Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

28 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 

Last updated 3-26-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# 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 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

What I Would Ask Mr. Ricketts

On Friday, the Cubs' new owner will be confronted by more microphones, cameras, and sweaty members of the press than I imagine he has ever been confronted by before. I predict he will say something to the effect of, "I can't give you a definite answer at this point, but that is absolutely something we are going to be looking at," more times than we'll be easily able to count. Nevertheless, after the ridiculously protracted sale process and with so many critical issues facing the team—from the immediate future of the leadership team to the long-term viability of Wrigley Field—I will join many of you in hanging on every word Ricketts has to say. (I've also never heard his voice, so I'm curious.)

Apart from all of the obvious questions Ricketts will face, probably multiple times, here are some questions I would ask if I had press credentials or the ingenuity to sneak in.


– In your wildest dreams, did you ever imagine when you began this process that it would take this long to resolve?

– How hard was it to persuade your family to pursue this purchase? 

– Did you always consider yourselves favorites to win the team?

– On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being virtually no involvement with day-to-day decisions and 10 being complete immersion in every detail of the team's operation, how would you characterize your ideal level of involvement with the club?

– During the long period when you were clearly the eventual owner but not yet officially so, did you have any contact or decision-making authority with regard to the operation of the team? If not, were Crane Kenney or Jim Hendry at least able to "keep you in the loop"?

– Though the Ricketts family is prominent in Omaha, by the end of this press conference and the subsequent replays of it, you will not be able to go many places in Chicago without being identified. Did you or your family consider that level of visibility when deciding whether to pursue the team? How do you feel about the possibility of hostile encounters with fans if the team is not doing well?

– How often in recent years have you seen the Cubs play at Wrigley? Where did you sit?

– Dating back to when you first became a Cubs fan, who was/is your favorite player?

 That's my list. What would you ask a 44-year-old billionaire-turned-baseball team-owner? 

Comments

1) How much longer do we have to endure Jim Hendry as GM? 2) Do you read Bill James, Baseball Prospectus or any other statistically-slanted baseball publications?

CUBNUT: Send these over to Bruce Miles - he will be in the room! "Your business acumen is renown, as is making a profit. What areas are you targeting to produce more revevue, and do you envision PSL's in the future as a necessary stream"? "When will renovations start, or at least bathroom renovations?"

Here's a few baited questions I would ask: 1. Do you plan to keep Jim Hendry on as sort of a "lame duck" GM and if so how much autonomy will he have in making baseball decisions? 2. What is your vision for rebuilding this team? 3. Developing good talent in-house can be a nice cost-savings way of fielding a winning baseball team, what organizational, business office-level vision do you have for developing a talented farm system?

My list: 1. Are you looking for a 30 year old faux Dr to help you in any official baseball capacity? 2. Do you need said faux Dr. to work as a bodyguard, money holder-onto, or general entourage lackey? 3. If you answered yes to 1 or 2, where do you turn in resumes?

Do you plan to keep the Tribune-era organizational chart wherein baseball operations essentially report to the marketing department? We love Ron Santo, we hate the guest conductors, and even though they both need to go, fans don't feel like they ever will.

My question would be: "Wouldn't Aaron Miles make a nice lawn ornament for your mansion in Omaha? I have a lantern you can borrow."

"Wouldn't Aaron Miles make a nice lawn ornament for your mansion in Omaha? I have a lantern you can borrow." This is a LOW BLOW! But, wonderful. Very nice. Get used to Aaron Miles, pt. 2

For those of you that didn't catch it locally - here is the stream from Hendry's interview with Bruce LEvine and J. Hood from Talkin' Baseball last Saturday. http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/player?context=podcast&id=4590749 Proud of the fact we got in the Playoffs two of the last three years. Only disappointment was "we didn't get in". "Our job is not to make excuses..." Discloses no Bradley stuff. "He's still a Cub..." Takes the responsibility, but wants the blame shared around. Was not too specific. He is not giving any salary back.

an owner question? umm...how much payroll you gonna give the GM and do you plan on staying the hell out of the way like a good owner should? =p ...btw, zell looks to be one of our greatest owners even if he "maybe" was spending a little more to cash in a new trophy for his mantle.

Is there any chance that Milton Bradley will suit up as a Cub in 2010? How much of Milton Bradley's contract are you willing to eat in order to get rid of him?

When you go to sleep at night, do you trust Jim Hendry and the baseball people in this organization with your 845+ million investment? The answer is very important. If yes, fine (that won't last, but fine). If no, proceed to fire Jim and hire somebody you do trust. Look, if I paid 845 million for a baseball team, you damn well better believe for at least a year or so, it would be my version of MVP Baseball 2003 for playstation. However, a rich owner meddling in the baseball stuff is called the Balitmore Orioles, and look how well they're doing. Having said all that, maybe a rich fan with the strings in his hands is what we need. I don't know about you guys, but not many people would have paid MB over Ibanez and Abreu last offseason. And Tom Ricketts isn't paying me squat to come up with that logic.......

Whoa! The Mighty Cubnut is back in action. Awesome! We missed you and in case you weren't able to pay attention the 2nd half of the season really sucked rotten eggs.

Mr. Ricketts: 1. Do you feel, long-term, Wrigley Field (even with modifications) can produce the revenue streams necessary to effectively compete over the next 20-25 years? 2. Are there circumstances where you would consider participation in the construction of a new stadium not unlike Miller Park either in Chicago or a suburban location? 3. What involvement (1 to 10 with 10 being the highest) will you have in the hiring or retention of the President, General Manager, and Field Manager positions? 4. What are your 3 highest short-term and 3 highest long-term (3-5 years) priorities?

How do you feel about owning a team where one of your worst players makes the most money--and will for the next five years?

Can you lend me 100 bucks? What can you do about that smell in the bathroom? Can you bring back the ball girl? The Marla Collins model? Ricketts will be on Boers and Bernstein on Friday from 3:30 to 4:00.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022.