups, as a player dealing with a day-to-day injury who is ruled Questionable may be a candidate to get a day off, causing their backup to slot into the starting lineup.

Confirmed Lineups & Batting Order

• Released by the teams on average 2-4 hours before the start of the game. We confirm these within minutes of official announcement.
• In some cases, players in a confirmed lineup can be scratched prior to first pitch. In these cases, an updated lineup is made available shortly after team announcement and the scratched player will be updated with an InjuryStatus = Doubtful.

Injuries

• InjuryStatus is defined as a player's game status (Probable, Questionable, Doubtful, or Out).
  • Players that are placed on an injured list (7-, 10-, 15-, or 60-day) will almost always have an InjuryStatus = Out (An exception is made for pitchers that are expected to be activated for their next start in which they will be Probable but still remaining on the injured list status until official activation).
  • When a player is activated off an injured list, their Status will be updated to Active and their InjuryStatus will become null.
  • Note that 7-, 10-, and 15-day injured lists are only formally produced during the regular season. During the postseason, rosters are announced ahead of each postseason series and injured players are simply left off the postseason roster. Players can remain on the 60-day injured list throughout the postseason but need to be activated within 15 days of the final World Series game.

• InjuryBodyPart: The body part (or suspension) affected.
• InjuryStartDate: The date at which the player's injury was first verified. 
• InjuryNote: A written description of a player's injury, e.g.: "Harper is dealing with an ankle injury and will not take the field for the Phillies."
  • Note that while this written description may contain a predicted return date, this is neither a statistical value returned as a date field, nor one that is guaranteed to be correct. By its nature, projecting returns from injuries is an inexact science, and thus these notes should be used only for guidance.

Betting Feeds

Game Lines

Game lines (spread, moneyline, totals) available as both pre-match and in-play, including timestamps for opening price, all line movement changes, and closing price, with optional resulting available as an add-on.

• Odds are made available when sportsbooks publish opening lines, typically following the conclusion of the prior game.
• Includes full-game odds markets plus partial game lines such as 1st-5th.

Pre-Game Lines

• Typically, pregame lines (moneyline, point spread, and total) are made available by sportsbooks about 24 hours prior to a game. If a team has multiple days between games, they may be available earlier, such as in postseason scenarios.

• There are certain exceptions, such as double-headers (which may be available later than normal to accommodate line changes for split lineups.)

Pre-Game Lines Plus

• Resulting: See our Betting Guide for available markets with resulting and how it works.
• Line Movement: The Betting Guide also explains how to access the Betting Market endpoints to view an individual market's movement.

In-Play Lines

• In-play odds (moneyline, point spread, and total) will begin to populate once the game begins.

In-Play Lines Plus

• Resulting: See our Betting Guide for available markets with resulting and how it works.
• Line Movement: The Betting Guide also explains how to access the Betting Market endpoints to view an individual market's movement.

Props

Includes Player, Game, and Team Props available as both pre-match including timestamps for opening price, all line movement changes, and closing price, with optional resulting available as an add-on.

• Odds are made available when sportsbooks publish opening lines, typically following the conclusion of the prior game.

Props Plus

• See our MLB integration guide for all available Props odds markets with resulting.
• Pre-game props results are available 10-15 minutes following the conclusion of each game once all stats are verified.
• Line movement is available for all Prop betting markets

• Resulting: See our Betting Guide for available markets with resulting and how it works.
• Line Movement: The Betting Guide also explains how to access the Betting Market endpoints to view an individual market's movement.

Futures

Team, League, and Player Futures are all covered within the MLB odds solution. 

• We are at the discretion of the sportsbooks as to when betting markets become available. Generally, core season futures (World Series Winner, MVP, etc.) are available close to the conclusion of the prior season. Player futures are generally available closer to the middle of the offseason.
• MLB Draft futures begin to populate about two weeks before the draft and are regularly maintained up until the start of the Draft.

Matchups, Trends & Splits

Matchup Stats

Matchups and Trends leverage our vast historical database to calculate all the traditional information found on a betting match up page.

• MLB Match Ups and Trends are run at the Team level and update regularly as each game occurs.

• We provide betting trends by matchup between two teams, showing historical and recent results for the teams in question, including standings, split standings, and other trends.
• Include team trends from the last 3/5/10 games - wins/loss/ties, history against the spread, average score, and opponent score.

Betting Splits

Betting Splits provide the percentage of bets placed on either side of the line and the percentage of the money wagered on either side of the line.

• Pre-Match betting splits are available for Money Line, Spread, and Total for all available games where data is published.
• MLB Betting Splits begin to populate shortly after Game lines are posted and action is taken by the sportsbooks.
• Betting Splits are available at the discretion of sportsbooks making the data available.

Fantasy Feeds

Projections

Legacy Projections

• Player game projections are provided through SportsDataIO's proprietary in-house machine learning models and are available 5 days before games begin. 
• On the day of games, MLB projections for players are customized specifically to that day's game by 10 am EST each game day and will be updated every 15 minutes until the first pitch.
• Includes season long and individual game projections.
• Season-long projections are available around the middle to end of February, after Spring Training begins.
• On the day of games, MLB projections for players are customized specifically to that day's game by 10 am EST each game day and will be updated every 15 minutes until the first pitch.
• It is important to know the MLB specific points and scoring system is different across fantasy and DFS operators. To learn more, see our Fantasy Points Calculations.

Ownership Projections

• MLB ownership projections are available for main slates only.
• Ownership projections are typically made available between 8-10AM EST on the day of the game(s).
• Projections are updated hourly to remain up-to-date with injuries, transactions, and other impactful news.

Salaries, Stats & Points

Salaries & Slates

Daily Fantasy Sports Salary information includes the published salary values for all players within a given DFS slate contest, as published by the operators.

• MLB salaries and slates are available for FanDuel, DraftKings, and Yahoo.
• As this is an aggregated product, DFS Salaries & Slates become available once we receive them from the various DFS operators. Typically operators publish slates and salaries as early as 24 hours before the contest starts, but may be published closer to the start of a contest.

Contest Slates includes the contest slate published by the operator, which GameID(s) are available for this contest slate and the PlayerID(s) that are eligible to participate. Includes additional information such as number of roster slots, salary cap (if applicable), number of games included, if it's multi-day or not, etc.

• New slates should become available in the feed within 30 minutes of an operator publishing them.

Points & Stats

• Fantasy points are calculated according to several scoring systems including DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo, and SportsDataIO's proprietary scoring system.
• It is important to know that the MLB-specific points and scoring system is different across fantasy and DFS operators
• FantasyPointsDraftKings, FantasyPointsFanDuel, and FantasyPointsYahoo fields are all calculated using their classic slate scoring systems.
• Learn more in our Fantasy Points Calculations guide.

News & Images

Player News & Notes

• Player News & Notes provides short-form blurbs about relevant player news throughout the league, updated both in-season and during the off-season, provided by RotoBaller and Rotoworld.
• News Blurbs contain approximately 200 words, and no image.
• RotoBaller tags for each story may include: Top Headlines, Breaking News, Injury, Sit/Start, Waiver Wire, Risers, Fallers, Lineups, Transactions, Free Agents, Prospects/Rookies, Game Recap, Matchup Outlook.
• Rotoworld news include a Headline, Comment (brief summary), Impact (full summary), Top News flag, Transaction-related flag, Rumor flag, and IDs and other identifying information for the player(s) being reported on
• News is written, edited, and published around-the-clock (24-hour news cycle). However, the news teams are based in the US, so most write-ups are published during daytime hours in the US.

News data can be called at the player or team level. For generic league level news see our previews, recaps, and breaking news data source.

Rotoballer News

MLB RotoBaller news is available directly through a SportsDataIO Endpoint.

Previews, Recaps & Breaking News

Beyond just player news and notes, SportsDataIO has partnered with Field Level Media and Knup Solutions to support our clients with expanded news services which include:

Editorial Wire Service: This includes more than 30,000 long-form content pieces in total across all leagues (previews, recaps, breaking news) with an associated image attached to each article. Please contact us to learn more about how we can connect you with newswire articles.

Custom News: For bespoke articles created to fit your project, please contact us.

AI-generated news: For procedurally-generated news based on data inputs, please contact us.

Expanded news access is delivered via external sources and for access please reach out to your SportsDataIO Sales Representative or sales@sportsdata.io

• Previews, Recaps, and Breaking News are available year round.
• Your SportsDataIO Client Manager can facilitate an introduction with appropriate news partners.
• These feeds are accessed directly through partner sites and not SportsDataIO endpoints.

Player Headshots

• MLB headshots are available directly through a SportsDataIO Endpoint.
• MLB headshots update in April/May each year.
  • All of our headshots are cropped 1200x1200 pixels with 300 ppi resolution.
  • Headshots are the property of the photographers that take them and the publishers that make them available, and as such we work with major providers to ensure that we have the best in licensed headshots.
  • We offer headshots directly through our own API. These are converted action shots: action photos that are cropped to headshot dimensions.
  • We make them available either with the original background, or with the background removed.
  • SportsDataIO can facilitate contact with other relevant third parties if required. Please contact us with your needs for a quote.