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

The Cubs Bench Picture Becoming Clearer

Lou started hinting yesterday that Mike Fontenot would get some reps in spring training at shortstop. The idea being that if he can manage to not completely fuck it up, he could keep Andres Blanco off the roster and open up another spot for a legit bat or for Kevin Millar to spin fanciful tales of his World Series days and entertain the press corps.

As it stands now, the assumptions were that the bench would be Koyie Hill, Baker or Fontenot depending on who was starting that day, Andres Blanco, Xavier Nady (or whichever outfielder he's starting for) and then one of Chad Tracy, Micah Hoffpauir, Sam Fuld, Kevin Millar or possibly even Brad Snyder, Bobby Scales or Bryan LaHair. If Fontenot could handle the back-up shortstop duties without being a complete liability, that could open up two spots on the bench and send Blanco back to the minors. Blanco is out of options, so he'd have to go through waivers if that happened, but hardly a loss if someone did decide to give him a 25-man spot.

The other revelation today was that Lou is already ready to give Starlin Castro the shortstop job if Theriot hurts himself.

"If Theriot were to get hurt, which we don't want obviously, we'd just put the kid (Castro) at short and let him play."

Theriot better be sure to always travel in pairs this season.

Comments

my god...someone gave livan hernandez a minor league deal...WAS... it's over, dude. =p ...also from gordon witty's twitter feed... "Zambrano wearing a headband and Silva wearing spare tire just jogged by. ... 3.7 on the Richter scale." ha... also ted lilly has missed the last couple days due to fever according to witty...hopefully it's not the valley variety =p

When I heard Randy Bush on Bruce Levine's show, he pretty much said that 23 of 25 spots are locked up due to contracts and "other things". IF that is true, it will be really interesting to see who numbers 24 and 25 are.

Lou either has Alzheimers or a very short memory. He's tried Fontenot and shortstop and Fontenot sucks balls. He has a career fielding percentage of .500 at shortstop. He's handled 4 chances and committed errors on 2 of them. And the other two chances he didn't fuck up were force outs when he stepped on second. He was tremendously fucking awful.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

He's put footwork in?...at shortstop? He should work on becoming an average fielding 2b before he spends time on other positions. AND work on his hitting. All this talk by Lou about not being able to have a bat because Blanco can't hit, he should stop and look at last season's stats. Blanco's hitting was equal or better than Fontenot's. And unlike Fontenot, Blanco can field. I'm not clamoring for Blanco to start anywhere on this team, it's just that his competition is crap and a legitimate fielding SS is a necessity. If Lou and Hendry think they can put together a team with no back up shortstop again, it's just another sign It's The End in 2010 (and not in a good way). Fontenot: .236/.301/.377 Blanco: .252/.303/.341

[ ]

In reply to by Paul Noce

fontenot's footwork at 2nd is much improved. that was most of the problem with his D, anyway. with the info that cubs are gonna go with s.castro when/if injuries occur this makes a long-term middle IF replacement expendable. if fontenot can show lou he can occasionally handle SS then they no longer have to carry a glove man. if they didn't want to put castro in the equation blanco's job would probably be safer. besides, fontenot has to prove he can do it before they'll let him.

I think an MLB team needs a backup infielder who can actually field. Nothing can cause a team defense to unravel faster than bad middle infielding, except bad catching. If Fontenot had a .900 OPS, I'd say keep him on the grounds that the variance in hitting is greater than the variance in fielding, but as it is, on a real team, I say keep Blanco. If that means there are not enough roster spots for Fontenot, too bad. I say this as a lover of South Louisiana who likes to have as many Cubs as possible to have names ending in "ot."

Mr. White would make a perfect keystone combo with Mr. Castro. He is his translator. I vote for keeping him and breaking up the Cajun scrappy connection. Bueno! Ole!

I find it really interesting how the poster NAVIGATOR who has constantly bashed Tim Wilken since he was hired (at least as far as I can remember), never gives him any credit for what he has been trying to do, nor acknowledges bona fide scouting authorities' take on what is happening in our minor leagues. Nice! Go Internet! "Baseball America also recognized the improvement made in the Cubs' farm system. The Cubs organization jumped from 27th in baseball to 15th in Baseball America's pre-season talent rankings." 5 Cubs prospects in the BP Top 100. Improvement is at least noted.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Why the snark? Look, I don't attach much importance to these lists. But lets look at three of the more notable ones that appeared recently. BA - 5 Cubs ESPN Keith Law of Scouts Inc. -- 2 Cubs AOL Fanhouse's Frank Pilliere -- 3 Cubs 3 Lists, Cubs appearing 10 times. That's an average of 3.33 Cubs per Top 100 There are 30 major league teams. 100 top prospects/30 teams = 3.33 prospects per team on average. If this little exercise has any deep meaning at all, it looks to me like the Cubs are all the way up to average.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

I've never seen anyone do a study of how good these lists are, but I've never heard of AOL Fanhouse or Mr Pilliere and Law, besides being a bit of a tool, isn't a prospect guy. That being said, BA has been pretty crappy at predicting Cubs players. The Cubs have had three RoY candidates including one winnder in the last two years and the highest any of them ranked was 30th (the one who did the worst of the three). Personal opinion is that any list that doesn't have Lee isn't worth the virtual paper it's printed on anyway.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

"Why the snark?" Did Time Wilkens poss in your cereal? Why the grudge? What basis is there for your "Teflon Tim" rants when there is objective evidence that he is moving the talent into the right direction? Excuse me, "AOL Fanhouse"??? Since when does ANYTHING with AOL on it have any significance?! About as much significance as their stock. Ask Time-Warner. Its not just the lists. It is your perception of not knowing what the minors are for, apparently, which is to get players to the Major League Level, and 2., develop players for use in-trade. Whether they become "Stars" or "Key Players" is just gravy. 650 players roughly out of ALL the various baseball levels get to have the chance. Out of that number, only a tiny percentage become Albert Pujols.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

The Cubs have a serious defect in drafting and coaching positional talent. They go after the toolsy players and skip over the baseball players. The Cubs are in love with drafting the jack of all trade player but master of nothing. Its a sad state of affairs when the best and most successful positional talent since Mark Grace is Ryan Theriot. I am not even counting Soto as all he has proven is that he is a one year wonder to date. Go back and look at the drafts of the last 20 years and you will see the Cubs picking their awesome 1st rounder and the next pick or picks is the All-Star/ Hall of Famer. Its not like the Cubs were finishing 1st place every year, even a blind squirrel could luck into one of those organization defining players. The Cubs as an organization DOES NOT DRAFT OR DEVELOP positional talent AT ALL. I will defend Ryan Theriot for who he is, he is the best option over the last 3 years for SS for this franchise. He isn't the best in the world, but that should send shivers down your spine about how crappy our system has been for decades. That and watching Bobby Scales being our best option for the OF should make you want to slit your wrists. Starlin Castro is the savior now at age 19, and no OF or any other positional talent who could ever be considered to seriously to take over a MLB job remotely ready. The way i see it we don't have shit to help this team over the next 3-5 years from our minors. Thats how bad it is.

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In reply to by MikeC

3-5 years is a bit harsh. we probably won't get an aram/dlee out of the minors any time soon (unless vitters pumps it up), though. it's weird. the cubs have no organizational philosophy or an owner calling the shots on what kind of player should be drafted, but they've struck out a lot...a whole lot. "The Cubs are in love with drafting the jack of all trade player" ...yes they are. i dont mind it when they do it with a guy like colvin, but when they do it with highschool kid who's got a lot of everything, but still very raw as a complete package...meh...

Ah, but what you do not see, my friend, is the value of a new owner. That is at least a +1.5 added to the prospect er, prospectus. 2000-oh-10 will be a miracle year...(well, at least a contract year for several Cubbies and the GM and the manager). It's gonna happen!

personally think him and Baker would make a pretty decent platoon myself, at least better than just one getting the job. think Fontenot has a nice swing, but looks overmatched against guys that bring good heat, also looks like he's a bit of a guess hitter as he takes some odd swings and odd takes.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I can agree with that, but he didn't have that problem in 2009, so maybe it was a combination of mechanical and mental. I think he and Bradley are the guys who pressed the most with Aram's injury.

wow...matt stairs has dropped 32lbs. this offseason. that's soto-style impressive. too bad stairs didn't do it oh, 10 years ago. btw...pablo sandoval showed up to camp STUPID huge. he's still got youth, though.

Phil, I'm heading to ST game next Friday with my two sons (10&8), any key places or times to get a chance for a Cubs autograph? We're sitting out in the grass behind the outfield. Thanks.

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

You named your sons "10" and "8"? That's more jacked than naming them all Jacos. Show up really early and try to get them as they're finishing their drills. HoHoKam is a pretty bad place for autographs, there's other parks where the players litterally walk out of the field after the game... but I can't remember which parks.

I always liked "Kong" for Kingman. I thought "The Baby-Faced Assassin" was okay for Danny Graves before he became "Danny Graves Blows Saves." "Hey Asshole" was always appropriate for Larry "Chipper" Jones.

"I can move around -- that's the only thing I'm doing 100 percent, is the fielding, and I don't feel any pain at all," he said. "No problem." Soriano on testing his knee in the field. He needs to figure out how to go 100% in the field during the season.

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In reply to by Rob G.

MLB Network...forget which show, i think it's "Hot Stove," has been highlighting a "SABR-style" stat nightly debating their worth and what they show...along with poking holes in some of them. it's a mix of intelligence, ignorance, and personal opinions.

"Theriot hit on left wrist by Rafael Dolis during BP, says he's okay" I'm guessing Dolis is on Team Castro. Might want to take that Theriot target picture down. :-)

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • crunch (view)

    booooooooooo

    also, wisdom and taillon are both in chicago.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Tonight’s game postponed. Split games on Saturday.

  • crunch (view)

    cubs getting crazy good at not having player moves leak.

    taillon we 100% know is pitching tonight.  who he's replacing and any additional moves are unknown as far as i can tell.

    p.wisdom was not in today's lineup in iowa (rained out) and he was removed from the game last night mid-game, but not for injury.  good bet he's with the team in the bigs, too.

  • Bill (view)

    A good rule of thumb is that if you trade a near-ready high ceiling prospect, you should get at least two far-away high ceiling prospects in return.  Like all rules-of-thumb, it depends upon the specific circumstances, but certainly, we weren't going to get Busch for either prospect alone.

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Right on schedule, just read an article in Baseball America entitled "10 MLB Prospects Outside The Top 100 Who Have Our Attention".  Zyhir Hope was one of the prospects featured. It stated that he's "one of the biggest arrow-up sleeper prospects in the lower levels right now."

     

    Not sharing to be negative about the trade, getting a top 100 prospect who is MLB ready should carry a heavy prospect cost.  But man, Dodger sure are good at identifying and developing young talent. Andrew Friedman seems to have successfully merged Ray's development with Yankees financial might to create a juggernaut of an organization.  

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    I suspect Brown will spend some time in the bullpen due to inning restrictions.  Pitched only 93 innings last year and career high is 104 innings in 2022.  I would expect them to be cautious with a young player with his injury history.