Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus two players are 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 4-21-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 14
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 
* Justin Steele, P   

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

All-star "Game" Break

Submitted by CTSteve on

There are a lot of things than could be said about this team--the good, the bad, the Castro. But we are 7 over and currently holding a play-off spot 87 games into the season. Since every one of us would have signed up for that in a second during Spring Training, I guess we have to be pleased. 

The AS Game itself is marginally interesting to see how the managers squeeze everyone in, I suppose--even though it's at odds with the new format. And I am curious to see whether Rizzo is hit by a pitch during the Derby. Mostly, I'll be working on my book.

Enjoy the recess!

Tags
all-star break

Comments

Submitted by Dusty Baylor on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:55 pm

Weird.....His brother was my neighbor up until 2 weeks ago. Jason seems like a decent guy. Released with a 1.54 ERA?

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Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:57 am

Cameron and Fuld were both speed guys (especially Cameron) and on-base guys (especially Fuld). A comparable for Almora would, at 21, have a slash line like this in 400 PAs at double A: .243/.278/.361(/.639). Almora fell off rather steeply at Daytona (A+), but they promoted him to Tennessee after just 89 games. Maybe that was too soon. But they hoped he would advance quickly, like the other high schoolers I mentioned. So this year they draft Happ and Dewees #1 and #2. Happ plays CF for Eugene, while Dewees could probably play there. So I think Almora has lost his "core" designation and will have to gain it back.

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Submitted by WISCGRAD on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:44 am

There is a LOT of room between those two. Cameron had a career 782 OPS, had 10 seasons of 3.0 bWAR or higher, was an All-Star, won multiple gold gloves, and according to JAWS is the 33rd best CFer in history. Fuld has a .643 career OPS, has a carer total of 4.7 war, and is a primarily a back-up LFer. So there is a good chance he ends up somewhere between the two, and the closer to the Cameron end of that spectrum the better. But of course with all guys that young struggling the minors, there is also a very good chance he never even becomes a Fuld. Most prospects don't make it at all. 

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Submitted by The E-Man on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:40 pm

Yes, I am aware of the fact that there is a lot of room between the two. Again, main point, ...if he can discover any bat at all he should be a MLB player. I did not state, "A can't-miss prospect", or anything of the sort. He is young, and has elicited comments such as this one from scouts: "Almora is an excellent outfielder who gets excellent jumps on the ball (lending to his plus range). Everything he does in the outfield is fundamentally sound, and he takes aggressive routes to the ball. He’s not a particularly fast runner, but his all-out hustle and footwork should allow him to stick in center field. A right-handed hitter, Almora has a quick bat and surprising power that allows him to go yard to all fields. He has a controlled swing with a consistent path that allows him to jump on the best of velocities while still keeping enough weight back to drive offspeed pitches. A veteran of the showcase circuit, Almora has drawn comparisons to Carlos Beltran for his all-around athleticism and skill set. Considered as a high first-round draft pick for the last two years, Almora is more advanced than most of the prep players in the 2012 draft class, and therefore has a shot to reach the major leagues by 2015." 6/4/2012, M.Rosenbaum Its three years later, and while he may be a bust-out, he may be a contributing MLB player as good as Denorfria or Coghlan. Still too early to tell. If he can hit somewhere in-between the two examples I gave, it becomes more promising. Its a pretty big "IF". But again, what were we all doing at age 21? And, let me say, regarding the now-worthless "All-Star" label. I heard a stat on WSCR yesterday that due to today's voting procedures, about 17% of MLB players have been voted or selected to be an "All-Star". Doesn't seem so exclusive by any stretch these days.

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Submitted by WISCGRAD on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:57 pm

Well, just mathematically in forming two full teams from 30 about 7% of players have to be all-stars in a given year. Then taking into consideration that players age and decline so there are always active players who used to be all-stars in their prime but aren't anymore. Then of course there are injuries and career-years, etc. So yeah, 15%-ish seems about right. I'd rather have that than the same guys getting selected every year based on reputation rather than performance.

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Submitted by WISCGRAD on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:46 pm

If you are talking about starters, I am not sure what the difference is. Fans have been voting in questionable players for a long time. As for reserves, I feel like the player ballots create teams that are better representative of yearly performances than managers picking them all.

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Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Wed, 07/15/2015 - 07:33 am

Fuld's OBP in the minors was .371--.372 when he was at Tennessee for a season. Granted, he was 25, so it's apples and oranges when you try to compare guys coming out of college and high school. But I'm not the one who brought up Fuld. But before I drop him: Fuld's walks/strikeouts in the minors was 309/261. Almora's is 48/139. Fuld was a borderline major leaguer for a while because teams were willing to send him to the plate to get a walk. Why send Almora to the plate? He did lead the Cub organization last year in one offensive category: GDP. I just haven't seen any touted Cub prospect in the last ten years having so much trouble getting out of AA. Vitters had a .770 OPS at Tennessee at age 21, with 14 home runs. Almora is .659. Lake had a tough time at Tenn at 21 but then raked at 22. So maybe Almora will succeed in his THIRD season there? So he can be as good an offensive player as Junior Lake?--who by the way has some power and some speed. I just don't see the "somewhere between Fuld and Cameron." I would say somewhere below Fuld and Cameron. There may a flashy center fielder who struggled at the AA level in 400 PAs at a young age and became a major league hitter. I just know he didn't come up with the Cubs. [7/15. I might have found one. Jake Marisnick, 200 at bats with the Astros this season. He's not hitting, but he's mostly been in the majors since last year, when he was 23. He struggled at AA at 21, after which the Jays traded him to Miami, who traded him to Houston the following year. Drafted in the 3rd round in 2009. Big kid, 6-4, 220, must be a good athlete because he always plays center. Almora is somewhere between Marisnick and Cameron (or Mays or DiMaggio). I like that better than Fuld, because Fuld is in the majors at 33, and Marisnick might not be there at 26. The lesson here might be that Almora will be gone pretty soon. I think the Cubs have moved on, with Zagunis, Happ, Dewees, etc.]

Submitted by crunch on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:32 pm

"The five-minute time limit per batter per round was shortened to four minutes, a previously announced pause of the clock for home runs in the final minute was eliminated and a previously announced time extension for home runs exceeding 475 feet was eliminated and shortened to 425." ...because of possible bad weather in CIN.

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Submitted by billybucks on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:58 pm

I am very confused as to what the Cubs are doing with Schwarber. His bat will be ready for MLB next year (it looks ready now), but he won't catch for the Cubs next year, since Montero and Ross will still be around. Maybe they are seeing what kind of catcher he can become over the next 2 months, then move him to LF next spring? I don't know of any notable catchers who played another position for a season, then went back to catching. Very confusing.

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Submitted by crunch on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:13 pm

unless they trade away montero i dunno how shwarb's going to avoid seeing most of his playing time in LF. unless there's injuries, i imagine we'll be seeing a good amount of him in LF when he gets called up again while taking the occasional turn behind the plate. it'll be interesting in 2017, especially if he's not getting much work at C in 2016. if they're really committed to having him C, montero could become trade bait. they kinda suck at trading C, though. =p

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Submitted by fullykräusened on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:55 pm

I think you're right, crunch. The bat is there, and because he's really working on the catching he probably will do that a little bit, but overall I predict a mid-August callup for LF. Maybe that ripples to a platoon of Coghlan and Fowler in CF, and maybe Schwarber and Denorfia in left. Next year, who knows? One last year of non-offense from Ross, some C by Schwarber, mostly Montero. 2017? We're getting into very unpredictable territory here, but maybe we have the DH and Schwarber gets the gig over Vogelbach, and dudes like McKinney, Zagunis, and Almora push into the picture. Bottom line, Schwarber in the big leagues sooner then later, but not behind the plate. Good times.

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Submitted by billybucks on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:11 pm

...and then there's the Castro conundrum. Other than a few walk-off hits, he has been dreadful this year -- 2nd most errors of NL SS, next to last in OPS among "qualified" NL SS, last in slugging. An OBP of .283 and a negative WAR. Lousy in the field, lousy at the plate. The numbers are brutal, the "eye test" is as well -- the mental lapses, the lack of a clue of situations and always, always trying to pull outside pitches. The Javy injury has made this more complicated -- but, if he (or La Stella) hits at all the last month of the season, I assume Theo will sell low and move Russell to SS. But, I can't imagine they will get much of anything in a trade for him.

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Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:12 am

Ross can play at Iowa next year for $2.25 million. Schwarber can be backup catcher, and play left on days Montero is catching. Or they can carry three catchers: not a big deal if one of them (Schwarber) plays left field most days. The key is that you're continuing Schwarber's catcher training at the ML level, under two skilled tutors. Two years like that, and Montero can give up his starting gig in his final year with the Cubs.

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Submitted by crunch on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:54 am

problem is, ross exists because the team has a certain SP who refuses to check runners so the C has to -attempt- to keep guys from taking 3+ bases a game as well as trying to control the crazy leads runners take off bases...something ross has a hard enough time with already. montero doesn't hold runners well and schwarb doesn't hold runners at all.

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Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 07:50 pm

"SP who refuses to check runners" Lester is lefthanded, so he looks at the runner on first before every pitch. Isn't that checking the runner? He just doesn't throw over, which allows the runner a slightly bigger lead. Not much Ross or anyone else can do about that.

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Submitted by crunch on Wed, 07/15/2015 - 07:47 pm

the leads runners take off lester are insane. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base. ross has "molina-style" thrown to 1st a bit more than usual after receiving the ball in order to attempt to catch runners returning to 1st who are 1/2 way to 2nd by the time ross receives the ball. it's practically a joke that he's had to do this at 2nd and 3rd, too (especially 2nd). whoever catches lester has to help control the running game the best they can because lester isn't doing it. we're beyond the point of people making excuses for him...from "it hasn't hurt him in the past" to "he'll adjust if it's an issue that's different from the past" (based on little more than wishful thinking rather than anything he's actually done). it seems lester's going to do nothing about it and the team is going to need a great-arm, good-D catcher going forward just to make up for lester's shortcomings. it's like some hidden "tax" on the roster and team that 1 player is so dependent on a specific type of another player. all-in-all, ross barely covers lester as it is, but watching montero cover lester was cringe-worthy compared to ross.

Submitted by crunch on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:26 pm

breaking news: the HR derby is still a slow crawl of limited interest content with a lot of waiting around for something to happen. also, donaldson beats rizzo.

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Submitted by crunch on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:48 pm

fraizer beats fielder 13-14...that was a fun one given the hometown crowd love. also, this 4m format is killing these guys. they're tiring out rather noticeably after 3m, even if they take a "time out." i can't imagine how sad it's going to look if they keep the 5m round setup going forward.

Submitted by QuietMan on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:01 pm

Through their first 47 games on Comcast SportsNet Chicago, the Cubs have averaged a 3.0 household rating, or more than 104,000 Chicago-area TV households tuning in per game. That's double the average viewership for all Cubs games on the regional network last year, when the team's broadcasts had the fifth-lowest local ratings among all 30 Major League Baseball teams. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150713/BLOGS04/150719968

Submitted by crunch on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 07:33 pm

the new format for the HR derby works really well when the hometown guy bats last in each round and ends up winning it all. it was a kinda fun watch given the outcome.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    “I respect his track record of what he’s accomplished,” Counsell said on Sunday morning. “And you go through these. He’s gone through -- maybe not this particular stretch -- but stretches where you’re not pitching the way you want to and struggling. And you figure it out.” -- Counsell on Hendricks

    fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

    i respect his track record of no longer being in the rotation.  in 2016 he threw 2 innings out of the pen, his only work out of the pen.  the cubs won the world series that year.  let's repeat that magic.  the formula is obvious.  stats don't lie.  etc etc whatever...

    small sample size and all, but how about this craziness...

    "Entering Sunday, Hendricks had allowed an .843 OPS against hitters in their initial plate appearance, followed by a 1.056 OPS in a second meeting and a 2.449 OPS when seeing batters for a third time."

  • Finwe Noldaran (view)

    Phil: Great to see what Rosario is doing!

    Do you think having Rosario may have influenced/impacted the front office's decision on including Hope in the trade for Busch at all?

  • crunch (view)

    it's so crazy we got a new "barnstorming" harlem globetrotters-type baseball product that was introduced less than 5 years ago and is wildly popular all over the nation.

    a notion left long in the past, unearthed, polished for modern audiences and popular as ever.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    No question right now Alfonsin Rosario is one of the Cubs Top 20 prospects (probably Top 15). Rosario is to the Cubs what Zyhir Hope is to the Dodgers.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Savannah Bananas will be playing the Party Animals at Sloan Park in Mesa this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The games are sold out (15,000+ each night), and berm tickets are going for well over $100. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    RAISIN: In the game versus the A's at Fitch Park last Friday, Mule threw half FB and half SL (16/16), and one CH (which coincidentally was the only hard-hit ball off him -- a near HR line-drive double off the LF fence). FB was 91-94 and the SL (really more of a "slurve") was 80-82, and he got three swing & miss on each pitch (six swing & miss total out of his 20 strikes). So I think it is safe to say that right now, Mule is strictly a two-pitch pitcher (FB/SL), 

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Recalled it was sampled in a Nas song.  Did a little sleuthing.  It was a Nas song called "Hate Me Now" that featured Puff Daddy.  Imploring the crowd to hate somebody seems a bit overly dramatic for a keyboardist but perhaps there is some other connection to the song. 

     

    In general there has been a weird overuse of Carmina Burana's O Fortuna in sports and commercials in past decade or so.  Maybe it is a fallback choice if there isn't anything else.   

     

    Sidenote, while the O Fortuna part has become a bit pop-culture cliched; the overall piece is very interesting and rather expansive in scope. I played percussion in a production of it while in college.  There is a rather jovial movement set in a tavern.  In the score it calls for the clinking of beer steins.  Let's just say we did a lot of research to determine the best sounding beer steins. 

  • crunch (view)

    ooof...this is just as likely as anything.  professional organists are weird humans.

  • SheffieldCornelia (view)

    Maybe it is only played when the hitter thus far in the game is "oh for two"-na at the plate?

  • crunch (view)

    who was AB when it was being played?  it could be something as corny as playing it for nick fortes because fortes/fortuna...fortes...marlins...fish...tuna...sigh.

    while the cubs organ player isn't a frequent groaner weaponizing the organ song selection, they all dabble in it.

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