Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus two players are 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 4-18-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 
* Justin Steele, P   

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

12 More Cubs Pitchers Go "Live" at Fitch

Submitted by Arizona Phil on

12 Cubs pitchers threw "live" BP this morning at Fitch Park in Mesa. Each pitcher threw 25 pitches, and each hitter saw five or six pitches befiore rotating out of the batting cage.

The "live" BP was fairly uneventful, as no batters were hit by pitches, no hitters knocked a ball over the fence, and no pitchers were shut-down in the middle of an "inning."

Starlin Castro (who played winter ball) had the best swings.

Aramis Ramirez did not take "live" BP (he did not take "live" BP last year, either), and the hitting group consisting of Jim Adduci, Matt Camp, Brad Snyder, and Max Ramirez did not get a chance to face "live" BP today. However, M. Ramirez did put on quite a power display in a later BP session on Field #2 with a coach throwing "soft toss."

Priior to the "live" BP session, Aramis Ramirez did take infield practce on Field #3, and Marquez Smith was worked out at 2B and Scott Moore at SS on Field #2. Although Moore was drafted as a SS (1st round pick by DET in 2002 out of the same HS that produced Josh Vitters) and played there his first year in pro ball, he lacks the range to play there except in a pinch. And M. Smith both lacks the range and fluidity needed to be an everyday 2B, although playing 2B in addition to 3B could help to get him to the big leagues if he is unable to make it to the bigs as an everyday 3B.   

PITCHERS

FIELD #2

1. Randy Wells
2. Andrew Cashner
3. Casey Coleman
4. Esmailin Caridad
5. Justin Berg
6. John Gaub

HITTING GROUP #1
Marlon Byrd
Tyler Colvin
Alfonso Soriano

HITTING GROUP #2
Reed Johnson
Bobby Scales
Geovany Soto
Josh Vitters 

HITTING GROUP #3
Starlin Castro
Blake DeWitt
Koyie Hill
Scott Moore
Carlos Pena

FIELD #3

PITCHERS
1. Kerry Wood 
2. Todd Wellemeyer
3. Robert Coello
4. Thomas Diamond
5. Marcos Mateo
6. Jay Jackson

HITTING GROUP #1
Steve Clevenger
Brett Jackson
Marquez Smith

HITTING GROUP #2
Kosuke Fukudome 
Bryan Lahair
Lou Montanez
Fernando Perez (batted LH)

HITTING GROUP #3
Jeff Baker
Darwin Barney
Welington Castillo
Augie Ojeda
Chris Robinson

Tags
Cubs Spring Training

Comments

Submitted by jacos on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:43 am

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/3928036-419/cowley-hendry-deserves-chanc… Soriano, Fuku deals not Hendry's fault " Insiders have said those deals, which happened on Hendry’s watch, were out of Hendry’s hands. " Not his style to speak up about it (hello Brian Cashman) but sure is his style to collect the GM paycheck for which he was not obvisouly due. F'him and F'Crane Kinney Get these clowns out of here!!!!!!!!

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Submitted by crunch on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:53 am

i don't get it. should we assume zell was trying to blow his load and get a trophy before he sold the team or something? he was the man on point leading into 07 and through 08. i know hendry and crew wouldn't make friends calling out anyone, especially some guy in a suit who's already gone...and one who took a f'n bath on buying the tribune co...but it's a weird hand washing of the situation.

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Submitted by crunch on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:43 am

i'm not defending anyone because the rumors didn't come from anyone who bothered to be named...especially hendry. it's known that hendry has always had a hard-on for soriano except when he soured on him in WAS. i imagine hendry wanted bradley, though...as flaky as his attitude and health has proven to be, he is (was) a good ob% guy with a good bit of pop and an arm to play RF. that said, i can't imagine anyone else pulling those strings except for zell. i had the impression he was a hands-off guy that for some reason was pumping money into the team, though. rumors aside, zell's legacy did include bumping the payroll...though it really didn't "bite" until the 2009 season.

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Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:19 am

Soriano rumor was the deal was finished by Kenney and McDonough, while Hendry was on a plane somewhere else. They allegedly tacked on another year or two to the deal then what Hendry thought was fair. And since the universal cry from just about everyone was, "that's too fucking long", I kind of buy it. Fuku not so much... That being said, doubtful Hendry didn't like either player, just probably (like Cashman) didn't want to overpay by as much as they did on Soriano. Rumor on Fukudome was White Sox offered more anyway, Cubs just promised him RF...at least for a year.

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Submitted by Paul Noce on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:22 pm

BTW, the Suntimes article Jacos linked to is written by Joe Cowley, who has covered the White Sox for years and publicly ripped the Cubs on The Score (a local Chicago sports radio station for you out of towners). The Suntimes swapped their baseball reporters this year, Cowley is now covering the Cubs. This is the first of many articles Cowley will write that 'stirs things up'. He had a long history of doing the same crap with the White Sox, emphasizing on Ozzie's cursing, Ozzie's kids ripping the team, etc. He loves to write negative articles.

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Submitted by Paul Noce on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:53 pm

Sorry, my bad, digging around, Cowley is now a columnist, I thought they had flipped his beat, like newspapers do every few years (Sullivan has covered the Sox before). So now Cowley can write about all the low life crap he loves so much. Here's a great quote from a Sox fan about Cowley: "His constant name calling and little attacks on people he doesn't like or actually have the audacity to one up him on a story are extremely unprofessional for someone in his line of work." That's from the link I posted above/below, wherever it goes.

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:26 am

seeing a number of "positive" stories this morning on b.webb (tex) throwing long toss and it being a good sign for him. they should probably look at a little video of him actually doing that tossing. it was hard to watch and honestly kinda amazing they didn't shut him down immediately. aside from barely-to-not-at-all being able to make those 200ft. tosses, he was in obvious pain and his form was awful. at this point im glad the cubs didn't take that bait.

Submitted by MikeC on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:30 am

head over to deadspin to read about how marlon byrd is getting his supplements from victor conte and how he wants to restore his good name and gives props for him not being a snitch. i guess thats good for us right?

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Submitted by Paul Noce on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:03 pm

That link is actually quoting Dusty from a story on Fox, who can't even get their facts straight. The Fox story says, "In 2006, he was fired." No, he wasn't fired. His contract ended and he wasn't offered a new one. There's a difference, and any fact-checking journalist would know that, but Fox doesn't even check facts for sports stories. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mike-quade-chicago-cubs-excited-but-… In the Fox story, Dusty continues to rip the Cubs...(but he's moved on!) =============== He said the team “didn’t have the personnel” to win in the second half of his four-year tenure, citing injuries to stars Aramis Ramirez (2005) and Derrek Lee (2006). “It really hurt my reputation,” Baker said. “Ever since then, all of a sudden, ‘I don’t know how to manage. I don’t know how to handle pitchers. I don’t like young players.’ … They don’t even have a clue about it. I never heard that in San Francisco. “I was one of the top managers around, supposedly, and then all of a sudden I don’t know (expletive), know what I mean? They (the critics) were always looking for something critical, ever since I went there (to Chicago).”

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Submitted by Paul Noce on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:14 pm

One, the first things journalists are taught is, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." You fact check EVERYTHING. Two, if you're going to write an article bashing a team by a former manager who keeps claiming he's "moved on", yet 5 years later is still bringing up new shit (no pun intended), I would want to double fact check everything. Dusty Baker wasn't fired. In fact, I'm sure you'll remember, Hendry told reporters around the All-Star break in 2006 that Dusty would finish out the season, despite constant rumors he was going to be fired at any minute. Manager and player jobs are not the same as everyday normal working class stiff jobs. Was Carl Crawford fired by the Rays? Was Jayson Werth fired by the Phillies? No, their contracts expired and the teams chose not to resign them. Dusty Baker became a free agent and the Cubs chose not to resign him, because he had 3 crappy years in a row.

Submitted by DavidP on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:29 pm

The right to depreciate player's value is extremely important when a franchaise is sold, but that has nothing to do with the player's contracts, which are allowed to be expensed in the year incurred. The depreciation they are referring to is the portion of the total price of the transaction that is allocated to the value of the current players. This is the value of the player system that is over and above the cost of the individual contracts, and represent the value of that part of the team as a "going concern". Giving Soriano a couple of extra years on his contract had no tax ramifications other than to increase the perceived value of the team to a prospective buyer if he looked upon having Soriano tied up for that period of time as a good thing, rather than a bad thing. What Veeck was referring to was essentially the "goodwill", which in general is the amount of the purchase price that is in excess of the book value of the corporation, which can generally be depreciated. To take a oversimplified example. Assume that the Cubs had NO assets other than the ball park and it's real estate, and the player's contracts. And assume that the ball park could be sold on the open market for 100,000 dollars. And finally assume that the capital and retained earnings of the corporation were 100,000 million dollars. If the corporation was sold for 1 billion dollars, 100,000 million dollars would be assigned to the real estate, 100,000 million would be assigned to the capital and retained earnings, and 800,000 million would be assigned to "goodwill". This goodwill can be depreciated over the estimated life of the goodwill, which can be written off against the annual profit. If the corporation is not sold, there is no goodwill to be written off, and the tax burden is much higher.

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Submitted by Rob Richardson on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:53 pm

I am not sure I agree. Player salaries are not goodwill because the players are in fact assets and the value of that asset can be calculated, in the same way the value of the real estate and other assets are determined during an acquisition. Additionally, the value assigned to the players’ salaries is depreciable, and I believe at a faster that the goodwill is amortized. Thus, assume a fixed purchase price, the buyer would prefer a higher payroll or rather the impact of the high payroll has lessened by its beneficial tax effect. I also believe this also explains why the Cubs aren’t in a big hurry to eat player salaries. They aren’t in fact experiencing the full impact of those contracts, and writing them off would create a negative tax effect.

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Submitted by DavidP on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 02:12 pm

Payroll is not depreciated. It is expensed. Player's salaries are not goodwill. The value of an ongoing business sold at a value over book value assigned to the value of the player's contracts IS goodwill (actually, it isn't really goodwill, since goodwill is no longer able to be depreciated), and is depreciated based upon the estimated future life expectancy of all the players' value. Players contracts are valued on the books at their face value for the current year as a current liability and future year's obligations are simply noted as a footnote in the liabilities section. In short, signing Soriano to a long term contract had no effect on this depreciation, and was of value to the selling company only to the extent that the presence of that player at that salary for a specific period of time. In the case of Soriano, by the time the team was sold, he was performing at a level below that which was probably expected of him, and probably caused a decrease in the selling price, rather than an advantage to the seller. Players are no more assets of a ball club (in the bookkeeping sense) than are the salaries payed to any employees.

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Indeed they do TJW!

    For the record I’m not in favor of solely building a team through paying big to free agents. But I’m also of the mind that when you develop really good players, get them signed to extensions that buy out a couple years of free agency, including with team options. And supplement the home grown players with free agent splashes or using excess prospects to trade for stars under team control for a few years. Sort of what Atlanta does, basically. Everyone talks about the dodgers but I feel that Atlanta is the peak organization at the current moment.

    That said, the constant roster churn is very Rays- ish. What they do is incredible, but it’s extremely hard to do which is why they’re the only ones frequently successful that employ that strategy. I definitely do not want to see a large market team like ours follow that model closely. But I don’t think free agent frenzies is always the answer. It’s really only the Dodgers that play in that realm. I could see an argument for the Mets too. The Yankees don’t really operate like that anymore since the elder Steinbrenner passed. Though I would say the reigning champions built a good deal of that team through free agent spending.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    The issue is the Cubs are 11-7 and have been on the road for 12 of those 18.  We should be at least 13-5, maybe 14-4. Jed isn't feeling any pressure to play anyone he doesn't see fit.
    But Canario on the bench, Morel not at 3B for Madrigal and Wisdom in RF wasn't what I thought would happen in this series.
    I was hoping for Morel at 3B, Canario in RF, Wisdom at DH and Madrigal as a pinch hitter or late replacement.
    Maybe Madrigal starts 1 game against the three LHSP for Miami.
    I'm thinking Canario goes back to Iowa on Sunday night for Mastrobuoni after the Miami LHers are gone.
    Canario needs ABs in Iowa and not bench time in MLB.
    With Seiya out for a while Wisdom is safe unless his SOs are just overwhelmingly bad.

    My real issue with the lineup isn't Madrigal. I'm not a fan, but I've given up on that one.
    It's Tauchman getting a large number of ABs as the de factor DH and everyday player.
    I didn't realize that was going to be the case.
    We need a better LH DH. PCA or ONKC need to force the issue in about a month.
    But, even if they do so, Jed doesn't have to change anything if the Cubs stay a few over .500!!!

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Totally depends on the team and the player involved. If your team’s philosophy is to pay huge dollars to bet on the future performance of past stars in order to win championships then, yes, all of the factors you mentioned are important.

    If on the other hand, if the team’s primary focus is to identify and develop future stars in an effort to win a championship, and you’re a young player looking to establish yourself as a star, that’s a fit too. Otherwise your buried within your own organization.

    Your comment about bringing up Canario for the purposes of sitting him illustrates perfectly the dangers of rewarding a non-performing, highly paid player over a hungry young prospect, like Canario, who is perpetually without a roster spot except as an insurance call up, but too good to trade. Totally disincentivizing the performance of the prospect and likely diminishing it.

    Sticking it to your prospects and providing lousy baseball to your fans, the consumers and source of revenue for your sport, solely so that the next free agent gamble finds your team to be a comfortable landing spot even if he sucks? I suppose  that makes sense to some teams but it’s definitely not the way I want to see my team run.

    Once again, DJL, our differences in philosophy emerge!

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    That’s just kinda how it works though, for every team. No team plays their best guys all the time. No team is comprising of their best 26 even removing injuries.

    When baseball became a business, like REALLY a business, it became important to keep some of the vets happy, which in turn keeps agents happy and keeps the team with a good reputation among players and agents. No one wants to play for a team that has a bad reputation in the same way no one wants to work for a company that has a bad rep.

    Don’t get me wrong, I hate it too. But there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

    On that topic, I find it silly the Cubs brought up Canario to sit as much as he has. He’s going to get Velazquez’d, and it’s a shame.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Of course, McKinstry runs circles around $25 million man Javier Baez on that Tigers team. Guess who gets more playing time?

    But I digress…

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Seems like Jed was trying to corner the market on mediocre infielders with last names starting with "M" in acquiring Madrigal, Mastroboney and Zach McKinstry.  

     

    At least he hasn't given any of them a Bote-esque extension.  

  • Childersb3 (view)

    AZ Phil:
    Rookie ball (ACL) starts on May 4th. Do yo think Ramon and Rosario (maybe Delgado) stay in Mesa for the month of May, then go to MB if all goes "solid"?
     

  • crunch (view)

    masterboney is a luxury on a team that has multiple, capable options for 2nd, SS, and 3rd without him around.  i don't hate the guy, but if madrigal is sticking around then masterboney is expendable.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    I THINK I agree with that decision. They committed to Wicks as a starter and, while he hasn’t been stellar I don’t think he’s been bad enough to undo that commitment.

    That said, Wesneski’s performance last night dictates he be the next righty up.

    Quite the dilemma. They have many good options, particularly in relief, but not many great ones. And complicating the situation is that the pitchers being paid the most are by and large performing the worst - or in Taillon’s case, at least to this point, not at all.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Wesneski and Mastrobuoni to Iowa

    Taillon and Wisdom up

    Wesneski can't pitch for a couple of days after the 4 IP from last night. But Jed picked Wicks over Wesneski.

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