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

Game #72 Preview: Cubs (31-40) @ Mariners (30-41)

In the time it took John Isner to beat Nicolas Mahut, the Cubs scored once, lost twice, fanned 17 times while walking three times, dropped nine games behind the NL Central-leading Cardinals, fell a season-worst nine games below .500, and went 1-for-16 with RISP. Oh, yeah—that one hit was a double by Alfonso Soriano which came with Geovany Soto on second base but only got Soto as far as third.

Ted Lilly starts today in place of Carlos Silva (tight hamstring) as the Cubs try to avoid being party to the longest Mariners winning streak (7 games) since July of '07. Lilly, who got tatooed last time out by the Angels, is opposed by King Felix Hernandez, who is 10-4, 2.89 in 18 lifetime starts against NL clubs and has given up two runs or fewer in four of his last five starts.

In other words, just what the doctor didn't order.

Here's the Cubs lineup vs. Hernandez (5-5, 3.39; first-ever appearance vs. Cubs): Fukudome 9, Theriot 4, Byrd DH, Lee 3, Colvin 8, Nady 7, Fontenot 6, Tracy 5, Hill 2.

Finally, if you didn't get a chance to see the excruciating way the Dodgers lost to the Angels last night, take a look right here, and check out FanGraphs' analysis right here. Pretty Cubbery stuff, down to the fact that former Cub Reed Johnson played a central role.

Comments

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

No i think that was me, Manny was a diehard Hendry lover for years. He only recently converted. Though Hendry wasn't GM till 2002. The not liking Hendry came from the way McPhail ran the team. Making Jim Hendry the GM changed nothing in the organization. It was a Starlin Castro lets make a move to make it look like we are doing something. It was meant to seem like the organization was heading in a new direction after MacPhail's failed promise of winning a WS in 5 years. And like lemmings people were like lets give Jim some time to see what he can do. It was just to buy time. Player development still sucked, drafting sucked, the same scouts still sucked, the same coaches and player development people still sucked, free agent negotiation was still horrible, contract negotiation was still horrible. Everything Jim Hendry learned about running a franchise he learned from MacPhail and MacPhail got all of his success by winning some WS with some other guys players in Minn. Think about this for a moment, Jim Hendry was director of player development from 1995 to 2002 and GM since then. The guy has had about 15 years in the thick of the Cubs organization in getting and developing his type of players and the entire system along with the major league club is a fucking train wreck. The only thing that saved his ass was Sam Zell wanting to spend like a drunken sailor to improve the sale price of the franchise. Jim Hendry wasn't a good GM because he learned from Andy MacPhail and was nothing more than a front man for doing the same thing that MacPhail was doing. I mean geez look what Andy is doing in Baltimore, he is picking up all of Hendry's little projects because Hendry was his brightest pupil and best talent evaluator. They are both idiots.

[ ]

In reply to by MikeC

There is a lot of gray area in the world, feel free to come on over, there is plenty of room. Not everything is either awesome or sucks. Jeez. Just to make one point. Drafting and player development "suck" - but yet Soto, Theriot, Castro, McGehee, Colvin, Marmol, Zambrano, Wells, Cashner, Marshall, etc. are all homegrown and have made contributions to the major league team over the past few years. Not to mention the 40-50 prospects (e.g. Bobby Hill, Choi, Gallagher) traded by Hendry over the last 7 years that netted the Cubs a number of key major league players. You can see those, along with all of the other transactions Hendry has made, on the Wiklifield page I created here: http://wiklifield.thecubreporter.com/Jim_Hendry_Transactions Are they the best franchise in the majors in drafting and developing players? No, I would say not. But are they the worst? No, not by far. And it has improved a lot in the past 5 years.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubnut

This is what P.K. Ricketts told Al Yellon,
so we (Ricketts) went in saying we have a proven track record here (the last few years) that despite a weak showing last year, we’re going to keep going with the guys we have. Since we’ve gotten in, I spent a week in the team meetings and spent a week down in the Dominican, spent time with not only Jim but all of his staff. I’ve been very impressed and I think that they have, that Jim has a very good organization, and you probably know better than anyone that they’re some of the best in the business. And I’ve also been sitting in on the organizational meetings where you see the coaches and the scouts discuss players, which on some teams doesn’t happen. And I think Jim runs a good organization, I really do. And I was very impressed with the Dominican organization. Oneri down there with those guys that cover that market, I think they’re doing a good job.
I can only conclude that Ricketts is delusional. When you buy the Cubs you are buying a bad, incredibly bad, organization. That is a given. And anyone who thinks Jim Hendry and crew are some of the best in the business doesn't know a damn thing about business. Maybe he'll figure this out eventually..., but meanwhile...we're doomed.

I thought you had a great idea. Just eat all of Fukudome's contract for 2010 and maybe someone would take him off our hands. but...
The Cubs already are shopping benched outfielder Kosuke Fukudome and the $20 million-plus left on his contract. A National League scout said Wednesday night that even if the Cubs ate this year's remaining $7 million or so, plus half of next year's $13.5 million, it's probably not enough for a lot of teams. ''He might not be worth $4 [million],'' he said.
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/2427904,CST-SPT-csep24.art…

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/marinersblog/2012196620_mets_twin… in regards to Twins being front-runner for Cliff Lee, but don't count out the Mets.
But the Mets have some pretty good young players of their own. Not catchers, mind you, but if the rumors coming out of New York are true, the M's might have to ship Lee off to the Big Apple.
That's because the rumors -- and they are only rumors, but with some logic -- say the Mets might offer top pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia (photo above) and current major league outfielder Angel Pagan in a Lee swap. Wow, that one would be tough to decline.

A weird thing is happening in this game. I can only assume it is because Lou is more comfortable managing without worrying about the pitcher coming to the plate, but he is using his bullpen intelligently. I figured for sure he was just going to pitch Cashner for one inning, and that he was going to save Marmol for a save. I know it's just a brief moment, but it's nice to see he's making some lucid decisions for a change.

wow what a depressing bunch of comments. But everyone who visits this site predicted this crap if I remember right. I guess one surprise is Aram and DLee totally tanking, especially Aram, but this wasn't a very good team from the beginning and if the owner thinks it was he needs to read more in quality baseball forums. My hunch, though, is that Hendry is primed to leave, and Ricketts is just doing what owners do -- false vote of confidence.

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.