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

All Quiet on the Cubs Front

These few weeks before spring training starts is about as dull as it gets around these parts. We're all still waiting on Cespedes, but with Jedstein and their cone of silence, it's not like we can expect many leaks. There's also the case of the musical 40-man roster chairs with the Cubs having to drop someone once they add Gerardo Concepcion. Vegas money should be on Andy Sonnastine with Marcus Mateo and his lack of options a strong second. And the issue of compensation for both Theo and Jed still looms with no foreseeable end in sight.

I've got my annual prospect list-mania post coming up for Monday which always includes my delusional top 16 which should be good for laugh. It doesn't appear our pal Arizona Phil put up a list this year unfortunately, so you'll have to get your prospect fix from the national guys.

Speaking of Arizona, I'm sure most of you know about "Boys of Spring", the site run by the spring training P.A. announcer Tim Sheridan. While we anxiously await Arizona Phil's wonderfully detailed posts from camp, that can hold you over with pretty pictures. From what I can encode from his posts so far, the following have showed up at Arizona: Justin Bour, Zeke DeVoss, Dustin Geiger, Josh Vitters, Jim Adduci, Matt Cerda, Tony Campana, Dave Sappelt, Jeff Samardzija, David DeJesus, Darwin Barney, Matt Garza, Dale Sveum and Dave McKay. I'm sure there are others, but those seem to be the ones mentioned. He did a little paraphrasing from a pep talk Sveum was giving the kids earlier last week.

  • There will be no excuses for not doing something the right way.
  • Theo Epstein is one of the smartest people he's ever been around, and that Theo will not accept mediocrity, not from himself, not from anyone.
  • Making excuses is caused by your own insecurities and lack of preparation.
  • So many games are won by one run and the Cubs will prepare and do all the little things the right way in order to be the team that wins those close games.
  • He also told the guys they are being given the greatest opportunity in all of sports, to be the players who win it all after 103 years.

The words sound nice, let's see if he backs it up with some Soriano benching when he glides into 2nd base after a drive to right center that he gawked at.

Back to Cespedes, George Ofman whom rivals Phil Rogers in bad scoops, did tweet that someone has made a bigger offer for the Cuban outfielder than the Marlins and we obviously know the Cubs interest. Time will tell...

I leave you with these words from the Cubs Ivy League leader.

"I don't agree with the word 'rebuilding' ever," he said. "Because, for one thing, it denotes that you're building something that already existed, but that's not how baseball works. You're constantly growing and moving onto the next iteration of the club, so I think building is the appropriate [word] -- sure we're building in Chicago, but we went through some building phases here. The art of it is trying to do it in a way where nobody notices. When you're winning 95 games a year and getting into the playoffs, then people don't notice that we've integrated a lot of this talent and we've made a lot of short-term sacrifices for long-term stability. I think there were a lot of times when we were able to pull that off here [in Boston], there were a lot of times that we failed as well."

Until Monday...

Comments

Andy Sisco signed with Dodgers, Mitch Atkins with Nationals. and the Rich Harden shoulder surgery news...

Hoyer on... Marmol:"I don't think what happened last year is acceptable," Hoyer said Thursday on "The Carmen, Jurko & Harry Show" on ESPN 1000. "I think there's nothing more demoralizing to a baseball team than to win for 2:45 and then lose in the last 10. I think that happened a lot last year. "If you look back, this guy has had some dominant years. ... Everyone said the slider wasn't quite the same last. Hopefully there are some mechanical things we can do to get that back. Blowing 10 saves isn't acceptable, but we're not wiling to say he can't get back to where he was before." Soriano (expecting him to be with team to start the year): The power was there last year, the RBIs were there. Obviously it really comes down to defense and we're hoping with some better conditioning and some better health, that he can be a little better out there. Garza: "He's a great pitcher and a guy we're going to talk to him about being part of our future, for sure. We need more guys like Matt, not less, and if we can work something out we'll certainly have those discussions." http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/7801/hoyer-marmols-2011-… http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/7560020/chicago-cubs-general-…

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I listened to the interview live locally in the car. It was nice to hear one of the new suits. What Hoy also stated about Sori was that not only was it unlikely that he would NOT be with the team - he was "working hard" during the off-season to try to get on base more apparently. How does one do that at his age exactly? As it stands, we all know that there ain't a lot of run producers on the current roster. So if he has another .276 obp year, its gonna be interesting to find out if the team can achieve 70 wins. To their credit, the hosts on WMVP (one a lifetime season tix holder) asked some decent questions I think, if you check ROB G's links.

[ ]

In reply to by John Beasley

Steven Maxwell was the Cubs 37th round selection in the 2011 Rule 4 Draft (First-Year Player Draft). and because he was a college senior with no eligibility left, he remained on the Cubs Negotiation List past the 8/15 deadline, and would have remained on the list through May 27, 2012 (one week prior to the 2012 Rule 4 Draft) if he had not signed. In true Bluto Animal House fashion, Maxwell actually spent six years at TCU, getting an academic redshirt in his freshman season (2006) and a medical redshirt in 2008 when he underwent TJS. (He is now 24 years old). He had an outstanding year in 2010 while a member of the Horned Frogs College World Series squad, and was named Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year and a 2nd team All-American. He was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 12th round of the 2010 Rule 4 Draft but did not sign. He opted to return to school and pitched for the Frogs again this past season (2011), but struggled off & on with a sore arm, causing his draft value to plummet. So I suspect he failed his physical and had his contract voided.

Would you guys consider using coke, pot, booze etc....would you consider those PED's? Saw this discussion on boo-yah.com....just can't believe that these are considered PED's.

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

I am always amazed at those guys that can show up and play when they're either still drunk or hungover. Those soft tossers and splitfinger guys always throw better when they're hungover because they aren't overthrowing. Aside from that, I cannot understand how anybody, especially a hitter, can play when he's drunk. Does not make sense to me.

Jon Heyman obviously paying attention to Theo this offseason- JonHeymanCBS #brewers, #cubs, #astros are all good fits for edgar renteria, who has something left and will play in 2012

sam fuld story on mlb network about his diabetes (t1 since age 10). he said one of the first things he did when he was called up to the cubs was talk to santo. santo was ecstatic and excited about another player with t1 diabetes playing the majors.

tag in twitter is good for a laugh https://twitter.com/search/%23ThinnestSportsBooks My contributions: The Definitive Guide to Alfonso Soriano's Hustle Plays #ThinnestSportsBooks Protecting the Quarterback by Mike Martz #ThinnestSportsBooks The Importance of OBP by Jim Hendry #ThinnestSportsBooks Protecting Young Pitchers by Dusty Baker #ThinnestSportsBooks too easy....

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

baker catches a lot of hell for aggregating pitchers and treating them like they're all the same. the surgery toll doesn't add up because the list is both short and debated who actually is his "fault." plus it'd be neat if they'd take russ ortiz (who b.cox worked even harder) and livan hernandez out of these discussions...or at least discounted them...because they could throw 130 pitches in a game if it came down to it and do it again 5 days later. too many articles about who he's ruined that don't even name names...except everyone's favorite fallback OMFG PRIOR 03. late september 03 with prior was the worst mistake dustbag ever made pertaining to pitching management if not for anything else than he became a scapegoat (or an evil dunce).

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

the assumption of truth...and Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Jason Schmidt, Russ Ortiz, Aaron Harang, Edinson Volquez (few more in there I believe). no shit it's hyperbolic, it' s humor, but there's plenty of smoke around Baker in this fire. There's plenty of reasons to make the joke because there's plenty of times that pitchers got hurt under Baker. Is he unfairly maligned for it? A bit.... Does he deserve some criticism and an occasional jab? Yup...

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

check out what f.alou did with schmidt. ...and russ ortiz has gone way out of his way to deflect away from dusty...and bobby cox has some explaining to do if dusty is somehow part of the problem. ortiz, zambrano, and l.hernandez were horses. people aggregate his average pitches per year on a staff, it comes out 5-ish more than league average, and people flip. criticism, yah, jab, yah...villainous hate and posterboy of pitcher abuse (thanks BBProspectus and the church of travis hafner), nah. there's defiantly smoke and perhaps fire, but some people are going around claiming arson.

I can't imagine why anyone would try to sign Renteria. He played in one of the best hitter's parks in the majors last year and had an ops under 700. Barney is a better player at an extremely low cost.

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • 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.