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

Cubs Hail Szczur, Look to Buy a Vowel

The Cubs reportedly will be recalling Matt Szczur (AKA "Scrabble") from AAA Iowa tomorrow (Sunday), and so the 25-year old outfielder should be making his MLB debut sometime soon after that.


The speedy Szczur was hitting 261/315/312 with 30/78 BB/K (7% BB rate & 17% K rate) and 30 SB (7 CS) in 116 games (457 PA) at Iowa, but he hit 315/374/339 over his last 30 games (134 PA). He came into the 2014 season with a 285/353/397 slash line with 177/296 BB/K (8% BB rate & 14% K rate) and 90 SB (31 CS) in 375 career minor league games (2137 PA), He is a right-handed hitter, and he can play all three outfield positions, although he mostly hits lead-off and plays CF. He was rated both the Cubs #3 prospect and the fastest runner in the organization by Baseball America in 2012. 

Szczur was selected by the Cubs in the 5th round of the 2010 June draft out of Villanova University, where he was a two-sport star (football and baseball). He was considered a "tough sign" because it was thought that he would likely choose pro football over pro baseball, but the Cubs were able to sign him by giving him a $100K bonus and allowing him to continue to play college football. Szczur is the second player drafted and signed by the Cubs from the 2010 draft to reach the big leagues (41st round pick RHP Dallas Beeler was the first), although Cubs 2010 33rd round pick RHP Matt Stites (who did not sign) made his MLB debut with the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 19th.   

And Szczur was indeed an outstanding college football player at Villanova, helping to lead the Wildcats to the NCAA FCS National Championship Game in 2010. He was considered a definite NFL prospect at the time, and was a "quadruple-threat" college football player, once scoring four touchdowns in a single game... one rushing, one passing, one receiving, and one on a punt return 

To keep Szczur from going to the NFL Combine in February 2011, the Cubs released him from his original contract and immediately re-signed him to new contract with a substantial bonus equivalent to "1st round money" ($1.5M). Because he was released and then re-signed by the same club, Szczur became eligible for the MLB Rule 5 Draft after that season (two years earlier than he otherwise would have been eligible), and so the Cubs had to place him on their MLB 40-man roster in November 2011 to avoid possibly losing him in the December 2011 Rule 5 Draft. 

Because he was added to an MLB 40-man roster so early in his career, Szczur is eligible for a 4th minor league option in 2015. 

Szczur is probably best-remembered as the guy who donated bone marrow to a young leukemia patient in the middle of the 2010 college baseball season, thus derailing his season (and potentially negatively impacting his future career in pro sports), but saving the life of the child. 

 

Comments

Hopefully Alcantara will improve with more time in CF. That E-8 is a play he's got to make.

Baez - man, make them throw one strike. Gonna be a tough learning curve to watch at times. Bases loaded, Rizzo on deck. They won't throw him a strike. Use your f'n head ONCE.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

Even an über optimist like me when it comes to prospects is a little worried about his approach up there lately. I know AAA isn't the majors but if he does all the time why would they ever have throw him a strike? The hit he got yesterday was grooved, probably a mistake. I happened to have the Mets broadcast on because the Cubs side had frozen up on my MLB app and Ron Darling was disgusted by the pitch, basically saying, why would you throw something like that to Baez? But really I bet it was a mistake pitch. I'm still hoping that he is just blown away by the ability of these pitchers to throw sliders off the plate so consistently without them going to the backstop. I would be tempted - even tho they don't want to mess with him right now - to order him to not take his bat off his shoulders for 4 ABs. It's not like they have to worry about him going all Hee Seop Choi on them.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

Well yesterday's atbat was very poor in many ways and hopefully a great learning opportunity. Bases loaded, down 4 late in the game. One of the leading power bats in the game behind you and you haven't taken a walk as a Major Leaguer. Something's got to give. In this case it was Javy. The first three pitches were low and away and he offered at two of them while popping out. We all know that if he takes those first three pitches MANY good things start to happen. He might see a good pitch 3-0, or he walks in a run and Rizzo bats with less than two out as and representing the lead run. It was just horrendous tunnel vision. They HAVE to give him the take sign if he can't do it himself. That said when he learns to take and starts seeing some fat pitches on hitters counts, well that's hitting intelligence. It was a VERY bad at bat. He bats like a softball player who can't layoff but has been so good it didn't matter...

Wittenmeyer tweet: Still awaiting official word on Bryant injury. Believed he aggravated minor foot injury from earlier in the week.

Mets get 7 runs on 4 hits, none of which was a HR. Cubs, meanwhile, go 2-10 with RISP. Sigh.

Carrie Muskat@CarrieMuskat · Szczur is in New York and will wear No 41.#Cubs. . . . Trying to remove the stank of Justin Germano and Jose Veras.

Szczur is in New York and will wear No 41.#Cubs. ---- I'm hoping Scrabble wanted Ernie Banks number but he's a bit dyslexic (hence all the c's and z's)

I haven't seen the I-Cubs lineup today but it will be interesting to see if Olt goes back to 3B. Also Felix Dubront gets another start.

Scrabble make his MLB debut...as a pinch runner for Sweeney. Sort of a waste given that Baker was bunting and hit a chopper over the pitcher. Sweeney would have been on 2nd anyway. So his role is being defined as a defensive replacement and pinch runner.

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • 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!!!