Cubs MLB Roster

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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

Soriano Plays in Peoria

Hitting lead-off and serving as the DH, Alfonso Soriano got into his first game action in almost six weeks, as the AZL Cubs defeated the AZL Padres 6-3 at Padres Field #1 at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, AZ this morning.

Soriano arrived shortly after the rest of the AZL Cubs team, apparently getting a ride to the game from the team hotel in central Phoenix without stopping first at Fitch Park.

Soriano participated in the usual pre-game on-field stretching exercises, and then the Padres kindly allowed him to take some swings in their enclosed batting cages located adjacent to the field, since Soriano did not have an opportunity to take pre-game BP with the rest of the team at Fitch Park. 

Hitting lead-off in three different innings, Soriano went 0-2 with a F-9 fly out, a strike out (swinging), and a walk. He also scored a run.

Soriano left the game after his 3rd AB in the top of the 5th, presumably headed back to the Ritz Carlton for lunch. I would think Soriano will then accompany his Chicago Cubs teammates to Chase Field, where he will possibly take some additional pre-game BP prior to tonight's Cubs-D'backs game.

If he is so inclined, he could be the DH in tomorrow morning's AZL Cubs game at Fitch Park, and still have time to hitch a ride down I-10 to Tucson in the afternoon where he could play LF and hit lead-off for the Iowa Cubs in their game versus the Tucson Sidewinders at Tucson Electric Park tomorrow night.

It's always a thrill for the AZL Cubs (who are mainly teenagers) when there is a big leaguer in their midst, but having Soriano around was especially exciting for the young Cubs Dominican players, who hold Soriano up as a national hero. And since AZL Cubs RF Nelson Perez is (like Felix Pie) a protege of Soriano's, he was REALLY stoked.  

Here is the pitch-by-pitch log of Soriano's three at-bats this morning in Peoria.

(All three ABs were against AZL Padres RHP Junior Veras). 

1ST AB (leading off 1st inning):
PITCH 1: Ball one (fastball up & in, chin music)
PITCH 2: Ball two (fastball up)
PITCH 3: Strike one (called, right down the middle of the plate)
PITCH 4: Strike two (fouled straight back)
PITCH 5: Ball in play (lazy fly ball caught by right-fielder in front of warning track in straight-away RF)

OUTCOME: F-9

2ND AB (leading off 3rd inning):
PITCH 1: Strike one (right down the middle of the plate)
PITCH 2; Strike two (fouled straight back) 
PITCH 3: Foul (line drive hooked into LF bullpen)
PITCH 4: Ball one (outside)
PITCH 5: Foul (fouled straight back)
PITCH 6: Foul (line drive hooked into LF bullpen) 
PITCH 7: Strike three (swing & miss, breaking ball in dirt)

OUTCOME: Strike out (swinging)
 
3RD AB (leading off 5th inning):
PITCH 1: Strike one (pop foul over 1st base dugout)
PITCH 2: Strike two (swing & miss, breaking ball in dirt)  
PITCH 3: Ball one (high fastbal)
PITCH 4: Ball two (breaking ball outside)
PITCH 5: Ball three (fastball up)
PITCH 6: Ball four (fastball outside)

OUTCOME: Walked, and then scored on a two-run HR by the next batter, Starlin Castro.

Generally, Soriano looked somewhat rusty and his timing was a bit off, but at least he did get to face some "live" pitching in a game action setting. 

And I'm glad he agreed to do his "rehab" in the minor leagues this time, instead of trying to come back "cold" to the big leagues with no minor league ABs like he did the last time he was on the DL.

Today also marked the 2008 debut of Cubs 2006 12th round draft pick RHP Kitt Kopach (Illinois State), who hadn't thrown in a game for nearly two years after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery prior to last season, and the professional debut of Cubs 2008 3rd round draft pick RHP Aaron Shafer (Wichita State). Kopach and Shafer worked one scoreless/hitless inning a piece, each issuing one walk. Shafer also had an inning-ending strikeout.

Only 1st round pick RHP Andrew Cashner (TCU) has yet to make his pro debut from among the pitchers signed by the Cubs out of last month's draft, and I would think Cashner will probably get into his first game action sometime this week. 

Starlin Castro and Nelson Perez provided most of the AZL Cubs offense today, with Castro going 3-3 with two walls and a two-run HR, and N. Perez adding a garagantuan solo HR over the CF fence in the 9th (albeit after Soriano had already left). Perez presently leads the AZL in slugging (822) and triples (8), and is second in HR (6) and OPS (1.208), trailing only teammate John Contreras in HR and teammate Jericho Jones in OPS

box score

Comments

Woo hoo! An AZ Phil sighting -- along with his trademark detailed reportage. (I'm currently in love with that word) Phil is silent for a day or so and the TCR blogosphere goes into a panic. Thanks for saving us in our anxiety, AZ Phil! ~tongue in cheek~

"PITCH 7: Strike three (swing & miss, breaking ball in dirt) ... Generally, Soriano looked a bit rusty...." Rusty? Sounds like he's in mid-season form to me. I keed, I keed. :D

Fantastic, thank you very much for the detailed report, Arizona Phil. Great to see Kopach and Shafer get in there too. Quick question...Alex Maestri has been on the Tennessee DL for a few weeks now with a shoulder injury? Has he come down to Mesa? Do you know at all how severe the injury might be?

Nice to get a report from AZ Phil from an away game. I have a sneaking suspicion that the appearance of Soriano had something to do with it.

AZ Phil.....The AZL Cubs have four very hot bats in their lineup.Are there any rumors of any of these guys moving on up to Boise or Peoria in the near future? Contreras... .373/.432/.771 Perez... .378/.383/.822 Hoorelbeke... .381/.467/.667 Jones... .448/.500/.793

Am I the only one who had a sick feeling in his (or her) stomach after reading, "...N. Perez adding a garagantuan solo HR..." and confusing Nelson with Ne!f!? I was honestly wondering for a half second how in the name of everything that is holy we had that old dud(e) in Arizona. Thank your lucky stars that it was Nelson, and not Ne!f!.

is the dumpster the most underappreciated cub in years or what? people see it...people see it keep happening...everyone's still looking at it like it's gonna blow up any f'n second, though. hehe... unless he falls off a cliff or injures himself he's well on his way to the 12+m-multiyear club. imagine that...

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

he's well on his way to the 12+m-multiyear club. imagine that... Very well deserved. He's a class act, a very good players with both starting/relieving capacities -- remember that in the two plus years he spent closing he had a couple of terrible appearances that blew up his ERA. IIRC, in 2007, he started the year with a scoreless streak and had a 1.80 ERA as late as June or July. Then the Mets game happened and he lost track a bit. We all know how good he was in 2005 and parts of 2006 -- now, he made a smooth transition to starting. The guy's a great major leaguer; sure, the low BABIP and the blow-up potential are there, but there's no way he can't be as good a FA signing as Ted Lilly.

Who would have thought before the season started that Dempster going 8 scoreless innings like last night would be brushed off as almost expected -- count me among those taking his repeated good to excellent work for granted.

Dempster has definitely learned a thing or two (new pitches?) since he was last a starter. He deserves credit for what he's done so far.

Submitted by Raisin101 on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 5:07pm. Quick question...Alex Maestri has been on the Tennessee DL for a few weeks now with a shoulder injury? Has he come down to Mesa? Do you know at all how severe the injury might be?

=============================

RAISIN: I haven't seen Alessandro Maestri at Fitch Park (yet). At least he's not on the field. But the Fitch Park Rehab Division lives in their own little world, and I sometimes go weeks without seeing some of the guys. (There was a rare Jeff Culpepper sighting a couple of weeks ago, though).

Submitted by falcon on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 5:31pm.

AZ Phil.....The AZL Cubs have four very hot bats in their lineup.Are there any rumors of any of these guys moving on up to Boise or Peoria in the near future?

============================

FALCON: The players talk about stuff like that among themselves, but the decision is made in the higher levels of the Player Development Dept (Oneri Fleita and Dave Bialas), so generally the players don't know about the moves until they are actually made and the player is packing up to leave.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Jericho Jones, Nelson Perez, and either John Contreras or Sean Hoorelbeke get promoted to Boise (Boise lost their right-handed hitting 1st baseman when Rebel Ridling got promoted to Peoria), with perhaps Ryan Sontag, Dwayne Kemp, and Kyler Burke coming back to Mesa.

Demoting Burke to the AZL Cubs might help motivate him to consider a move to LHP (he was a top pitching prospect in HS), although if the move is made at some point, it probably won't happen until either the AZ Instructional League in September or else Extended Spring Training next Spring.  (The Cubs don't convert a position player to pitcher unless the player agrees to do it).

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

AZ Phil: I read somewhere that Oneri Fleita has a phylosophy of moving players up when they are excelling at their present level and moving struggling players down to regain their confidence,etc.Of coarse I understand that all depends if there are openings to move up to where a player has the oportunity to play a lot and stay off the bench.I could see Vitters and Rundle moving up to Peoria and Sontag & Burke going to Mesa. Contraras would take the vacated 3rd base spot in Boise and Jones & Perez would take the outfield openings.It seems that Boise is way overloaded with left hand batters and adding these 3 players would balance out their lineup and add a lot of power & offense also.Vitters,Rundle,& Burke ought to be in Daytona by now and seeing them still playing in short season low A ball just seems to be clogging up the system in the lower levels.Just my 2 cents.

[ ]

In reply to by falcon

I don't see why Vitters should be at Daytona when he's in his first full pro season. Rundle didn't start regularly at Boise last year, it's not surprising he that he didn't skip Peoria to Daytona this season. And despite doing well last season at Boise, it'd be quite amazing for Burke to have skipped over Peoria to Daytona this year. I can see why you'd say Rundle and Burke should be at Daytona if you meant that's where they should be based on normal progression after they were drafted. Certainly not Vitters.

Thanks, AZ Phil. Hope it isn't serious for Alex during such a breakthrough season as a starter. Another question if you have the time...how did Shafer look? Do you know how hard he was throwing? (I remember when he was drafted, there were reports that he had had a drop in velocity after his sophomore season.)

Recent comments

  • 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...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.