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 @ Reds - Lester vs. Leake; Game 16 Thread

 Jon Lester vs. Mike Leake

#Fowler CF#Hamilton CF
Soler RF*Votto 1B
*Rizzo 1BFrazier 3B
Bryant CFPhillips 2B
*Coghlan LF*Bruce RF
Castro SSByrd LF
Ross C#Pena C
*Lester PCozart SS
Russell 2B*Leake P

Don't have a lot of time this morning, but a reminder that I'll have the chatbox up in the lower right around game time.  Kris Bryant playing in center field today is the pre-game buzz as Dexter Fowler tweaked his groin on a bunt attempt yesterday. They say Fowler's available to pinch hit if needed, so doesn't sound like he'll be out for long. In the meantime, Bryant shifts to center field today because either Joe Maddon has him on his fantasy team and wants to up his position eligibility or because Bryant played a literal handful of games there in college and claims it's the outfield position he's most comfortable playing.

Comments

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

If either Lester were dominant enough to warrant his own catcher or if Ross hadn't choked in the previous at bats we might not have had to win that in extras. So no I do not care to edit. It was good that he came through though. I'll give him that much

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

I'm not a big fan of this whole concept of "choking" in baseball, especially when it's a catcher. It is such an absolutely difficult sport, and hitting a baseball, especially against these nasty pitchers these days, who are, unfortunately, aided by inconsistent umps, is an art that I could never have hoped to master. David Ross is somewhat underrated on TCR. He has a career OPS of .753, which by catcher standards is really not awful at all. Buster Posey's career OPS is .855, if you want a quick comp. He's the batting equivalent of a crafty veteran. His career has been a mix of really, really good years, and really, really bad years. His most recent good year, admittedly, was 2010, but that was a very good year, with an OBP of .392. This year, small sample size, his OBP is .353. Small sample size, but trending nicely, and he's taken a couple of really big walks. Hitting is overrated. Show me a guy who can get on base. All that said, your squeamishness when seeing him come to the plate is understandable. He has an abysmal RISP OPS over the last three years. Anyway, I don't think he choked. He just got beat. Montero hasn't been any better so far this year, and Beefy is, well, not so Beefy with RISP, hitting at a .223/.317/.330/.647 over the last three years. To me, complaining about how a catcher performs at the plate is like going to McDonalds and bitching about the quality of the meat.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

unfortunately, the cubs didn't sign d.ross's career to be on the roster for 2 years...they signed d.ross as he is now. also, his ob% might not be so pretty without 0-100 lester behind him so much. the fact the team has to sign a guy like him to make up for their $25m pitcher's shortcomings that other teams are taking advantage of is kinda "dude really?" to some people. a 38 year old no-hit catcher got a 2 year deal to make the $25m pitcher work better...and he's not working better so far. i should amend this to say that it's not d.ross that's not making lester work better...it's lester. right now ross is doing all the runner checking (unfortunately after the pitch) on all the leads being taken and he's receiving well. his bat tool checked out long ago aside from the occasional power pop, though. sigh. it would be a lot easier if lester could check his own runners and he could work with a variety of catchers much easier. sure, technically he could work with any catcher, but who's doing to do the things lester doesn't do for himself?

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

I wouldn't have a huge problem if Ross was our second catcher and we only carried 2 catchers and he was Lester's personal catcher. It might have been part of the deal to get him to sign her is to bring Ross along. But carrying 3 catchers when this guys sucks is bad roster management. Yes he got a good hit last night, and he walks a lot as he bats in front of Lester, but hopefully we can move one of other catchers to ease the glut of catchers. I wonder if there is another team in MLB that carries 13 pitchers and 3 catchers.

So I looked up Kris Bryant's strikeout rate to this point and it's at 21%. Not tiny. I think it was closer to 30 in the minors, right? So two things about that. Maybe he was really much more interested in jacks in the minors. The other point: His strikeout rate is a bit deceiving. Without a doubt, he knows his strike zone. I've never seen a rookie know his strike zone so well. Speaking of knowing a strike zone, should there be a new word for that? Something with "Rizzo" as the first five letters? I lived in SF during Barry Bonds' career years, and, although Rizzo doesn't have that power, he's got a lot of it, and he is, possibly, even better at mastering the plate than Bonds was. My only worry is that he'll get hurt, but I did notice he was backing off the plate just a hair last night when Chapman was pitching, and he still managed to own the plate. I wouldn't mind seeing him do that with everyone. I think he'd be fine backing off just a bit.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

He still has some swing and miss in his game, but I agree I think his approach has been really good past his first game. I'm WAY more concerned about Soler's approach. He is posting a near Baez level 35 percent K rate. The only reason we aren't talking about this now is because he's also got an incredibly fortunate .410 BABIP. Regression to the mean will come and it may be harsh to Soler. Can't remember when K-rate for hitters tend to stabilize.

[ ]

In reply to by sbwilliams

Ease up on the K rate. Nelson Cruz K'd 140x last season. Dave Kingman, with a career OPS of .780 in 16 seasons (including his best Cubs year at .900+!) also K'd over 100x a year or more, conservatively. Aggressive hitters meet the best pitchers and one has to win. Like CRUNCH says, it's not ez. But if Bryant collects 100+ RBI and league average 3B, that is AS level and fine by me.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Not really concerned with Bryant. Though I expect him to strike out more around 25-27 percent this year rather than his minor league averages. He is still going to be great at that rate with his power, which we sadly haven't had a chance to witness at the ML league level yet. I was mostly, as I said, worried about Soler. Bryant will be good. I don't care about strikeouts in a traditional sense. I care about them when I think they could debilitate a hitter's production. Bryant's aren't at that level, but Soler's are around that type of mark IF it were to continue.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Totally agree with you on the K rate. I brought it up because I see a lot of hyperventilating about it, and I was fascinated by the dichotomy between some of that hyperventilating about his K rate and his approach at the plate. With a guy like Baez, K rate matters because it is so stupendously high but even if he figures it all out he's always gonna have a huge K rate. The other issue with K rates is, when do they happen? If they happen with men on it's not as bad as a DP, and not as good as moving the runner over. So it's kind of a worthless stat for me.

[ ]

In reply to by billybucks

Meh. They're focusing on getting him out with sliders out of the zone. I'll wait and see if he adjusts. That you can get him out with sliders down and away doesn't exactly illuminate some hole in his swing/approach, unless it turns out that he can't ever lay off that pitch. It stands out right now in part because Rizzo and Bryant are so hard to get out, so there's a significant contrast.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

They've been doing exactly that for the last couple weeks. I'm not too worried about it. He's got a pretty good eye up there overall, and pretty soon he'll start recognizing the low and away slider and stop swinging at it. The other thing? You sure better get it low and away or he'll crush it.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

Major league pitching has gotten so good that they can actually find a way to get a guy like Soler out. I was beginning to wonder if it is possible. I predict a full adjustment within a few weeks. Muskrat saying game time is at 3:35 CST. Maybe that's when the adjustment will start. #fingerscrossed

"Carrie Muskat @CarrieMuskat · 15m 15 minutes ago #Reds have had 3 rain delays this year, totaling 4 hrs 23 mins. #Cubs could wait that long today to play"

Damn Trevor Bauer late scratch screwing over my Daily Fantasy Baseball Team. Ugh!

Cubs team featuring Rizzo, Soler, Bryant and Castro is being led in HR by....Chris Coghlan.

"Carrie Muskat @CarrieMuskat · 9m 9 minutes ago #Reds expect a weather update at 4 pm ET/3 pm CT."

Looked at weather map and looks like it should be blowing past by 3:45 PM central and then be good for several hours so hopefully.

It'd be a heck of a day to take in a AA Tennessee game. Schwarber, Almora, and Vogelbach all in the lineup on the Smokies' side. Buxton and Sano in the Chattanooga Lookouts' lineup.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

it's $50 a year for streaming minor league games...mostly AAA/AA, but there's some from lower levels (even the south bend cubs). if you're into it, it's gotta be amazing. i keep wanting to pick it up, but i know i won't use it as much with the regular season going on. it's nice, though.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I've thought about getting it, too, but I'm also concerned about the streaming quality. The MLB version is still pretty bad sometimes. It barely works for my Fire TV and that puppy has a fast processor. The browser based MLB-TV have always been prone to the dreaded spin for me, and that seems especially true when something big is happening. The only thing that has worked really well for me is the new stand-alone Mac app. For some reason, it's been glitch free and no interruptions yet.

Fuck the Morans I think its wonderful that the Cards get to play the shitty Brewers every game so they can build up a nice win cache. And, of course, it is important that they get a competitive balance pick due to their extreme disadvantages.

DRose with 2 dumbass plays in the last 3 seconds to cost the Bulls a playoff game. An "it's all about me" one-on-three turnover, then gets burned by a high school fake to give up the losing basket with less than a second left. Hey, dumbass-- Butler is the team's best player -- get the ball to him in crunch time. Really, really hard to like this guy.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Sounds a lot like speed at the top of the lineup and knowing how to win and other BS narratives people buy into because they're repeated ad nasuem. 

butler and rose had plenty of time off at end of season, playing together would probably be more useful to them. Maybe Mirotic and Taj, but they're minor pieces of the puzzle. and doesnt NBA have a sort of flex schedule in the playoffs? I mean Cavs swept and if Bulls swept, they probably would have started like Thursday. Right? Or do they have a rigid 2nd round start date? If they win Monday, I presume they start Saturday and probably get the same number of days off they would have had anyway.

[ ]

In reply to by billybucks

billybucks: "Really, really hard to like this guy." Impossible yo like him. Hopefully he can be traded this offseason. Bears and Bulls are in similar situation where they have 'superstars' who are almost impossible to like. The Cubs at least have likeable guys. Of course I would take winners over likeable, but Rose and Cutler are neither.

Soler will bat well when the weather warms up. He clearly hates the cold and the ninja outfits aren't conducive to comfort. He'll be fine ... Hard to be patient and focussed when you are freezing, out of your element, and dressed like an astronaut ...

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.