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

Angels Late Rally Flips Cubs at Fitch

Welington Castillo reached base five times on three walks, a single, and a double, but the AZL Angels rallied to score three runs in the 9th and one in the 10th to edge the AZLCubs 8-7 in Arizona League action at Fitch Park Field #3 in Mesa this morning.

box score

On the Iowa Cubs DL since July 28th with a hamstring injury and now rehabbing at Fitch Park, W. Castillo was scheduled to rejoin the Iowa Cubs today in Tacoma, but since the I-Cubs have the day off and don't play again until Friday night, Castillo was kept at Fitch Park for one more day to get him some additional game action as a DH before flying to SeaTac and rejoining the Iowa club.

Cubs 2010 #1 draft pick RHP Hayden Simpson got the start today, and threw one inning (21 pitches - 15 strikes), allowing two runs (both earned) on three hits (a single, a double, and a triple), with two strikeouts, and one pick-off.

While it might appear that Simpson had a bad outing, he actually looked OK. He threw his fastball consistently for strikes, and both of his strikeouts came on his curve ball (which he is now throwing in games again). The double was a high chopper that bounced off the rock-hard dirt in front of home plate and up & over the head of third-baseman Gioskar Amaya and down the LF line, the RBI triple was a grounder that bounced over the 1st base bag and rolled into the RF corner, and the RBI single was a broken bat blooper into short right-center. Why he was limited to throwing just one inning (and 21 pitches), I do not know.

Recently demoted from Boise to Mesa, LHP Cam Greathouse (Cubs 2010 8th round draft pick out of Gulf Coast CC) followed Simpson to the mound and threw three innings (45 pitches - but only 23 strikes). He allowed one run on one hit and two walks, with two strikeouts, and he benefitted from two timely double plays turned by the Cubs infield that killed Angel threats. But Greathouse was all over the place with his pitches, throwing some in the dirt, some too far outside, some too far inside, and a couple over the batter's head. It's pretty obvious that he has good stuff (especially his curve), but he has a tendency to get out of whack where he can't throw his fastball for strikes.

Besides Castillo reaching base five times, speedy lead-off man Kyung-Min Na had three infield singles (he beat the shortstop's throw to 1st each time) and two stolen bases, and catcher Neftali Rosario (Cubs 2011 6th round pick out of the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy) crushed an RBI double off the RF fence in his 1st AB, walked and scored his second time up, and singled in his third PA, while handling himself very well behind the plate.

SS Marco Hernandez went 0-5, ending his hitting streak at 16 games.

And RF Eduardo Gonzalez had to leave the game after being hit on the wrist with a pitch. He initially stayed in the game, running the bases and playing defense the next half-inning, but then he was pulled for a PH in his next AB (the inning after he was hit).

Comments

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In reply to by DavidP

Submitted by DavidP on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 9:35pm. ArizonaPhil - is Na, or anyone else in the organization, as fast as Campana? ================================================ DAVID P: Nobody presently in the Cubs organization that I have seen is as fast as Tony Campana. Hak-Ju Lee was #2 before he got traded, but now Kyung-Min Na and Evan Crawford are probably tied for #2, with Na faster in shorts bursts like home-to-1st (because he is a left-handed hitting chop hitter who cheats out of the box), while Crawford is a right-handed hitting long-strider who appears to gain speed as he runs around the bases, like he's on the back leg of a 440-relay team. Junior Lake, Pin-Chieh Chen, Matt Szczur, Brett Jackson, and Zeke DeVoss are others who have plus-speed.

Tennessee catcher Luis Flores has been suspended 50 games for a PED violation. Flores is automatically placed on the Restricted List by MLB, and remains there until Tennessee has played 50 regular season games. As a result, the suspension will continue (and Flores will remain on the Restricted List) into next season, until all 50 games have been played. Interestingly, because Flores is on the Restricted List and will remain on the list throughout the off-season, he cannot be selected in the December 2011 Rule 5 Draft, and so the Cubs don't have to worry about losing him (not that that was likely to happen, but Flores was a candidate to play in the AFL post-2011, and a good showing there might have made him attractive to another club). This means Flores will spend March at Minor League Camp, and then probably the month of April at Extended Spring Training, where (believe it or not) he will be able to play in games (for the EXST Cubs) even though he is on the Restricted List. Flores had a nice 2011 season going, too, and was probably the front-runner to be the #1 catcher at Tennessee next season (with Michael Brenly the back-up). Now Flores will have to battle to regain his standing in the organization once he finishes serving his suspension.

AZ Phil -- What do the Cubs have going on in Arizona in September and October? I have a chance to come out to the Phoenix area around then and would like to catch a game and see some of our prospects. I know there is the Arizona Fall League (not sure what dates they start playing) but don't the Cubs also have something going on in Mesa after the AZL Cubs season ends on August 28 and before the AZ Fall League starts? I just can't recall right now. (edit) Ah! The AZ Instructional League! That's what I was thinking about. Do you know the beginning and ending dates (even if just approximate) for the Az Instr League and the AZ Fall League?

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...