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

They’re Watching Us

On Friday, All The News That’s Fit To Print included an account of Lou Piniella’s first day as captain aboard the good ship Heartbreak. The piece, by Lee Jenkins, describes Piniella as most fans, myself included, have long seen him: “fiery” “known for his outbursts” “naturally animated and restless” “a manager who really knows how to vent” “as famous for his dirt kicking…as he is for any pep talks” “a man…who clearly hates to lose” “(reacting) to every booted ball…with a tortured expression or a fit of rage” But the story isn’t just a string of clichés. While it acknowledges the base-throwing side of the new Cub manager, it also paints a picture of a guy who is once again passionate about the game, has a plan for success—“While most major-league teams head into the season with five or six bunt plays, Piniella wants the Cubs to use only three. He is trying to simplify the game, in hopes that his players will find it easier to master”—and is finding many aspects of his new gig to be excited about. (I know, I know—we’re only a couple of days into this, but still...) The story concludes with a reference to “talk in the Cubs clubhouse that players are setting up a pool to bet on the date of Piniella’s first outburst.” On Thursday afternoon, Scott Eyre phoned in to the afternoon show on the local ESPN radio affiliate. He was asked if he had tossed any money into the pool. Eyre said he didn’t know anything about such a pool, then he paused. “Now that you’re bringing it up,” he said, “I’m gonna find out if it’s true so I can get in on it.”

Comments

Nice piece, Cubnut. O/U on Piniella's first temper tantrum? From Rotoworld: "After taking extra time to warm up, Mark Prior threw his first bullpen session of the spring on Thursday. Manager Lou Piniella said Prior threw well. The right-hander has been throwing off a mound since early January, so if he's not in pretty good form when games start next month, it'd be an especially discouraging sign."

With all of the focus on his short fuse, I think Piniella is going to try really, really hard to restrain himself. I'll say Game 5.

7th inning, 4th game. KABOOM!!!!

Carrie M at cubs.com is saying Sean Marshall is a week away from throwing due to shoulder problems from the end of last yr that they had him rehabbing from. Hmmm. I thought he just had a sprained oblique last yr. Is this rotator cuff info on Marshall news? I certainly hadn't heard anything about it this winter. "When last season ended, I had a lot of wear and tear," Marshall said Friday. "I took about a month off, and they said I needed some [physical therapy]. I'm about a week from getting back on the mound. I feel a lot better than I did at the end of last year." The problem was his rotator cuff, but the situation was never severe enough for Marshall to consider surgery. "I'm a little behind schedule, but I feel my hard work this offseason will pay off and my shoulder will get back to full strength or even better than it was last season," Marshall said. "I should be able to catch up with these guys by the time games start." ----- Also Dr. Piniella says KWood will be throwing off the mound on Monday. http://tinyurl.com/2saord

Oh great. Marshall is now sounding like Wood/Prior part 3, but with less talent. Go back to west. tenn. Mr Marshall, we have enough lefties here. I'll be in Ireland/Scotland from march 1-14, I'll bet $1000 I miss Prior's first injury of the year during that time. Diving board or cactus incident most likely. I also have a Prior jersey, smaller than the one the other disgruntled Cubs fan was about to burn.....maybe XL..make me an offer before I make poo explosion on it.

Well, you'll be able to watch batters in Ireland play. There should be some Cricket league stuff going on that they might have in the pubs you visit. Apparently there is a "warm weather season" where the game continues in Austraila, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, the Carribean, etc. The fans follow on the "telly" or fly out on "holiday" apparently.

I bid five dollars on the shirt. And I'll throw in a case of Charmin.

WADE MILLER! Has anyone seen ANY Miller interviews? Prior pulled his head out of the sand yesterday. I was wondering if anyone has seen any ink on Wade? I am wondering what will happen to the odd-man out between the two? It appears as if the bullpen is stocked well enough. What if, the two are exceedingly close in their ST performances? Trade Wade? How many options does Prior have left? If I recall, he has 5 years of service and could refuse assignment. Right?

If Miller and Prior pitch well in ST, then we break camp with Z Lilly Prior Miller Then let Marquis/Hill/Marshall/Guzman/...fight for innings. If Prior and Miller are competing for a rotation spot, I don't think it will be the fifth spot. I think they'll wind up either solid middle-of-the-rotation starters or they'll suck.

Hmmm. I didn't think of it like that. But I suppose this has merit. IF ("IF") somehow Prior recaptures the 2004-pre-elbow, then we'd have to say HE is the real #2 or #3? Was Marquis a #5 during his St.Louis days exclusively?

Interesting on Marquis: in checking baseball-reference.com, I just was refreshed that he was the #2 in the rotation behind Carpenter in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Had several key wins in both seasons. Wonder what happened to the guy?

Fantasy Baseball announcement: (repeat from the thread below this one) I’ve set up a fantasy league for any TCRers who want to play. Things to know about it 1. It’s a Head to Head league at yahoo 2. You have to be able to go a season without being a contentious jerk to others 3. We re-draft any teams that have been innactive for over a month. The redrafts will be done at three pre-set dates, on the 1st of June, July and August 4. We use lots of stat categories, with a somewhat sabrmetric bent 5. We’ve been doing this for several years. It generally works quite well in terms of having active and friendly players Interested? It’s yahoo league ID 6464 and password of “the riot” (minus the quotation marks) the link for registering is here http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/register/joinprivateleague_l… I’ll promote this in a few other threads when the thread gets to a point where hi-jacking isn't a big issue, and people with leagues that they would like to advertise should take the same approach.

"Wonder what happened to the guy?" his sinker happened...or failed to happen. it acted more like a low velocity fastball for most of last season.

"'Well, last year, he played more in right field with Texas than any other position,'' manager Lou Piniella said." this comment keeps popping up. yeah, no way its gonna be a straight platoon, but it looks like we could be seeing derosa in RF more often than thought by some.

from fox "no not that fox, oh wait yes it is" sports... "I find it comical," Clemens said, according to a transcript on the KRIV TV Web site. "We get little notes at my foundation about people saying they wish I would make up (my) mind and decide because I am leaving people hanging. I'm not leaving anybody hanging. I don't want to play." http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6480588

well Astros are fucked.... doesn't mean he won't change his mind in 2 months if the 'Stros are any good or Petitte talks him into the Yanks.

the 'clemens show' needs to end anyway. i like clemens, but a lotta other athletes who would only agree to play if they can show up midseason, not have to travel or practice with the team, and not even have to go on road games if they're not pitching...well...let's just say the media has been DAMN NICE to him about what would otherwise be deemed not very good for a clubhouse of guys that have to travel, work, and trust each other collectively for 200 days. his heart has been out of the game for 2+ seasons now even if his talent has been fully in the game.

Having lived in Houston for the most part over the last couple of years, I would have to say you're totally wrong there, crunch when you talk about the impact on the team. The Astros players were happy to have him and had no problem whatsoever with his arrangement, going by every interview, radio report and press clipping. The guy helped the team win, and though you can sort of understand the 'He's only collecting a paycheck' mentatilty, it just didn't exist. What was present was the idea that he had earned the right with his extradonary career to not have to go to cities where he wasn't going to play so that he can spend some time with his family. It's not a hard thing to wrap your mind around, all the other players in the clubhouse probably wish that one day they can have the same situation. What are they going to say to themselves 'Who the hell is this guy, him and his 6 Cy Youngs, thinking he is special' ?

"I would have to say you’re totally wrong there, crunch when you talk about the impact on the team." im talking about how the media treats the issue. he got hell of a free pass being 1 man making his own rules. that said, the team who paid him to do that knew exactly what they were buying.

"For the past year and a half, Piniella and the Cubs have both basically been out of baseball." OUCH. that hurts...

"4. We use lots of stat categories, with a somewhat sabrmetric bent" Ah, you had me then you lost me.

Oh yeah crunch I agree with you then. Of course if you have the best pitcher of the last 80 years being fought over by the Red Sox and Yankees, ESPN is going to single handedly force the rest of the sporting networks into thinking it's a big deal.

In a pseudo-related topic, and one that I haven't seen mentioned at BP. Clemens and Bonds are poised to become the most valuable pitcher and player of all time using BP's WARP3 (wins above replacement adjusted for everything) measurement: Babe Ruth: 234.2 Barry Bonds: 233.1 Walter Johnson: 200.9 Roger Clemens: 199.6 At least I assume Ruth and Johnson are the current 'record holders', there's no search function on that. Johnson once had a season of 18.1 WARP3, I could only find one other pitcfher to have a season above 15, Carlton's 72. Maddux may have made it in '93 or '94 if not for the strike (14.4 and 13.6).

Chad's Fantasy league: Offensive Categories BA RBI's Pitching Categories Wins Saves

Chad's league cont. Yahoo ID OU812 Password "stats is stoopid" without the quotes.

using BP’s WARP3 (wins above replacement adjusted for everything) WARP3 is a bit of a black box in that they don't explain how they timeline. Also, that figure for Ruth doesn't include his pitching, I believe (94-46, 2.28 ERA).

It includes pitching. It's right there in black and white, no reason to speculate: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/ruthba01.php They use a bunch of adjustments to move from WARP to WARP3, and some of their asumptions in the underlying formula make no sense (like replacement level defense I am not a big fan of), but at least they're trying to have a cross-time comparison, and it's interesting to me, even if I know it's not 100% correct.

Sabermetric baseball leagues. Wow what fun. This is why Fantasy Football is far greater than fantasy baseball. While I know that rotisserie baseball was invented by stats geeks and sabreheads, cumulative stats are a far better way to measure a fantasy team.

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.