My two cents....So, I think this is one of those situations where it depends on many things including the school, the major and your comfort level. Agree with CTBBallDad that your son would have time to apply RD but that is not optimal as it may not include baseball. Whether or not it is an NLI or ED is all the same in my mind except that you would know sooner if the NLI isn't executed which would actually be a better situation than a declined ED application which is later in the process. My son did not burn any bridges and kept in touch with handful of HA schools/coaches (another Ivy, Patriot, D3) that told him if it didn't work out they would help with RD and baseball. Whether or not this would have happened I don't know but among those 3 schools I'm sure he would have got into one of them and been happy. The other thing we were dealing with was his major...engineering. This was a very limiting factor in our recruiting experience, so the target schools were very few. I was not worried about senioritis or a decline in grades as my son liked learning and school.
So, it used to be the NLI had nothing to with Admissions if you read the documents. I don't know about that today. I suspect it is the same, and NLIs are signed (or not signed) in November which would give you a heads up to pursue another school on your short list. So, typical ED admission notification is early to mid-Dec which gives you plenty of time to pursue RD alternatives. I was comfortable with that and my son was as well so he only applied to one school ED. You may feel differently.
As always, JMO and experience. Good luck!