Australian Curtis Mead continues to impress, named on the Tampa Bay Rays' roster for the start of the Major League Baseball season.

The 23-year-old infielder from Adelaide will be the only Australian on a MLB roster for opening day.

Relief pitcher Liam Hendriks has signed a two-year deal with the Boston Red Sox after returning to play for the Chicago White Sox from cancer last year.

But he is likely to be sidelined until June as he recovers from elbow surgery.

Mead made an immediate impact in his major league debut last August with the Rays, hitting a single off the first pitch he faced.

He played 24 games, hitting .253, and made history as the first Australian to record a hit and an RBI in the major league playoffs.

The Rays open their season on Friday (AEDT) against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Mead impressed through spring training to retain his spot on the Rays roster.

"It's one of the things that you can definitely tell about the guy is there's no complacency," teammate and fellow infielder Brandon Lowe told the MLB.com website.

"Whatever impression that he made, I think he knows he wants to improve on that and do whatever he can to do better and obviously get more playing time than he did last year."

Mead can play in several infield positions and he hit .265 at spring training, one of the better averages at the Rays.

"Last year didn't necessarily go awesome, and it didn't necessarily go super bad. I kind of felt like I got some opportunities through guys being hurt and not being around," Mead told MLB.com.

"Knowing that they were going to come back, I think I kind of knew that I'd have to have a big off-season and big camp to solidify my spot on the team.

"I just want to be the best player I can and help the team as much as possible. I want to play in the big leagues."

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres split their two South Korea games last week to start the major league season, with all 30 clubs scheduled to play in the US on Friday.

Apart from Mead and Hendriks, there are 30 other Australians in the minor leagues system.