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

I-Cub Jabs Outpoint Round Rock Roundhousers

Tuesday night I endured a local school board meeting. It comes with the territory of my day job. I sat glassy-eyed in the gallery, my mind drifting ahead 48 hours at which point I would be sitting in the stands on Opening Night at Principal Park, cracking open peanut shells instead of stifling yawns.

After work on Wednesday I went to the ballpark to collect my media credential. The I-Cubs were starting to assemble on the field for an informal meet-the-public workout. It was nice out and the diamond sparkled under the hoses and mowers of the grounds crew. It was technicolored and I wanted to hang around but couldn’t.

Then yesterday at lunchtime I parked beneath a flowering crab apple tree to enjoy a sandwich while I listened to the pregame goings-on at Wrigley Field. It was another nice day and a breeze blew a flurry of petals through my downed window like ticker tape about the time Keith Moreland and Dale Sveum were laboring through their interview like a junior high couple at their first dance. They’ll, you know, get, you know, better as the season unfolds. Perhaps their Cubs will too.

As for the ones here in Des Moines…

Last night was a great one for baseball and the I-Cubs played accordingly.

After falling behind early they raced ahead, literally, in the middle innings by which time a full moon was hanging over the park like a fat, hit-me slider.

Wells allowed but two hits in his six frames and both were homers. At one point the game was tied at three and Rolling, I mean Round Rock had landed their two uppercuts while Iowa had jabbed eight singles. I had Wells for first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 22 hitters he faced and a 9:3 GO/FO ratio. In the first inning every ball put in play went to Adrian Cardenas at 2B who had seven assists all told.

Other first impressions of what appears to be, pending call-ups, demotions, etc. a hustling team as per the New & Improved Cub Way:

*Brett Jackson - Made a slick diving catch in center. Fanned on three pitches his first trip before walking on four his second. Later beat out an infield hit and lined a single on a 3-0 pitch. Also stole a base.

*Anthony Rizzo - Singled twice, drove in a run, stole a base and looked very smooth defensively.

*Tony Campana – He looks like a little leaguer and races around the diamond like it was little league-sized. Had to fly to work at the last minute yesterday and never stopped flying all night. Had a bunt single, a stolen base and even muscled up for a sac fly to center, though that poke would not have been deep enough to score anyone other than Dave Sappelt who looks like a black Campana with muscles. In other words, he too is tiny. But the play of the game happened with Campana on second and two out in the fourth. Jackson bounced one to third and while he was beating it out Campana wheeled around third without hesitation and scored rather easily.

*Wellington Castillo – Kept getting in the way of things. Twice hit by pitches, cited for catcher’s interference and also threw out a base stealer who had a great jump on Wells.

*The bullpen – Manny Corpas looked strong in two scoreless innings and Scott Maine fanned two while notching the save.

The only base-running gaffe happened when Josh Vitters belly-flopped around second while going first to third on a single and was erased. Had he not stumbled he would have made it. Edgar Gonzalez hit third and DH’d for the I-Cubs. Apparently he’s the brother of Adrian. The other notable name of the night was Mark Hamburger, RR’s starting pitcher. I’ll just leave that one to your own imaginations.

Vitters hit eighth, ahead of shortstop Matt Tolbert who also tried to bunt for a hit and was nipped on a close play. In one of his AB’s Jackson too attempted to lay one down in a non-sacrifice situation but fouled it off.

I’m planning to go back tonight. Coleman’s slated to pitch.

Comments

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/9016/garza-gaining-fans-… “I think he’s a smarter guy than you’d think form across the field,” Epstein said. “And I don’t mean that the wrong way. You watch him and how energetic and extroverted and fidgety he can be looking at him from across the field, you get a certain impression about him that maybe he’s not always thinking things through. But the reality is that he actually has a method to his madness. “He knows himself really well and he understands the game really well. He knows how to prepare and I think there is a lot more going on upstairs than people give him credit for.”

Because I'm sure people care a great deal about the going-ons in my life, I went to our Fort Wayne Tincaps opener yesterday evening with my two daughters. Baseball is a great sport and a great tradition. Also, beer and hot dogs.

Mike - Thanks for this! I was hoping to see your wrap last night as I wanted a 1st person account to read, But I'll take what I can get! As several have said already, the better show may be where you are living this year.

Good work, Mike! Looking forward to your updates this year with the best AAA team Iowa has had in as long as I can remember. Also, I'm making my first-ever stop at Principal Park in late July. However, I believe a lot of the talent will be in Chicago by then.

Thanks Mike. Excited to see the I-Cubs when they arrive here in Austin/Round Rock next weekend. As a former Des Moines resident, I do really miss Sec Taylor/Principal park located downtown. Driving thru traffic all the way out to the edge of Round Rock suburbia is a real pain.

[ ]

In reply to by Childersb3

Fri, 04/06/2012 - 7:36pm — Childersb3 And, Concepcion has been added to Daytona to make 26. Can Theo Re-write the MiLB rules? ================================= CHILDERS: Immediately after being optioned to Daytona, Gerardo Concepcion was placed on the D-Cubs 7-day DL. He is still at Fitch Park, and he did throw 3.1 IP in an intrasquad game on Wednesday. So the Cubs could have placed Concepcion on their MLB 60-day DL instead of trying to sneak John Gaub through waivers. Then Concepcion could have spent a month or two at EXST (which he's going to do anyway), then go on a 30-day "minor league rehab" at Daytona, and then be reactivated from the 60-day DL sometime in June or July (or whenever a 40-man roster slot becomes available later in the season). Remember, placing a player on the 60-day DL doesn't mean the player has an injury that will sideline him for two months. It just means that the player can't be reinstated to an active list for 60 days. If a player is placed on an MLB 15-day DL or minor league 7-day DL with a sprained hangnail, he can be placed on the 60-day DL with the exact same injury. It will be interesting to see what corresponding roster move is made when Rodrigo Lopez is added to the Cubs 25-man roster (and 40-man roster). There also is the mystery of why the Cubs did not add Lopez to their 40-man roster (and 25-man roster) prior to Opening Day to avoid paying the $100,000 retention bonus that post-2011 Article XX-B free-agents like Lopez get if they are not released by the 5th day prior to Opening Day or added to the MLB 40-man roster by Opening Day. Darwin Barney, Starlin Castro, Steve Clevenger, Blake DeWitt, and Ian Stewart are the only position players presently on the Cubs MLB 25-man roster who have options left and who cannot refuse an optional assignment to the minors, so unless Marlon Byrd gets traded, DeWitt will likely be optioned to Iowa to make room for Lopez. And if DeWitt does get optioned to Iowa to make room for Lopez, why was DeWit added to the 40-man roster (instead of Lopez) if DeWitt is only on the 25-man roster for one game? If DeWitt is optioned to Iowa to make room for Lopez on the 25-man roster, who gets dropped from the 40-man roster to make room for Lopez? Lendy Castillo could get dropped from the 40 (especially if the Cubs work out a trade with the Phillies to keep L. Castillo), but then who replaces L. Castillo on the 25-man roster? Players on the 40-man roster who are optioned to the minors during Spring Training must remain on Optional Assignent for the first 10 days of the MLB regular season unless the player is recalled to replace another player on the 25-man roster who is placed on an inactive list (Disabled List, Bereavement List, Paternity Leave List, etc), so a pitcher like Scott Maine, Casey Coleman, or Randy Wells cannot be recalled until April 13th unless he replaces a player who is moved to an inactive list. Bryan LaHair could be placed on the 15-day DL retroactive to last Saturday (meaning he could be reactivated as soon as Sunday April 14th) and go to Mesa and hit in some EXST games next week, and then a pitcher (like Maine, Coleman, Wells, et al) could be recalled, but it sounds like LaHair is ready to return to action tomorrow.

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.