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Two days until the Padres fly halfway across the world. There's room for 31 players on their trans-Pacific flight to Korea.

As has always been the case with international games, Major League Baseball has a slightly different set of roster rules for the Padres' series against the Dodgers in Seoul. Those rules are necessary, with the difficulties of travel and the need to have enough players to cover two exhibition games in the buildup to Opening Day as well.

Gameday rosters will remain at 26. But the Padres can bring as many as five additional players with them to Korea. In that group of five, three will technically remain part of the big league roster, without needing to be optioned.

• Projecting the Padres' Opening Day roster

That's particularly useful, given the two exhibition games against Team Korea and the LG Twins. It's possible the pitchers who start those games will take two of the spots on the taxi squad. It's also possible the Padres use those extra spots to hang onto some of their players who can't be optioned.

But most importantly, the Padres need to ensure they're properly reinforced for any contingency that may arise in Korea. Here's one look at how they might use those extra travelling spots.

1. A third catcher: Probably Brett Sullivan, though non-roster invitee Kevin Plawecki remains in camp as well.

2. A sixth starter: If the race for the final two rotation spots is currently among Matt Waldron, Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez and Pedro Avila, it seems likely that at least three of them would make the trip.

3. A bench piece: The race for bench spots, as manager Mike Shildt has said, is "fierce." Tyler Wade, Eguy Rosario and Matthew Batten are vying for utility roles. Perhaps there's room to take an extra from that group on the plane, given how many positions they cover. Or maybe the Padres will bring an extra outfielder, given the uncertainty there.

4. A reliever: There are so many relievers still in the mix, and considering the uncertain nature of pitching early in the season, it can't hurt to have extra arms on hand.

5. Another pitcher: It's always possible the Padres would elect to bring an extra bat. Fifteen arms should be more than enough to play four games in six days. But a 16th couldn't hurt.

“We’re trying to put the jigsaw puzzle together,” Shildt said. “We’ve got a lot of moving parts to it.”