Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus one player is on the 60-DAY IL 

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, one player is on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 3-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Garrett Cooper
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# 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 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 1 
Jameson Taillon, P 

60-DAY IL: 1 
Caleb Kilian, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Cubs Down to 31 Healthy Bodies

I lost track there for a bit, but it seems the Cubs have moved 10 bodies since my last update:  D. McDonald, Javier Baez, T. Wada, N. Ramirez, B. Parker, B. Schlitter, C. Yong-Lim, C. Valaika, C. Wells and J. Sanchez. Wada was subsequently re-signed to a minor league deal today.

LOCKED IN (MOST LIKELY) - 23

Position Players: Castillo, Kottaras, Rizzo, Castro, Barney, Schierholtz, Ruggiano, Lake, Sweeney, Valbuena

SP: Samardzija, Wood, E. Jackson, Hammel, C. Rusin

RP: Veras, Strop, Wright, Russell, Carlos Villanueva, A. Cabrera, Grimm, Rondon

DISABLED LIST - 3

Fukijawa, Arrieta, J. McDonald 

ON THE BUBBLE - 6

Murphy, Olt, Roberts(NRI), Bonifacio(NRI), Kalish (NRI), Coughlan(NRI)

MOST LIKELY CUT OR OPTIONED - 2

J. Baker (NRI), E. Whiteside (NRI)

ALREADY OPTIONED OR RELEASED - 32

Soler, Bryant, Almora, Alcantara, Szczur, Watkins, Valdez(NRI), Pimentel(NRI), Jokisch(NRI), A. Cunningham, M. Hatley (NRI), Beeler, Hendricks(NRI), Rosscup, J. Vitters, B. Jackson, Christian Villanueva, A. Vizcaino, A. Rivero(NRI), M. Maier(NRI), R. Lopez(NRI), Baez (NRI), T. Wada (NRI), T. Hottovy (NRI), D. McDonald(NRI), N. Ramirez, B. Parker, J. Sanchez (NRI), Yong-Lim (NRI), B. Schlitter (NRI), C. Valaika (NRI), C. Wells(NRI)


Since most teams break camp with 13 pitchers, it appears all 4 left are gonna make the team; Rusin as your 5th starter, Villanueva to the pen(guess they could flip-flop) with Cabrera, Grimm and Rondon also breaking camp with the club. I'm presuming J. McDonald will find his way to the disabled list of course.

That leaves 2 spots open for the 8 position players in camp that I still consider on the bubble. Baker and Whiteside don't look like they'll dethrone Kottares for the back-up catching duties, so scratch them off. Valbuena is having too good a camp to be cut, so he will either take the majority of at-bats at third base if they're not quite ready to give Mike Olt the permanent job, or maybe act as a flex starter splitting time between 2b and 3b depending on match-ups. Regardless, his roster spot is safe, which leaves just the 2 open spots for Olt, Murphy, Roberts, Bonifacio, Kalish and Coghlan.

Unless Olt's shoulder needs some more time, I'd be surprised if he doesn't head north with the club. He's had a good spring and not much left for him in the minors to learn, leaving 1 spot for Murphy, Roberts, Bonifacio, Kalish and Coughlan. If they're going by spring training numbers, Roberts has the edge by OPS: Roberts (.767), Bonifacio (.695), Kalish (.689). Coghlan (.621), Murphy (.589). Positonal versatility may be the key, or at the very least an ability to play some outfield so the Cubs have a 5th outfielder, in which case Roberts and Murphy sink to the bottom with Bonifacio, Kalish and Coglan edging towards the front. Of course last man on is usally first man off, so don't get too worked up over it.

In other news, Castro took some minor league at-bats today and seems to believe he'll have no problem being ready for Opening Day which I presume the Cubs agree, otherwise Baez would probably still be in camp.

Comments

veras and grimm with another bad night...though veras has been doing somewhat decent recently. boni 1-4 with his 4th triple of the spring. rizzo hit a single off a lefty, adding to his string of hits he's gotten off lefties this spring. b.schlitter threw 1ip and struck out 3 (1h, 0bb).

FWIW, Brian Schlitter was consistently hitting 95-96, and Neil Ramirez was topping out at 97. 

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

i still can't believe n.ramirez was the ptbnl in the garza trade... olt + cj edwards coming over as main pieces with grimm thrown in...and n.ramirez as icing on that trade cake? n.ramirez is better than grimm in that package and arguably better than olt at the time it was made...even with ramirez's injury concerns. he may end up in the pen given his injury past and inability to build a starter workload over his career, but that wouldn't exactly be a failure given he wouldn't have to hold back for stamina and could fully bring the velocity through his appearances. i hope he can make it as a starter, but i wouldn't mind seeing him in the pen...whatever works. i still don't understand wtf TEX was thinking with that kind of trade on a 2.5 month rental. i could understand olt OR cj edwards as a main piece...not both. grimm is a piece they could afford to throw in as a deal sweetener. ending up with both olt + cj edwards...with grimm...then throwing in n.ramirez...wtf TEX? even though garza was the best available to-be-had pitcher not under multi-year commitment, it's not the same situation the cubs were in when they picked up garza and had 3 years of club control (including a guaranteed 1 cheap year + 1 under-market valued year) tied to garza. TEX had a lot of spare parts in their minor league system and they didn't give up anyone they needed, but they really blew a chunk of those spare parts for this rental.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

Remember to add a level of old school Cubbery to "what ifs". More in likely the Cubs would have rushed Archer to the majors, he fails, they try him in the bullpen, then back to minor league rotation, mess with his delivery, add in a few minor injuries and he finally becomes a decent back end starter for the past couple years. The Cubs would now be looking to trade him for a prospect as part of "the plan." It's like having a mathematically equation that includes "times negative one" just substitute "times Cubbery."

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I think if you had ranked players by how much the team could ill afford to have them miss significant time, Steele would be right at the top of the list.

  • crunch (view)

    steele MRI on friday.  counsell expects an IL stint.

    no current plans for his rotation replacement.

  • hellfrozeover (view)

    I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1. 

  • crunch (view)

    amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.

    neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.

  • Eric S (view)

    Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it). 

  • crunch (view)

    boo.

  • crunch (view)

    smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.

    this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.

  • crunch (view)

    i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things.  the default is delay.  i would choose brown.

    like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.

    anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Use pitchers when you believe they're good. Don't plan their clock.

    I'm sorry. I'm simply anti-clock/contract management. Play guys when they show real MLB potential talent.

    If Brown hadn't been hurt with the Lat Strain he would've gotten the call, and not Wick.

    Give him a chance. 

    But Wesneski probably gets it