Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

39 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (one slot is open), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL and one player has been DESIGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT (DFA)   

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, three players are on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-23-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Hector Neris 
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 9 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 3
Kyle Hendricks, P 
* Drew Smyly, P 
* Justin Steele, P   

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

DFA: 1 
Garrett Cooper, 1B 
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Bad News/Good News - Peter's Been Robbed/Paul's Been Paid

Submitted by Mike Wellman on

Paul Sullivan had a piece in the Tribune on the Fourth of July that noted the heavy lifting being done in Chicago by players who started the season in Iowa. It got me to thinking...

Pending any roster impact that Geovany Soto's obliqueness might have, over half of the Cubs' current 25 man roster came to the NL Central via the PCL American North. Granted, not all of the baker's dozen were original signees of the organization, but each of the 13 have logged significant time in Des Moines on their ways up.

Collectively, you'd have to say that they've contributed more than their fair share to this point of a teeter-totter season. Put another way, the Cubs are getting more than their money's worth from this bunch. If the same could be said for the rest of the bloated payroll, well...

Please stand when I call your name. Hold your applause until the whole group has been recognized:

1. Jake Fox - A poor man's Jim Thome?

2. Micah Hoffpauir - A poorer man's Jake Fox?

3. Ryan Theriot - Left Des Moines a few years ago and never looked back.

4. Andres Blanco - A small-baller who might be more appreciated and less of a luxury on a team where the big guns were firing properly.

5. Mike Fontenot - Are his best days in the big leagues already behind him?

6. Carlos Marmol - Wish he'd stop racking up starter's pitch counts in short relief.

7. Angel Guzman - Seems finally to be carving a niche. Could it be the Greggles he sports?

8. Jeff Samardzija - Stretch and shrink, stretch and shrink - if it's not good for fabrics...

9. Kevin Hart - Every good team's gotta have one, right?

10. Sean Marshall - Actually has only logged brief time here & that as a rehabber, but he did come through the system.

11. Randy Wells - As many wins as the $18 million dollar man-child without the seizures.

12.Koyie Hill - Stats compare favorably with MB's, unfortunately.

13.Geovany Soto - Not exactly a contender for sophomore of the year, but starting to come around. Fingers crossed on the "mild strain".

HONORABLE MENTION: Bobby Scales, Jose Ascanio and Sam Fuld.

In the last couple of years the Cubs have gotten damn good mileage out of their Triple A callups. Last year the "made guys" in the majors also did their jobs, at least in the regularly scheduled portion of the season. There's half a year remaining for them to kick in their share in '09. If they don't, well, Piniella won't have to worry about snapping [or extending] his October winlessness...MW

Tags
Iowa Cubs update

Comments

Submitted by Dr. aaron b on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 07:24 am

Gotta say I like the point about Samja stretching and shrinking. At this point I think you just need to accept him for what he is. Put him in short relief and let him be. Better to have a good reliever than a bad/injured starter/reliever. IMHO

Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 07:20 am

Simple question, maybe the answer is not so simple: If the Cubs released Milton Bradley tomorrow, would they be off the hook for 2011? The $4 million signing bonus has been spent already. They would pay $11.5 million for the rest of this year and next year, but save $12 million the following year. Bradley's role would be assumed by three cheapies, Fox, Hoffpauir and Fuld. Unpleasant experience, but how you deal with a malignancy.

Submitted by Dusty Baylor on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 07:27 am

Is Samardzija a bad starter? 5-3, 3.72 ERA, 53K/20BB at Iowa in 13 games, 12 starts. I mean, for this season, sure he's gonna be a bullpen guy, but can they rule out him getting in the rotation? Maybe the future closer?

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 07:05 am

You know how sometimes you buy something, say a new wardrobe piece, and later realize it's just not you, but you're too proud to admit it so you keep trying to fit it in & you end up walking around looking like somebody you're not? At first people snicker behind your back & then they start booing! The Cubs have spent themselves into the corner of having to keep wearing nasty looking outfits like AS & MB...fashion is too trendy for long-term contracts

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 07:50 pm

Also not to mention Casey McGehee's work in Milwaukee, Ronnie Cedeno's roster-filling in Seattle, Felix the Cat's late-inning defensiveness and/or Rich Hill's capriciousness [or the former I-Cub media relations director's front office work] in Baltimore...

Submitted by Arizona Phil on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 07:37 pm

Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Thu, 07/09/2009 - 9:20am.
Simple question, maybe the answer is not so simple:

If the Cubs released Milton Bradley tomorrow, would they be off the hook for 2011?

The $4 million signing bonus has been spent already. They would pay $11.5 million for the rest of this year and next year, but save $12 million the following year.

Bradley's role would be assumed by three cheapies, Fox, Hoffpauir and Fuld.

Unpleasant experience, but how you deal with a malignancy.

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

COUSIN: If the Cubs were to release Milton Bradley now, they would be on the hook for the balance of Bradley's contract at least through 2010 minus the MLB minimum salary (pro-rated in 2009, then $400K in 2010) that would be paid by whatever team signs him after he gets released.

However, the 2011 vesting option becomes guaranteed as soon as Bradley plays in 75 MLB games in 2009 (and he's played in 68 games so far, so seven more games played and the 2011 option will vest), regardless of whether all 75 are played with the Cubs or a combination of the Cubs and some other team after he gets released, so meeting the 2011 vesting option is almost a given unless he suffers a season-ending injury in the next few days before he has a chance to play in 75 games.

So if the Cubs were to release Bradley now, and he signs with another club and plays in 75 games in 2009 (thereby causing the 2011 option to vest), the Cubs would APPEAR to save about $1M through 2011 (about $200K in 2009, then $400K in 2010 and $400K in 2011), except Bradley's slot on the 25-man roster would be taken by another player making at least the MLB minimum salary (or a bit more) like Jake Fox or Micah Hoffpauir, so the Cubs actually wouldn't save anything by releasing Bradley. And if he were to decide to not play in 2010 and 2011, the Cubs would owe 100% of his salary in both of those seasons PLUS the salary of whatever player ends up replacing him on the 25-man roster.

Therefore, the most-likely way the Cubs will move Bradley (if they do) would be via trade, probably to an A. L. club like Texas, Seattle or Detroit where he can DH, with the Cubs either taking back some equally unatractive high-end contract (like Nate Robertson or Dontrelle Willis from DET or Carlos Silva from SEA), or else with the Cubs paying a significant portion of Bradley's remaining salary in 2009-11.

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    This is Cubs adjacent but…


    Jordan Walker just was optioned by the deadbirds. For all the talk of the Cardinals development machine, they’ve really missed on a lot of can’t miss superstars lately. Walker has struggled. Gorman has been okay. They’re already trying to push Carlson out the door. Their pitching system has been so bad they had to go out and sign basically a full rotation over the last two offseasons.

    They’ve still developed a few of those pesky solid players, like Donovan, Edman, and Nootbaar. Their two best prospect to MLB players have been Adolis and Arozarena, neither of which is a cardinal.

    I hope they never figure it out again. Cardinal failure brings me such joy.
     

  • Raisin101 (view)

    Thank you so much! I really appreciate not only all your posts but how eager you are to respond to our questions.

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Is it just me or does it seem that official scorers are becoming less likely to call a misplay an error? 

     

    Guess I've hit my cranky old-man phase in life.  "I remember back in the day when an error was an error.  Official scorers have gone soft.  Now where did I put my readers?!!??"

     

    Sidenote, maybe Bellinger should be a little more careful against the Astros.  That was the series last year that a play at wall put him on the IL.   

  • crunch (view)

    i hated the almonte pickup, but he's 9-10 out of 12 for good outings, following a great spring.  hope he can keep it up.

    i already miss cooper, but yeah...the thin OF roster backup the team seems to want to carry probably got wisdom preference over cooper.  i could live without seeing wisdom at 3rd unless it's a blowout, though.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Things I've been wrong about:

    -Tauchman is fine as a 4th OF. I knew that. I just want a better LH DH option and he was really the DH for us until Seiya got hurt. I'm glad Mervis is getting a chance at it. Caissie is coming for that job for sure. But Tauchman continues to be highly useful as a 4th OF with Seiya being hurt

    -I wanted Yency to go to get guys at Iowa a chance. Guys like Palencia and Sanders or RileyT. Maybe even Hodge! But Yency has been better the last two plus weeks. He did hit 96 the other day. He was 93 in Texas to open the season.

    -Leiter has his split working enough. It just needs to stay there

    -I was surprised Jed picked Wisdom over Cooper. I wonder if this happens if Seiya wasn't hurt. Wisdom has more power. Cooper is the better hitter. Jed picked Wisdom and Wisdom had an option left as well.

    -Palencia just doesn't miss enough bats. Similar to ManRod, just two yrs younger. ManRod is killing AAA for TB right now!

    Things I got right so far:

    -Hendricks. Sorry Kyle. You got paid though!

    Jed, you missed there.

    -Smyly. If Jed could've traded him before or during ST, then he should have and saved some cash.

    -Mastro.  Not a LH DH. Pinch runner. Defensive utility. Maybe he's better than Madrigal but didn't get a legit chance to prove it.

    -Luke Little is good. He's had one bad outing. That's it. Needs to get better entering with guys on base. But he needs to stay in MLB.

    -Oh yeah....Morel is doing fine at 3B! He'll get better as well!!

  • crunch (view)

    bellinger "right rib contusion"

  • Childersb3 (view)

    South Bend just lost the lead in the bottom of the 9th on the weirdest scenario, ever.

    It's absolutely pouring rain....men on 1st and 2nd, 1out....JPatterson asks for a new ball, but no time out was called....he throws the old ball toward the dugout (not sure if it rolled out of play).....the ump declares the runners get two bases each so one run scores. Then a single up the middle ties the game.

    The rain was coming down in buckets at this point.

    Just weird

  • crunch (view)

    ...and bellinger is gone in the 7th because of that 2nd blown chance and the wall he bounced off of...

    hopefully his rib cage/shoulder feels better tomorrow, we just got happ back.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil,

    Any thoughts on Y. Rojas' stuff and Y. Melendez's game (I believe I've asked about him before, sorry)?

  • crunch (view)

    wow, things are moving fast.  hopefully it continues.

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