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 @ Tigers: Lester vs. Sanchez (Game 56 Thread)

CHC (30-25): LHP Jon Lester (4-4, 3.86)

DET (30-28): RHP Anibal Sanchez (3-7, 5.69)

First pitch: 6:08pmCT

Fowler# cf
Rizzo* 1b

Bryant 3b

Montero* dh

Denorfia lf

Castro ss

Lake rf

Ross c

Russell 2b

 

Davis cf

Kinsler 2b

Cabrera 1b

Cespedes lf

Martinez, J dh

Castellanos 3b

McCann c

Wilson 3b

Iglesias ss


Lester has lost his last two starts, including the ugly 5 inning affair, when he gave up 6 ER in Miami. He pitched well against WAS but got beat by Scherzer and some sloppy defense. Lester is 2-4 with a 4.83 lifetime ERA against the Tigers. He has started 3 times at Comerica over the last 3 years, in which he is 1-1, with a 5.82 ERA. Detroit is hitting him at a .375 clip at home in that time.

Sanchez has had an f-ugly season. In his last time out, against the A’s, he gave up 4 ER in 7 innings, with 5 hits and 4 BBs. He’s had a couple of good outings, but mostly he just gets knocked around. He’s in danger of losing his spot in the rotation when Verlander comes back this weekend.

Rizzo is working a 12-game hitting streak. As a team, the Cubs are a lowly 12-61 (.197) against Sanchez. Montero, the first Cub DH of the year, is hitting .176 (3-17, with a HR) against him. Our better than average backup catcher is 2-11 with a HR.

Miguel Cabrera is 14-27 (.519) with just one HR against Lester, which would be something were it not for the fact that he does that against everyone. Rajai Davis is 12-21 (.293) with a HR. The righty-heavy Tigers are hitting .289 against Lester.

Signing news: The Cubs have signed (the now Scott Boras-free) Rafael Soriano to a minor league deal. He had decent numbers last year with WAS: 4-1 with a 3.19 ERA and 32 saves, although he did blow 7 other chances. When he pitched for Joe in 2010 for the Rays, he went 3-2, 1.73 ERA, with a tasty .80 WHIP, and had 45 of 48 saves.

The Tigers had lost 8 in a row before stopping their skid by winning the series against the White Sox on the Southside. Detroit could make it a short night for Lester, so we’ll need to dirty up this Sanchez.

Go Cubs!


Comments

So far in 2015 Lester is just not showing the consistency and domination that he had last year. Frankly, I'm pretty disappointed he's shown Ace stuff once out of 9 starts. Wtf? And no excuse that "he doesn't know the Tigers". Blech.

[ ]

In reply to by Simba63

Seems to me that lots of big FA guys struggle in their first year, pressing to justify the big bucks. Here's to hoping that Lester gets all the mediocre out of his system this year while all the young guys are getting used to the big leagues.

[ ]

In reply to by Simba63

Well I'm not giving up on Lester by any means - everything I've read about him says he's a hard core competitor, yada yada, and he doesn't seem to have anything physically wrong. Yesterday he was getting some pitches up, and it was about that simple. I don't expect him to be as good as Scherzer, but for this money I don't expect him to be Edwin Jackson II, either.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

I hate modern free agency. I really do. It's such a drain on a club's resources and so many times even in the best scenario contracts become an albatross. Even a guy like Pujols, who I would have thought was a lock to be solid - despite the fact that when he signed his contract he did have some back issues - has dropped off. An .848 OPS is not a bad OPS by most player's standards, but by his standards it was a drop off from four figures. What sucks is that teams feel obligated to pursue these guys because their fans insist on it. The team isn't doing enough to win, they say. And I was pretty happy about them signing Lester, so it's not like I'm not the same way. I am. I was happy about Soriano, too. And so it goes. I mean, how badly did some of us want Tanaka? He's back, for now, but will he stay that way? They've already eaten a year of that contract. Time will tell I guess. As far as Lester goes, he's paid too much money to be faltering this early into his contract. I'd actually suffer through a baseball strike to see the owners negotiate at least some change in free agency that doesn't guarantee this kind of money. Perform to at least some agreed upon level of expectation, or suffer like the rest of your teammates with just a salary in the 8 figures, instead of 9.

at some point, letting castro/russell swap positions can't hurt more than it helps. ...maybe. i dunno, i'm not watching castro practice 2nd and it might be a trainwreck. as it is, russell doesn't seem to be getting much better at 2nd, though...too much poor execution even when the intent is good.

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

I've gone on the record many times saying he will have a fine career. He stays healthy, plays a premium position, and will always get hits--which bring with them other counting stats. He'll be around a long time and have a great career when all is said and done. My point is simply that right now he is not really helping the team much. There are 80 players in the NL with enough qualified at-bats and Castro is currently 69th in OPS. And of all short stops in the majors only 2 have more errors than he does. If he was a slick fielder providing great defense and leadership on the infield you'd weather the slump at the plate without much of a worry. Likewise if his OPS was 770+ you could stand the defensive miscues and mental errors. But both at the same time is difficutl to stomach.

This team is becoming very unpredictable -- lose 2 of 3 to Marlins, win 3 of 4 in Wash, then get shut down by a struggling Sanchez (whose ERA is still over 5.00 after 7 2/3 shutout inning tonight). Wonder what tomorrow will bring. Also -- Kris Bryant -- it's OK to hit home runs in June.

They play well against hot teams and suck against struggling teams. It's a maturity thing. If they are underdogs they have more raw talent than other teams and compete. If they are supposed to win they don't really know how.

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

Yeah after I wrote that I heard Maddon on MLB network and he essentially said the same thing. He said his guys play better against good teams and struggle against weak ones. He said he'd like them to not be aware of the competitions' talent level and play a good baseball game every day.

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

Carlito, Dusty--what team are you guys watching? The Cubs are fairly interesting these days but mostly because their pitching gives them a chance to win some low-scoring games. The only talent I see offensively is in the 9, 1, 2 and 3 holes (and that's giving Fowler more credit than he deserves). 4 through 7 (the middle of the lineup) is a black hole every day, and then the pitcher bats 8th. Coghlan has some skill but I wouldn't use the word talent. Montero is a very good catcher who gives you good at bats, but again, talent is what he lacks: his swing is all over the place and he doesn't square up pitches like a natural line-drive hitter would. Lake I've just about given up on. His approach has improved but he swings and misses at hittable fastballs on hitter's counts. That's a talent issue. There's plenty of talent in the organization but I still think of this as year one in terms of improvement at the major-league level. Maybe we'll get some additional talent in the second half.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

Good points. I'm just referring to the kids - The team is still very young position players and many of the relievers. Lots of raw talent but not a lot of competitive experience at this level - meaning they have been playing without pressure the last few years during the rebuild. My main point is regardless of what you think of the talent they play to the level of their competition which is a very immature trait for a team. As they mature I hope it changes.

per rotoworld...Cardinal starter Lance Lynn sent back to st louis to get his "ailing" right arm examined (forearm tightness). Hmmm. Dropping like flies.

Recent comments

  • 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

  • crunch (view)

    alzolay...bro...

  • crunch (view)

    wow.  what a blown call.  go cubs, i guess.