Cubs MLB Roster

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40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus one player is on the 60-DAY IL 

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, one player is on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 3-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Garrett Cooper
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 1 
Jameson Taillon, P 

60-DAY IL: 1 
Caleb Kilian, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Game 40 Recap: Cubs 8, Giants 1

Oh, dear god.

Box Score, Play Log, Game Graphs

W - Arrieta (8-0), Outfield Walls (Countless-1), rebuilding our run differential, staying up late

L - Peavy (1-5), Heyward's torso (1 of 1), Balls in McCovey Cove (1 of 104), getting up early

 

Things to Take from The Game

1. Cubs lose Heyward to probably-serious injury on certainly-best catch of the year.

Jason Heyward made a Jason Heyward catch running full-speed before making a leaping, twisting, belly-flop dive. He hit hard with his right side just before his left shoulder and face smashed into the outfield wall. He appeared to be in a lot of pain and was helped off the field by a couple of trainers. Early reports identified it as a "right torso and abnominal area" injury.

2. Soler has a very encouraging game.

Soler showed a good approach in his at bats, and was rewarded with a single and a home run, coming right after Zobrist put one in the Cove. Soler also had an extra-base-hit-robbing catch at the wall, and then an also helpful, if less-than-graceful, catch on another deep drive.

3. The pitching duel is exactly what we thought it would be.

Peavy looked every bit as bad as his line, and it could have been worse. The big damage was a Kris Bryant three-run home run. Arrieta had to wait through long Cubs half-innings, a replay challenge, and an injury delay, and didn't look like Peak Arrieta early on. He settled in though, and gave up just one run through seven, looking steadier the deeper he went in the game.

Essential Questions

1.  How long is Heyward out, and who takes the open spot in the outfield? Does that change the time-table for Szczur's rehab or pursuing an OF trade?

2.  Was this the start of a new period of heightened Soler activity? (Hey, ti's 1:40 am, you can indulge me on that one.)

3.  How far out should we extend the security perimeter around Fowler?

Game Recap

 Some horrific music set to a montage comprising an equal mix of Arrieta pitching and hitting highlights plays before getting Len and J.D.s lead-in to the game. I guess this is part of Making Baseball Fun Again? Give me this, any day.

Top of 1st

    • Woah.  Cubs going with the solid blues, and Giants with the solid orange. Adjust your color contrast on the TV.
    • Fowler yanks one just inches to the foul side of the first-base bag.  Tries to negotiate with the ump over it. No luck. 2-2 count, Fowler hits one the other way into left for a leadoff single.
    • Heyward watches a fastball just inside off the plate that doesn't quite tail back over. Peavy is... wait for it... peevish over the call. Another fastball in the same spot and Heyward pulls it, landing just barely foul down the right field line.3-2 count. Another foul, and Heyward takes something breaking up and in for a walk.  Encouraging start to the game.
    • We get a zoom-in of Posey's throwing hand, and he has not just the yellow neon fingernails, but also white tape going up each finger. It looks like it could be some sort of cheap part to an X-men Cosplay.  A very cheap part of a very cheap X-men Cosplay.
    • 2-0 to Bryant. Big rip, 2-1 to Bryant. Both to Heyward and now Bryant, Peavy is catching a lot of the plate when he does throw strikes. Bryant bounces it softly right to the third base bag. Duffy fields it while stepping on the base, almost simultaneously.  No threat of a triple play, and it's slow enough that they can't get Bryant at first, either. Runners still at 1 and 2, with one out.
    • 2-1 count to Rizzo sure looked like a frisbee, to me. Rizzo watches it glide past, 2-2 count.  Full count, Peavy already up to 24 pitches.  Very deliberate pace by Peavy.  Rizzo gets a bit under it and flies it out to Span. Heyward advances to third. Span didn't quite get under it, having to reach for it a bit at the last moment, and J.D. points out that wind might be a factor tonight on fly balls.
    • Zobrist flies out to left-center.  Again there's some weirdness going on in the outfield, as Pagan awkwardly does a running leap to catch a ball that winds up a bit behind him. Feels like we should have scored 3 in that inning.  Nothing.

Bottom of 1st

    •  On a 2-0 count, Span blasts one to the right-center fence, deepest part of the park, about 420 feet out.  Heyward makes a spectacular head-first diving catch to rob span of at least a triple, but, other than showing the ball in his glove to the ump, doesn't get up. Everyone immediately recognizes he is hurt.  Looks like he slammed his left shoulder, then head, then right shoulder and side into the wall. Heyward stands up with a Cubs trainer holding his left bicep and hand, his right arm moving freely.  Looks like the concern is with the left arm and shoulder.  It's interesting to see how he basically landed chest-first with his torso rotated to the right, his legs not really under him.  The legs twist around to face the ground, as he is smashing into the wall.
    • Bryant goes from 3rd to Right, LaStella in at 3rd.
    • Panik walks.  I wasn't paying attention, being distracted by the Heyward thing.
    • Duffy with a soft liner to right, Bryant makes a nice running catch, and the ball pops out as he transfers it to his throwing hand. Ruled a catch, and it was, but it also popped out really quickly.
    • Posey breaks his bat hitting one back to Arrieta, out of the inning.

Top of 2nd

    •  Peavy throws a sidearm slider (really) to Soler, who keeps his shoulder in (really) and singles. That was kind of encouraging.
    • Montero lines a single into right. The throw behind Soler at 2nd has him scampering back to the bag, but no harm done.
    • Baez drops down a very nice bunt to third. Duffy comes in to charge, and 1st base coach Hyde is emphatically signalling safe.  The umpire takes a long time to call Baez out, and we go to the challenge. Looked like a tie-to-safe, to me.
    • 2 minutes 10 seconds later, out.  Meh.
    • Arrieta with a much-needed pick-me-up, as he takes a breaking piece down and over the plate and dumps it into center. Soler scores, Montero to third on a good read of the ball.  1-0 Cubs.
    • You can hear Peavy grunting with each pitch.
    • Fowler walks.  Peavy is looking very toasty. 49 pitches, 4 outs.
    • LaStella smokes one high off the right field wall.  Montero scores, but it's hit so hard and on such a line that Arrieta gets hung up heading toward home. Arrieta retreats toward third, where Fowler now is.  Gets tagged out a bit off of the bag.  A very, very long single for LaStella.  2-0 Cubs. It feels like it should be about 6-0.
    • Replay shows that the problem was that Arrieta got a really bad read on the ball and was heading back to second. Fowler almost met him at second, but mercifully didn't pass him. LaStella then was almost at second, as Fowler was retreating to it, so LaStella went back to first while Fowler turned around to go to third.  Weirdness.
    • This is what we were waiting for. Peavy throws something... mushy... center-in, and Bryant hits it several rows up into the left field bleachers. 5-0 Cubs.
    • No mercy for Peavy, as Rizzo hits the next pitch through the shift, for a single.
    • Somebody named Derek Law comes in to pitch.
    • Zobrist lines to Span.

Bottom of 2nd

    •  Belt K's swinging, with Montero completing the throw to first.
    • Pence with a hopper right to Zobrist.
    • This game is an hour old, with an out to go in the 1st. Why did I commit to this, again?
    • Crawford with a called strike three.

Top of 3rd

    •  Soler tries the same approach as his last AB, but this time just manages a soft liner to Crawford.
    • Montero rolls to Panik.
    • Baez pop fouls down the right field line, and Pence makes a delicate catch over by the stands.

Bottom of 3rd

    •  Conar Gillaspie K's swinging on a 95 MPH fastball at the top of the zone. The Giants have a 4.9% win expectancy right now, according to Fan Graphs, and that's without factoring in that it's JAKE ARRIETA.  Why am I recapping this, again? How much phony drama can I interject into this recap?
    • Early news on Heyward: "Right torso abdominal region injury."  I wouldn't have guessed that, from what I watched.  But, on review, you can see tht the first thing that actually happens in that catch is, as he's twisting his torso to make the catch, he does indeed first basically flop-land on his right side, then his left shoulder smashes into the wall.
    • Pagan with the Giants' first base-hit, a single to center.
    • JD on Span's batting stance and setup: "What was going on with his swing that caused him to end up here?"
    • Arrieta's 28-game streak of giving up 3 runs or less is the longest of its kind since they set the pitching rubber at 60 ft 6 inches, if I heard Len repeating Elias correctly.
    • Span lines to Fowler charging in, in center, and Pagan has to race back to first ahead of Fowler's throw.
    • Pagan steals second, uncontested. Curveball that one-hopped Montero.
    • Arrieta catches too much of the plate, and Panik singles into right-center, scoring Paga.  5-1 Cubs.
    • Panik runs, and Duffy bloops one just over Zobrist's leaping glove.  Well, it's not his glove that's leaping, it's him. But you get the picture. 1st and 3rd. Between the injury delay, the replay delay, and the long half-innings with the Cubs batting, there hasn't been much rhtyhm for Arrieta to find.
    • Posey goes down 0-2, fights off a few pitches as Duffy tries to run. Again Arrieta gets a bit too much of the plate and Posey, reaching for one, lines to the wall in left. Soler makes a fine running catch, nabbing the ball maybe even with the top of the wall and maybe a foot or two in front of the wall, and (relatively) gently crashes into it.  No outfielders were harmed in the making of this highlight.

Top of 4th

    •  Albert Suarez in to pitch. Arrieta taps one back to him.
    • Fowler gets pegged by a pitch in the left thigh.  Fowler winces.  EPA to declare Cubs Outfielders an "at risk" species.
    • LaStella waves at a fastball up and away, striking out.
    • Bryant taps back to the mound.

Bottom of 4th

    •  Belt flies straight-away to Fowler, who barely has to move.
    • Pence K's looking at a breaking pitch. Len and JD note that it hasn't been a stable zone tonight.
    • Hypothesis:  There would be no "pace of play" problem if MLB would stop talking about the "problem." I've heard more of that from Len and JD tonight than I've heard about Arrieta's performance or the implications if Heyward has to miss a lot of time.
    • A foul tip catches the home plate ump, who is a REALLY tall guy. Montero was set up off the plate, and the pitch (again) got the heart of the plate, so when it was fouled straight back, it hit the ump instead of Montero. Montero was out of his crouch and grabbing the ump in concern almost as soon as it hit him. Now that I notice it, this ump, Jordan Baker, has to be at least 6 ft. 6inch.

Top of 5th

    •  Midnight. If I get coffee or tea, I will never fall asleep.  Help....
    • Rizzo serves an easy fly ball out to left.
    • Zobrist hits one to Belt, who makes a nice diving grab of a very short short-hop. Flips it over to Suarez, covering.
    • Soler lines one foul that, we're told, nearly hits Montero, standing maybe 40 feet away. I hope our guys are all up to date on their insurance.
    • Soler hits one on a line right at Panik.  Good approach, well hit, bad result.

Bottom of 5th

    •  Arrieta's change is really starting to dart and dive. Count runs full on Gillaspie, who I hadn't realized stayed in the game, playing 3rd, on a double switch that removed Duffy. He rolls out to Zobrist.
    • Just as JD discusses hitters being something like 2 for 53 against Arrieta after 0-2 counts, Pagan hits a soft bouncer to LaStella, who double-clutches, and Pagan beats it out for a hit.
    • Pagan steals, and Montero comes out of the crouch to throw, letting the ball slip out of his glove and roll toward the backstop. It's a called strike, and Pagan doesn't advance past second.  Lots of Giants runners being sent tonight.  Arrieta hasn't really struggled a lot, but also hasn't looked especially dominant, what with a spotty strike zone, all the delays, and several Giants battling deep into the count. This AB with Span extends on to 9 pitches, 10... Span rolls to Rizzo, Pagan on to third. Between Montero having visited, and now Bosio visiting, this is a very slow inning.
    • Arrieta starts Panik off with a big curve for a strike.  Blows a 95 mph fastball past him for strike two. Now the not-for-a-strike curve, which Panik swings over for strike three.  Finally, we see a bit of Peak Arrieta.

Top of 6th

    • Montero lines to Belt. Suarez isn't fooling too many hitters. First appearance in nine days, we're told.
    • Baez grounds out to third.
    • Arrieta rolls to short, and makes it maybe a third of the way down the line.

Bottom of 6th

    •  Blanco, pinch-hitting for the pitcher in the 3-spot, hits a soft liner that Zobrist grabs moving to his right.
    • Posey gets out in front of a curve ball and hits a lazy fly to Soler.  Potential for a quick-inning, which would be nice, as Arrieta now is at 90 pitches.
    • Belt gets frozen on a pitch that missed its location by quite a bit, but gets called a strike low and in. Quick inning.

Top of 7th

    •  George Kontos in, an Fowler grounds one to Kontos's left, which he fields for the 1-3 putout.
    • LaStella lines directly at Panik
    • Bryant grounds out to Crawford.

Bottom of 7th

    • Pence takes an ugly, awkward swing, as he slips on both his feet (can you slip on your own feet? Or do they slip on other things) and rolls out to Baez.
    • Crawford walks.
    • Gillaspie hits one to deep left that has Soler backpeddling and twisting and turning a bit, but he makes a nice catch before gently bumping into the wall.  Gently...
    • Pagan K's swinging over a breaking pitch. Arrieta mostly settled down in the last few innings, nice to see.

Top of 8th

    •  Rizzo grounds into the shift at second.
    • Zobrist launches one, easily landing in McCovey's cove. 386 feet according to Southwest. 6-1 Cubs 
    • Soler then muscles one out to left, a few rows into the bleachers. Just as JD was discussine Mallee's work at improving the Cubs' launch angles, and noting the Cubs hit fewer balls on the ground than any team.  A hanging slider over the plate. 7-1 Cubs.
    • A distinct "Let's go Cubbies" chant arises.
    • Montero grounds into the shift at second.
    • Baez K's, swinging over a breaking pitch.

Bottom of 8th

    •  FanGraphs gives the Giants a 0.6% chance of winning this game.  Can't I just go to bed? Would anyone care?  Is anyone really that invested in reading the recap of the last 1.5 innings of this game?  You aren't, are you? It's 1:05am.
    • Travis Wood in. Russell at Short, Baez at Third. LaStella out. First-pitch swinging, Span flies to Soler.
    • Panik stares at a stirke three fastball over the outside corner.
    • Someone named Kelby Tomlinson is pinch hitting. Who names their kid Kelby? Seriously, why do that to a kid? It's like a cross between Colby cheese and Melba toast.
    • Kelby lines a double into the left-field corner.
    • Posey smashes one to Russell's left; he makes a nice diving snag to get Posey at first. It may be 1:10 am, but I still know how to use a semi-colon.  Fun fact: a Hemi-Colon weighs more than I do.

Top of 9th

    •  Cody Gearrin pitchin. K's Russell (hitting 9th on a double-switch when Wood entered) swingin on a slider.
    • Gearrin catches Fowler lookin.
    • Ross pinch-hittin for Wood, laces an opposite-field double off the right-field wall.
    • Bryant feathers one back up the middle, just past a diving second baseman. Ross scores. 8-1 Cubs.
    • Javier Lopez in to pitch. The LOOGY gets Rizzo to pop to short.

Bottom of 9th

    • Clayton Richard pitching, Belt grounds through the 4-3 hole for a single.
    • Pence can't reach a high fastball, strikes out.
    • Crawford with a lazy fly out to Soler.
    • Trevor Brown pinch hits, and bounces out to Baez to end the game.

 

Parachat Recap

Inning 1

    •  The agony of being off the Vicodin
    • Time-zone checks
    • Scotch, Coors Light, and Deadpool.
    • Childhood memories of late-night west coast games.
    • Travel recommendations.
    • Jacos points out that with these uniforms, the Giants can do highway garbage pickup on the weekends.
    • Heyward's struggles.
    • History of Cubs' free agents in their first year on the team.
    • Ballgames we've seen in SanFran.  Jacos wins.
    • We're not quite fans of the beard of Span. The beard is weird. No play for Mr. Grey?
    • I think we've turned the person with the briefest ever appearance in parachat, a few days ago, into a living legend.
    • Reaction to Heyward's injury, speculation on who gets called up.
    • A guy from the 1910s, married to 7 women, with a reputation for drinking and fighting, named John Lackey. My in-real-life historical research is fun.

Inning 2

    •  Speculating on defensive arrangements with Heyward out.
    • Booing the instant replay call.
    • The proposal to lift the strike zone.
    • Jake-on-Jake crime.
    • Feeling slightly better as the Cubs score.
    • Already making WAY too-soon jokes about breaking Peavy harder than the wall broke Heyward.
    • Brainstorming scrap-heap pitchers for the Giants.
    • 90s Cop Show: Derek Law.
    • TOO SOON.
    • Trump loves the "handicamps." Builds them TREMENDOUS ramps.
    • Crunch proposes committing war crimes against the entire Cubs organization
    • If Bryant gets hurt, it's my fault, and Jacos is going to pee in my mail box.
    • Johann turns this into my male slot? Whipple explains what that is.

Inning 3

    •  Personally peeing vs. impersonally peeing.
    • Mail slots.
    • Deceiving me.
    • Scurrilous lies about Jack Brickhouse.
    • Peeoria.
    • Missing the hole a lot.
    • We've turned someone who spent one second of one game in parachat into our new cult leader...
    • Illegal use of the Javy Jorn, Hacos.
    • Further discussion of the Heyward catch and injury speculation.
    • Huey Lewis
    • Food that tastes like an "Oriental" Rug.
    • Back to pee, again.
    • Ramen.
    • Tucson.

Inning 4

    • Getting protective of our outfielders.
    • Rules changes.
    • Tom Skilling Diet Secrets
    • "Running" a 5k with Grey Goose in the water bottle.
    • Resolved: there is no pace of play problem in baseball. Don't fix problems that aren't there.
    • Broadcasting booth challenges on other booths.
    • Views on the new nettings.

Inning 5

    • Best places to sit at games.
    • Skull fractures.
    • Future Cubs pitching rotations.
    • Post-Ross Lester-Catchers.
    • Chris Bosio concealing the nature of his injuries.

Inning 6

    • Ballplayers who didn't like baseball, and other jerks.
    • Ballplayers who look like pro wrestlers.
    • Quitters.

Inning 7

    •  Maddon's T-shirt Of the Month Club.
    • Saying hello to the spouses.
    • Who's still with us?
    • Which Legends of Parachat least suspect that they are Legends of Parachat?
    • Outfield rakes.

Inning 8

  •  Identifying our Legends of Parachat
  • I accidentally cut this one, while doing some clean-up editing. I have no idea what it was, and control Z isn't bringing it back.  Which is kind of poetic, since Z had so little control. If you think this bullet point might have been about you, well, you're so vain...
  • Admiring the Zobrist homer.

Inning 9

    • Todd Rudgren and his kid.
    • Name-dropping Beau Bridges
    • Baseball as "real life"
    • Beer and Coffee
    • Pee for enjoyment, not for employment.

 

Cubs improve to 2-1 in games recapped in 2016.

Comments

Wittenmeyer on Twitter: Heyward said lower rib bone jammed hip bone. Said "not sharp" pain. "But a little more than dull." MRI Saturday. Not sure about DL. Mooney on Twitter: "Relieved that nothing's broken, but got to get an MRI tomorrow to see what else is going on in there."

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

the "schwarber incident" has soured me on the quickly delivery of good news after something that looked worse. that said, it would thrill me to see heyward end up with no arm/shoulder injury and a short DL stint. it would make me ecstatic to see anything better than that. baez/lastella can man 2nd/3rd...zobrist can man 2nd/LF...bryant can man 3rd/LF/RF...soler can man LF/RF. there's good options for heyward's time off without too much panic even if it's going to last a while.

Richk King of parachute legends /Great recap as always

Fun recap! When Heyward hit the wall with his head, his body seemed to twitch pretty violently. I was really concerned he had a spinal injury. I was so happy to watch him get up on his own and walk away I coulda cried. I would like to know how he made that catch. Not only did he make that catch, but AFTER he hit his head and his body was all atwitching, he raised his glove up for the umpires to see. Really? How does anybody even do that???? A lot of people were clamoring for Soler to get sent down. You know who you are. One game doesn't mean much but it was a glimpse into what he could be - and keep in mind he has about the same number of At Bats Rizzo had before he got good. I do have to say I was really surprised he was able to track that ball he jumped up to nab. He hasn't shown much tracking ability at all. Maybe a better baseball person can answer this - can this be taught? Or did he just get lucky? It *seems* like he's gotten a bit better at it of late, but maybe I'm being an optimist. If it can be taught at this level, who's teaching him? And HOW is it taught? He's a good athlete - maybe that's all it takes is the combination of a good athlete and a good teacher, but I'm just curious if it's possible to make continued worthwhile improvement.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

This guy barely has 1300 plate appearances since defecting in 2010. For a guy his age, you have to assume he's relatively green and that there's room for improvement in basic baseball skills compared to an average 24-year-old MLB player. I'm not a scout, that's just my impresion.

Anybody still having doubts about LaStella's hitting skill really needs to see that single he hit off the wall yesterday. I imagine they are repairing damage to it before today's game. Another thing about last night's game - are we seeing an "approach" to Cubs hitting taking shape? Peavy was doing what Guerra did the night before, and a few other pitchers have been doing recently, really working around the plate. The ump was all kinds of suck, not even calling the same parts of the zone consistently, so of course Peavy's approach didn't work. Peavy actually had pretty good stuff until he grooved one to Bryant. I think with this team that this approach is as good a one as there can be, but of course, you have to be able to hit your spots. Not easy. But what else is there?

Recent comments

  • Charlie (view)

    I worry that Morel will lose starts at 3B as long as this roster lacks a compelling DH.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I think if you had ranked players by how much the team could ill afford to have them miss significant time, Steele would be right at the top of the list.

  • crunch (view)

    steele MRI on friday.  counsell expects an IL stint.

    no current plans for his rotation replacement.

  • hellfrozeover (view)

    I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1. 

  • crunch (view)

    amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.

    neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.

  • Eric S (view)

    Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it). 

  • crunch (view)

    boo.

  • crunch (view)

    smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.

    this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.

  • crunch (view)

    i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things.  the default is delay.  i would choose brown.

    like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.

    anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.