Cubs MLB Roster

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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

Remlinger Traded To Red Sox

Left-handed reverse-split reliever Mike Remlinger, who was designated for assignment last Friday to make room on the roster for the players returning from the disabled list, has been traded to the Boston Red Sox for "a minor league pitcher" whose identity has yet to be confirmed. Expect a far lesser name than the likes of Anibal Sanchez, Jon Papelbon, Jon Lester and Abe Alvarez, and the Cubs to be chipping in some money too. We'll have an update and a profile of the prospect as soon as we get a name. [Update: Olivio Astacio is the name, and the extent of the profile I can give you on him is that he's Dominican and 21 years old. When signed as an international free agent by the Red Sox a few years ago, he was considered a good prospect with a live arm. His numbers though have been relatively unimpressive, he's apparently been suspended and sent back to the DR this year, and he's still a long way away from the majors regardless.] The Red Sox are making a habit of acquiring elderly lefty relievers from us. Last year, the Cubs traded journeyman Jimmy Anderson to the Red Sox for a minor league reliever named Andrew Shipman and a player to be named later that ended up being Anderson himself. Anderson made just five appearances out of the Boston bullpen, pitching six ineffective innings, before the Red Sox dispatched him from whence he came. He spent the rest of the year in our minor league system, and right now you can find him pitching for the Devil Rays' Triple-A affiliate in Durham, North Carolina. Let's hope, for the Red Sox's sake, that a better fate awaits Remlinger. Andrew Shipman though, aged 23 but blessed with unremarkable stuff, is having quite a season at Double-A, posting a 54.0 IP, 47 H, 0 HR, 26 BB, 56 K, 3.00 ERA line. Indeed, not a single home run allowed in over fifty innings. It may be a pitcher's league and a pitcher's park, and he may not ever project as a major leaguer, but he's certainly giving those in West Tennessee some enjoyable innings. If only the fans in Chicago could say the same more often.

Comments

and hopefully, the cubs have learned, after unloading their second ludicrously overpaid reliever, that you don't tie up that much cash in non-closer relief pitching.

>you don't tie up that much cash in non-closer relief pitching.... You mean like $9.5 million to non-closer relief pitcher Kerry Wood?

The Boston Red Sox tried to bolster their bullpen with yet another left-hander, getting Mike Remlinger and cash from the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday for minor league pitcher Olivo Astacio. A quick search on Astacio pulled this bio ... 6'-5", 190, R/R, Born 7/28/84, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

In another roster move, the Cubs recalled outfielder Corey Patterson from Triple-A Iowa and optioned infielder Ronny Cedeno to Iowa.

>>You mean like $9.5 million to non-closer relief pitcher Kerry Wood? well, we all know KW is a starter. this bullpen stint is stupid and will hopefully end in about 4-5 games when the cubs are 10+ games out of the WC "chase"

From Rotoworld: "Red Sox acquired LHP Mike Remlinger and cash from the Cubs for RHP Olivo Astacio. It's surprising that the Cubs couldn't get a better prospect than the 21-year-old Astacio. Remlinger will slide right into the Boston pen, likely taking the spot of Manny Delcarmen. He seems like a pretty good pickup, but we suppose that doesn't guarantee that he'll spend more than a week on the roster." I guess that Theo Epstein's just a hard guy to fleece....

Darn, I was really hoping we could've gotten Jon Lester, if for no other reason than it would be funny to see him on a team with Jon Leicester. "Yes, I'm Jon Lester, no the other one - without the 3 silent letters." And a minor correction. If Jimmy Anderson's pitching playing for the Durham Bull's, he's property of the Mighty Tampa Bay D-Rays. The Twins AAA team is the Rochester Red Wings.

should have traded him to san fran for marquis grissom, he just got DFAd too. Oh, well Korey's coming back up anyhow.

Thanks for the heads up, Blue, Durham is the Devil Rays, you're right. Don't know why I saw Durham and thought Twins.

From Cubs.com "Astacio, 21, has gone 7-11 with a 4.33 ERA in 38 career games in the Red Sox organization. The right-hander has struck out 110 batters and allowed just 4 home runs in 139.1 innings of work. Astacio has worked primarily as a starter (31 games) and had his greatest success with Boston's Gulf Coast affiliate in 2004 - where he posted a 3.13 ERA and hurled his first career complete game." I couldn't find anything on milb.com on him. Sounds like he has a good K rate. Maybe we should try to put him in middle relief in Boise and see how he does. Do you think if we had offered Burny, Dempster, and Rusch to the Sox before the deadline do you think they would given us Sanchez or one of the Jons?

Who takes Remlinger's spot on the major league roster?

remlinger was already DFA'ed off the roster to make room for the miracle three callup in nyc. (wood, williamson, nomar). lineup: lawton walker lee aramis burnitz nomar corey blanco prior

The one moment I will always remember of Remlinger's Cubs tenure: coming in with the bases loaded in the 7th inning of a game against the Yankees and striking out Jason Giambi on what I remember as a changeup on the inside corner. 40,000 people cheering at Wrigley on a Saturday afternoon in July and Remlinger had one job to do, which was get out one of the most feared hitters in the game, and he did it perfectly. Good luck with the Sox, Rem.

sadly that's the only good memory I have of Remmy...but that was a helluva moment!!

I will also miss Remlinger's hiked-up pants that allow his socks to show (luckily, we still have Burnitz for this old-school visual) and his scraggly salt-pepper beard - he was the only pitcher I could instantly recognize in the bullpen from my high seats in the outfield. I think the real lesson on Remlinger is that you don't give a long term contract to 36 year old middle relievers.

Best Remlinger moment for my money was him standing on the grass in front of the Cubs dugout at Wrigley last year yelling at Lance Berkman in the outfield after Berkman had faked getting beaned.

My question about this deal is how much of Remmy's remaining salary did Boston pick up? What ever amount they did (if they did)represents a savings for the Cubs. Probably to go into the coffers of the Tribune Company.

That was a great game, Ruz - Wood versus Clemens, national TV, bases loaded, Giambi up, Karros had just hit a 3 run homer the inning before to give the Cubs a lead. Ah, a Cubs lead.

I don't know the details Moe, but I would guess the Cubs are paying the whole of Remmy's remaining contract. They were willing to release him and the only reason Red Sox make the trade is to pre-empt any other teams from picking him up on waivers.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • 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.