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

Good Times with Ted

Submitted by Cubnut on

By all accounts, Ted Lilly will be an ex-Cub by Saturday's trading deadline, in which case tonight's start at Houston will be his last for the team. Signed in December, 2006 after finalizing a deal with Cubs GM Jim Hendry moments before Hendry underwent an angioplasty, Lilly will go down as one of the GM's savvier acquisitions.

Coming into tonight's game, the lefty's four-year record with the Cubs is 47-34, 3.73. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is better than 3:1 and his ERA+ is 122. For what it's worth, Carlos Zambrano, who was ostensibly our ace when Lilly signed, has gone 44-32, 4.04 (113 ERA+) over the same period.

Lilly's 3-8 mark this season is far from indicative of how he has pitched. According to Baseball Prospectus's Support-Neutral pitchers stats, Lilly would have 9 wins this season with league-average offensive and bullpen support.

In honor of Ted's presumed, imminent departure, here is a list of Lilly's best starts as a Cub, ranked by Game Score (shown in parens).

9/15/08 @ Houston: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K (83)
6/13/10 v. White Sox: 8 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K (82)
9/2/09 v. Houston: 8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K (79)
6/8/10 @ Milwaukee: 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 8 K (78)
5/2/09 v. Marlins: 8 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 10 K (78)
4/13/09 v. Rockies: 6.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K (78)

No official word on the fate of the Ted Lilly Fan Club or the disposition of the Ted Lilly Supercomputer. 

Tags
Ted Lilly
Jim Hendry

Comments

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 07:07 pm

via cm #cubs lineup tues nite is rf colvin, ss castro, 1b lee, 3b ramy, cf byrd, lf sori, 2b riot, c hill, p lilly also this...for those that care #Cubs promote OF and Villanova football star Matt Szczur from Boise to Class A Peoria

Submitted by Cubnut on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 07:08 pm

Stephen Strasburg scratched from start when he can't get loose in the bullpen. Will receive MRI, possibly tonight. http://bit.ly/cOK2xV "Strasburg had a bullpen session just minutes before Tuesday's game and pitching coach Steve McCatty and trainer Lee Kuntz noticed that something was wrong with the right-hander. McCatty and Kuntz called (Washington GM Mike) Rizzo, who pulled the plug on Strasburg's start."

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Submitted by Paul Noce on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 07:51 pm

I think it was about the third inning of Strasburg's MLB debut when Bob Costas, doing the game on MLB Network, said Strasburg could be the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball. I cringed. It was such a stupid thing to say, and so early in someone's career. He didn't even say Strasburg had Hall of Fame talent, he just jumped straight to the "greatest pitcher in the history of the game" nonsense. I couldn't help but think of all the hard throwing pitching prospects who had their careers cut short by injuries.

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Submitted by The Real Neal on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:33 am

Shitzturis trading not withstanding, Hendry has shown he's much better getting MLB guys than minor leaguers. I have pretty much 0 faith that Hendry would identify a good minor league player to grab, regardless of how much money the Cubs pay. If they're going to pay for Lilly's contract, they should just lose him via free agency and get the draft pick(s).

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Submitted by big_lowitzki on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:23 am

Well... Hendry hasn't done many re-building trades. And the DeRosa trade is looking decent. And they only get draft picks if Lilly were to be offered arbitration and get signed elsewhere rather than accepting arbitration, which isn't necessarily the likely outcome.

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Submitted by big_lowitzki on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:07 am

Six teams may want Lilly now, but that doesn't mean that they would want Lilly for at least $12M for next year. I would bet that Lilly would most likely make the most money next year by accepting arbitration with the Cubs.

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Submitted by Arizona Phil on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:25 am

Submitted by big_lowitzki on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:07am. Six teams may want Lilly now, but that doesn't mean that they would want Lilly for at least $12M for next year. I would bet that Lilly would most likely make the most money next year by accepting arbitration with the Cubs. =========================================== BIG LO: I agree. But the Cubs won't offer arbitration to Lilly if he remains with the Cubs and files for free-agency after the season. The only times Hendry got a compensation pick for losing a FA was when Juan Pierre and Jason Kendall signed with new teams prior to December 1st, so that the Cubs did not need to offer arbitration in order to get the compensation picks.

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Submitted by garsky on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:49 am

On the other hand, Hendry really hasn't traded away many veterans during his tenure; he's mostly been a buyer at the trade deadline. Lilly would clearly be the cream of the crop among guys Hendry's traded away. On the rare occasions when he was the seller, he's done OK considering what he was selling. He got Fontenot for Sosa when nobody thought there was any market for Sammy; Jerome Williams and David Aardsma for Latroy Hawkins; Justin Berg for Matt Lawton; Chris Robinson for Neifi Perez; Rob Bowen and Kyler Burke for Michael Barrett; and Jeff Stevens, Chris Archer and John Gaub for Mark DeRosa, among a lot of no-so-good others.

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Submitted by big_lowitzki on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:08 am

Well... several of the players are still in the minors, and look like they could end up being moderately productive MLB players. And most of the veterans the Cubs traded sucked, and had little value at the time. They are hardly comparable to Lilly, or even Lee.

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Submitted by WISCGRAD on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:51 am

Hendry hasn't made many trades where he was expected to get decent prospects. The vast majority of his trades are trading away Cubs prospects (who usually turn out to be terrible) for major leaguers. In other cases, he is trading crap veteran players for payroll relief (e.g. Jeff Fassero in late 2002) and got low level minor leaguers in return who were not expected to be good. But in the few trades in which he was expected to pick up prospects, I think he has done better than you realize. Matt Murton was gained in the Nomar trade, Fontenot in the Sosa trade, Scott Moore and Roberto Novoa for Farsworth, David Aardsma for Hawkins, Justin Berg for Lawton, Kevin Hart for Bynum, Jose Ascanio for Infante and Ohman, Brian Schlitter for Eyre, Jeff Stevens for DeRosa, and Jeff Gray for Aaron Miles None of those guys are stars, but the fact that Hendry was able to get this many minor league players who eventually developed into major league players says a lot, especially since many were lower level prospects at the time of the trade.

Submitted by MikeC on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:20 am

You have 0 faith that Hendry can identify a good minor leaguer to grab but advocate just getting draft picks who will be minor leaguers? Odd. Can't we trade Tampa Bay something so we can get Brignac?

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Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 07:41 pm

I can't keep up with all good ones any more. So many prospects, so little time. Who's doing what at Boise these days? Don't ask me. What the Cubs really need is roster space, and less dead wood. I wouldn't be surprised if Lilly or Lee go, not for prospects, but for inventory reduction. "If you want Lilly, you have to take Fukudome. You can have Lee and Theriot, but take Zambrano or Soriano." Throw in Nady and Fontenot somewhere. Ship out a truckload.

Recent comments

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Totally depends on the team and the player involved. If your team’s philosophy is to pay huge dollars to bet on the future performance of past stars in order to win championships then, yes, all of the factors you mentioned are important.

    If on the other hand, if the team’s primary focus is to identify and develop future stars in an effort to win a championship, and you’re a young player looking to establish yourself as a star, that’s a fit too. Otherwise your buried within your own organization.

    Your comment about bringing up Canario for the purposes of sitting him illustrates perfectly the dangers of rewarding a non-performing, highly paid player over a hungry young prospect, like Canario, who is perpetually without a roster spot except as an insurance call up, but too good to trade. Totally disincentivizing the performance of the prospect and likely diminishing it.

    Sticking it to your prospects and providing lousy baseball to your fans, the consumers and source of revenue for your sport, solely so that the next free agent gamble finds your team to be a comfortable landing spot even if he sucks? I suppose  that makes sense to some teams but it’s definitely not the way I want to see my team run.

    Once again, DJL, our differences in philosophy emerge!

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    That’s just kinda how it works though, for every team. No team plays their best guys all the time. No team is comprising of their best 26 even removing injuries.

    When baseball became a business, like REALLY a business, it became important to keep some of the vets happy, which in turn keeps agents happy and keeps the team with a good reputation among players and agents. No one wants to play for a team that has a bad reputation in the same way no one wants to work for a company that has a bad rep.

    Don’t get me wrong, I hate it too. But there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

    On that topic, I find it silly the Cubs brought up Canario to sit as much as he has. He’s going to get Velazquez’d, and it’s a shame.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Of course, McKinstry runs circles around $25 million man Javier Baez on that Tigers team. Guess who gets more playing time?

    But I digress…

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Seems like Jed was trying to corner the market on mediocre infielders with last names starting with "M" in acquiring Madrigal, Mastroboney and Zach McKinstry.  

     

    At least he hasn't given any of them a Bote-esque extension.  

  • 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.

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