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

River Cats Defeat I-Cubs at Fitch Park

The Sacramento River Cats (A’s AAA squad) defeated the Iowa Cubs 6-1 at Fitch Park Field #3 this afternoon in Mesa.

Bobby Scales had three hits and reached base four times, but that was just about the extent of the I-Cubs offense.

Mike Parisi got the start for Iowa, and was hammered to the tune of four runs on six hits (including four doubles), a walk, and a wild pitch, in three innings of work (52 pitches – 34 strikes). He also struck out four. Parisi was outrighted to Iowa last Saturday.

There were several roster moves made involving the Iowa Cubs today: Pitcher Alessandro Maestri, catchers Steve Clevenger and Blake Lalli, infielders Nate Samson and Tony Thomas, and outfielder Ty Wright were assigned to AA Tennessee, and infielders Jonathan Mota and Marquez Smith were promoted to Iowa from Tennessee.

Smith was promoted to fill a need at 3B (Bobby Scales will be used primarily at 2B), while Mota—a utility infielder--has been learning the catching position this Spring while with the Tennessee squad, and he apparently did well enough to qualify as the I-Cubs emergency third catcher should anything bad happen to Welington Castillo and Chris Robinson in the same game. Mota started behind the plate in today's game.

RHP Jake Muyco and LHP Dustin Sasser were moved up to the Iowa squad for today's game, but that probably was because several Iowa relief pitchers will be in the Cubs bullpen this weekend at Chase Field. There is no indication that Muyco or Sasser have been promoted from Tennessee to Iowa, although that is a possibility.

Catcher Jose Guevara was brought up from the Boise/Mesa squad for today's game, while Iowa catchers Welington Castillo and Chris Robinson are with the Cubs this weekend.

Here is today’s abridged box score (Iowa Cubs players only):

IOWA LINEUP:
1a. Sam Fuld, CF:          1-3 (1B+E6, 6-3, Kc)
1b. Matt Camp, CF:        0-2 (P-6, F-7)
2. Darwin Barney, SS:     1-3 (BB, 1B, 5-3, 4-3)
3. Micah Hoffpauir, DH:   1-4 (Ks, F-8, 1B, 3-U)
4. Jason Dubois, 1B:       0-4 (L-7, Ks, Ks, Ks)
5. Brad Snyder, RF:        0-4 (Ks, F-8, P-5, F-7)
6. Bryan Lahair, LF:        0-4 (Ks, 6-3, F-8, F-8)
7. Bobby Scales, 2B:      3-3 (BB, 1B, 1B, 2B)
8a. Jonathan Mota, C:    0-2 (5-3, Ks)
8b. Jose Guevara, C:      1-2 (F-9, 2B)
9. Marquez Smith, 3B:    0-3 (5-3, F-8, HBP, F-8)

IOWA PITCHERS:
1. Mike Parisi -     3.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R (4 ER), 1 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 1/3 GO/FO, 52 pitches (34 strikes)
2. Scott Maine -    2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 2/3 GO/FO, 30 pitches (20 strikies)
3. Jake Muyco -    2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 1/3 GO/FO, 32 pitches (20 strikes)
4. Dustin Sasser - 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 2 K,1/2 GO/FO, 39 pitches (21 strikes)
NOTE: Top of the 9th inning was stopped early because Sasser reached max pitch-count for that inning

ERRORS (1):
Bryan Lahair: E-7 (throwing error allowing runners at 1st & 2nd to move up one base)

CATCHERS DEFENSE:
Jonathan Mota – 1-1 CS, 2 PB
Jose Guevara –   1 PB

Comments

How has Tyler Colvin come to the plate only once, but played all three outfield positions? Or is he just playing the outfield by himself? 1-1 with a triple and covering the whole outfield--he is God! Fontenot (circa '08) has been replaced.

Lilly slated to throw in Des Moines Friday night; alas, can't be there due to prior family engagement, but if he stays - as expected - for a 2nd start, that would likely fall the following Wednesday night & I will have a look @ him then...

this WGN camera work is god awful today. the director has no idea what camera to call and keeps stalling on weird shots along with useless MTV-style jump cuts to other cameras.

Lou just on the broadcast, said he would be shocked if at the beginning ST he was told "Clovin" would break with the team.

it seems castro keeps getting more and more jewelry the longer spring training goes on. that triple could have been an inside the park homer if it wasn't for the mr. t starter kit he's wearing. =p

I mentioned this halfway through ST when he was also hitting .259 Some guys just are what they are: Today, Kosuke Fukudome finished spring training with a .259 BA and a line of .259 .375 .425 Last yr Kosuke Fukudome finished the reg seasn with a .259 BA and a line of .259 .375 .421 His cumulative BA for all three ST's is .254 So far his MLB numbers are very similar to what he put up in his second and third seasons with Chunichi in Japan. .253 .350 .446 and .251 .352 .440 There's still hope for Kosuke. He took it to a new level the following season .343 .406 .537 and never looked back. Maybe he can do it again, this year.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

I thought it was sort of obvious. The average stats in Japan, aside from that one career year, translating to pretty much the same thing here. The overpaying for average stats and results. For me, it was new -- I wasn't aware that Fukodome had been so average in Japan before his breakout season. But it should not be news to Hendry, and to me that makes the expensive signing sort of dumb. I still like Fukodome, though, and I am hoping he does turn it around. There is something about him that makes me cheer for him.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

The stats navigator provides here are Fukudome's two weakest years in out of the eight he played for Chunichi (the only team he played for before switching to the MLB). They are also his age 23 and 24 seasons. From age 25-30 he never put up an OPS under .900 and averaged 24 homeruns a season despite being limited to 92 games in 2004 and 81 games in 2007. There's also a reason navigator left out Fukudome's rookie season line, the year before navigator's sample--his batting average was .284 . Of course, his OBP and Slugging were around the same. So why did navigator leave it out? He's stuck on this .259 thing. And yes, the fact that Fukudome has compiled roughly the same batting average in his first two years as an MLB player might be significant, but the fact that he had similer batting averages in 2000 and 2001 when he was 23 and 24 playing in another country against completely different competition (and those were his two lowest averages) tells us nothing. You could make the argument that Hendry made an ill-advised gamble on Fukudome (a gamble because predicting the transfer from each league is damn difficult, but a gamble the White Sox, Padres, and another team or two to the best of my recollection were also willing to make), but these year by year stat lines selected based on similar batting averages and almost nothing else is not a good way to make that argument, nor is it something that could have helped anybody predict Fukudome's performance in MLB before signing him. I with you on cheering for him, Old and Blue. And I'm also with you on thinking that he is overpaid for what he has brought to the field in his first two seasons (and, based on what we've seen so far in the MLB, what he's likely to bring in the next two seasons). But navigator's criticism based on the stats in Japan doesn't make any sense.

A couple days ago The Big Lowitzki, when I pointed out I have some concern over the shit hitting of our catchers this spring (particularly Geo Soto, who is going on 8 straight months of crap), said "Who cares, its Spring training", may want to look at this ESPN article from Jon Greenberg: http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs Lou, when asked: "Look," he said. "He needs to swing the bat a little better. C'mon, we've gotten one extra-base hit out of our catchers this spring, the catchers we still have here. We'd like to see a little better. We'd like to see a lot better actually." Soto went hitless in his last 17 Cactus League at-bats since March 20, though he has walked three times. Yeah, Lowitzki, "Who Cares?". Just the Manager of the team - and me. Look, time will tell, but this is a trend already that needs to get reversed, and now, if the team is going to fight for a Playoff spot.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Eh. Lou's dumb. He also got excited about Soriano's big 3-3 day. Take a look at Soto and Soriano's ST OPSs and you'll see they are remarkably similar, just Soto's .400+ is in the OBP and Soriano's is in the SLG. Soto also came to the plate a lot less (and got walked a lot more, meaning he often didn't get great pitches to hit, most likely). As for 2008, Soto's BABIP was .246--most of which had to be bad luck considering his line drive rate only dropped 3%. On the other hand, his HR/FB rate dropped over 4%, which could be bad luck but is (I think) probably more due to a slight drop in bat speed, quickness, squaring the ball--something in the swing or approach (which could have been affected by a sore hand or the big belly). Long story short, yes, Soto needs to slug higher than .243. Soriano also needs to get on base at better than a .267 clip, Lee needs to do better than a .294 OBP, and A-Ram needs to get on the field and boost his OPS about .300. Soto and Koyie Hill are hardly the biggest concern (and that C spot is slotted to come up 8th according to Lou).

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

I still say who cares. Its spring training. Its meaningless. Lou is exactly right. Obviously Soto needs to hit better than he did in ST. But his ST stats are about as meaningful as Colvin's - i.e. not worth much.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • 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.