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

For the Love of All Things Holy

Kerry "I Should Really Start Knockin On" Wood suffered a "minor" setback in his last appearance and will not throw for a couple of days. It's being deemed as soreness in his tricep, just above the elbow and Hendry tries to tell us that the cause was "striding too far on the mound at Ho Ho Kam Park, trying to avoid a hole in the pitching surface, and that put the additional strain on the arm". Taking Hendry at his word which is pretty foolish as is, it's our freaking home park, stop the game next time and fill the hole or just walk off the field. What the hell? It should be noted that the injury seems to be nowhere near the shoulder injury that he went under the knife for last time.

Comments

Should we really be surprised? We should all file a lawsuit against Timothy Kremchek.

I'm sure glad no other pitcher in the game hurt themselves striding over the hole on the mound. Just Wood. Really surprising. And God knows what would have happened to Prior if he had faced the gaping maw. I'm afraid we'd be talking about the late Mark Prior right now.

kinda weird being in a position of risk/reward with the both of them where neither are being depended on. still...be nice to start and finish a full year with at least one of them.

The suntimes had DeLuca and the ever-genius (jk) Jay Marriotti talked about thee Cubs without prior. Really, will even notice if Wood is gone too? If dempster falters, not sure who would come in, but this stuff reaches a point where we shouldn't even have to hear this anymore. I love KErry's grit and tolerance for pain (unlike the Prissy Ms. Prior), but if Woody disappears...what is the difference? Enough already. Get well Kerry. Prissy? I hear many independent leagues are open.

it's relatively insignificant news, just the guy can't go 2 weeks without something and usually of the oddest variety...

Prior and Wood not healthy??? I am SHOCKED!!!! Go Cubs!!

Wow, a hole. Before it was a hole with hot water in it. Wood should avoid all openings.

If the wires can be believed, MURTON will bat 2nd in the order when he plays When Floyd is in LF, De Rosa will bat 2nd. IZTURIS will bat 8th Smell the fresh air? I don't think Dusty Dustbag could have stopped himself from batting Izturis second given the same situation.

dust probably would bat him 2nd...he's a pure contact/speed guy in that slot. rarely broke from it.

If I were to give my opinions on the matter, they would be: Kerry Wood is done because he abused the hell out of his body with his mechanics. Mark Prior is done because he used roids. But I think roids should be legal for pitchers. Roid rage makes pitchers do funny things.

Transaction Guy: "Manny, is Lincecum going to start the season with the Defenders?" We haven't heard anything official yet. I think he might skip AA all together and go straight to Fresno (AAA). But maybe he struggles a bit more, than we might get him for a bit. They think he is going to be a stud. I hope I get to see him play for at least a few months.

Kerry Wood is trying his damndest to return 10 years of good faith this organization has invested in him. I suspect that his right arm is hanging on with baling wire and duct tape, but still he is giving it 100%. Will he contribute much in 2007? Who knows. I think he might actually surprise and be one of the most dominant set-up men in the game. Along with this, he'll probably also spend time on the DL. As far as I'm concerned, Mark Prior is night and day different than Wood. Prior suffers from a screwed up arm, an interfering daddy and vaginitis. He can rot in minor league rehab purgatory for all I am concerned. I despise Jay Mariotti, but his column on Prior hit the nail right on the head. And it echoed what the vast majority of diehard Cub fans really believe when it comes to Prior.

Tricep... that's new for Wood. *IF* that is really the problem, I wouldn't be too worried.

...and on Prior... and I don't mean to toot my own horn, but at least 4-5 months ago, when half of the people here were saying Prior was done and the other half said it wouldn't hurt to give him $3 mil and a roster spot, I said the following:
...Supposing by some miracle Prior is healthy next year, what's to say he's still going to be effective?
And I said I thought the Cub's should not offer him arbitration.

Mark Prior has stolen money from the Cubs. Four years running. I don't begrudge a player for being injured. But with Prior the issue runs much deeper. I think if you were to poll a representative sampling of Cub fans, the majority would chalk in that they think Prior is a douche bag. Four years of mystery ailments that the medical staff can't diagnosis, four years of his piss ant elitist father being his spokesperson because he lacks the gonads to speak to the public and the fans directly, three years of having a personal grudge against Dusty Baker that he manifested by doing his rehab in sunny Arizona as opposed to in Iowa or with the team, etc. The Cubs should have severed ties this offseason. Surely Jim Hendry and his braintrust knew enough about Prior's condition to know that his mechanics and velocity remained in the crapper. Why waste another $3.5 million on this douche? Sorry, but this is how I feel.

So then, maybe the Cub bullpen to start the season has two openings ... Dempster, Howry, Eyre, Cotts, Ohlman, Guzman??? Cherry??? Novoa???

ST: "So then, maybe the Cub bullpen to start the season has two openings …" Yeah, if Wuertz and Wood are injured and can't make Opening Day and Dempster doesn't turn things around (which are all very possible), this bullpen goes from very good to average.

The Cub bullpen has worried me for awhile. Everybody assumes it will be a great strength. Wood is hurt, and a big question mark when relatively healthy. Dempster inspires little confidence. Cotts has been lit up like a Christmas tree this spring. Eyre hasn't look very good. Ohlman is Ohlman. The only piece of the pen I am strongly confident about is Bob Howry. And people wonder why I think 84 wins may be a huge challenge.

I thought douchebag was one word.... pissant, too. If you are going to condemn Prior for being hurt and milking it for all its worth, you should expand your rant to include so many others over the past decade or so of multi-multi-million dollar contracts who have taken advantage of that. Maybe that's thanks to the MLBPA. With the Wood issue though, it makes this Cub fan glad to know that this was an "incentive-laden" deal rather than just money on the barrel. Oh, and Duke sucks!

Silent Towel, In #15 you note that Prior has a "screwed up arm", but then you go on to question his manliness (again with your quaint, clever "vaginitis" term). If his arm really is "screwed up" as you say, then what's with the criticism of his toughness? I've said it enough times that I'm probably getting on people's nerves for being repetitive, but I just don't understand the venom that people like you are firing at Prior. If he's faking injuries, then call him a headcase and question his toughness. But if his arm is "screwed up" as you claim, then the Mark Prior story is a tragic one and he deserves sympathy, not hate.

Sigh. Always comes down to this, doesn't it? Let's open up this subject for the 500th time.

wow...look at the cess pool this thread tumbled into. silent, you have some interesting "facts" about mark prior you're presenting there. anyway... ken "mark prior kicked my dog" rosenthall is kicking around a possible cubs/marlins trade rumor that makes no sense to either team, but hey whatever check it out... "Alex Sanchez seem likely to win the Marlins' center-field job, but the team has kicked around the idea of pursuing the Cubs' Angel Pagan, a switch-hitter who might not make the team's Opening Day roster. The Cubs are looking for a middle infielder who can play shortstop, and the Marlins' Robert Andino could fill that role." http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6574698

all of his ailments have been diagnosed, what's the mystery? 2003 - screwed up his shoulder running into Marcus Giles 2004 - ankle and elbow problems 2005 - brief elbow problem to start the year and then the liner 2006 - shoulder/"loose joints" 2007 - technically no injury yet, if anything he's been rehabbing but there hasn't been any talk of an actual injury. I suppose if he just went under the knife, everyone would give him some slack or something. But pretty ridiculous to applaud Wood and berate Prior. Pitchers get injured, it sucks, shit happens, they try to fight back. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn't. See Chris Carpenter, Roy Halladay, and Ben Sheets for some good examples.

433, I don't get it either. It must be quite a gift, or maybe a burden, to be able to look into the heart and character of an individual you've never met, and be able to divine their level of "wussiness". But then, since Mark Prior is the first pitcher in the history of baseball to complain of arm pain, the genesis of the problem must be his character. Look, Mark Prior may be a first class malignerer. The point is, I don't know. I strongly suspect you don't either.

It's threads like this that makes Lou want to start Prior in Minor league ST games so that he can protect him from all this mental torture.

I guess the venom comes about so much hope was invested in Prior and its all come a cropper; that and he does not deal with the fans or media in the open way Kerry Wood does. His injuries are pretty obvious, made only mysterious by a Cubs' management trying to cover its ass about their mismanagement of both Wood and Prior, in pitching abuse and then in the subsequent medical care. "Loose shoulder" is Cubs talk for "rotator cuff" injury. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/rotator-cuff-injury/DS00192/DSECTION=2

"Pitching abuse." Time to dredge up that ridiculous argument all over again. In nine years as a major league professional, Kerry Wood has pitched 200 innings twice. Twice. In 2003, Mark Prior pitched 211 innings. He hasn't come remotely close to matching that relative modest number ever again. Kerry Wood and Mark Prior were paid multi-millions of dollars over the past severals years to PITCH. Pitching is their chosen profession. If they aren't up to the task, then they aren't up to the task. But don't sit here and give me this bullshit about them being abused by Dusty Baker or anybody else. Look at the White Sox staff over the past three years. Look at the innings young guns like Mark Buerhle and Jon Garland have thrown. Or Roy Oswalt in Houston. Or Brendan Webb in Arizona. Then shut up with your ridiculous argument over alleged pitcher abuse.

Does Towel really know so little about Pitcher Abuse theories that he is really using "Innings Pitched" as the "Bubblegum Statistic" to backup his argument?

You tell me chief how the biggest pussy in baseball, Mark Prior, was "abused" by Dusty Baker. And I will find you 2 dozen cases of pitchers in a similar age range who have been worked much harder. And again, let me state this so that even you can understand...Mark Prior (and Kerry Wood) are pitchers. They aren't truck drivers, accountants, plumbers, lawyers. They are pitchers. Paid many millions to PITCH.

Towel, Mark Prior pitched 235 innings in 2003. He had never pitched anywhere near that many innings before. This is a guy who pitched only 9 games in the minor leagues and 2003 was for all intents and purposes his rookie year. He was worn out.

Did we really have a "Dusty Baker burns out pitchers" siting? OH MY GOD! I thought we had finally slayed that dragon. I guess not.

No. Dusty Baker was a great manager, a master of the double-switch, a genius with the bullpen, and he certainly never let his starters throw too much. He also abhorred washed up former Giants, and speedy, slap-hitting utility players.

Prior threw 167.2 IP in 2002 between the minor and the majors. I don't know about you, but when my boss offers me a 40% raise, I get excited.

Not only, as CWTP points out, did Prior go well beyond the number of innings he'd ever pitched before, he also was asked to throw far more pitches than he ever had to before, and he was throwing vastly more pitches than anyone else in the national league. You see, no one who talks about pitcher abuse talks only about innings pitched, because there is a big difference between someone who throws 100 pitches in 9 innings and someone who needs 150 pitches to get through those same 9 innings. In 2003, Prior and Wood were both at the top of the list in terms for most pitches thrown per start. There was even a pitcher abuse watch graphic showing Prior and Wood's top rankings attached to TCRs website during that season - just in case you'd like to say this is all stuff being made up after the fact. Now, where's that list of 2 dozen pitchers who have been worked much harder?

Top 10 in BP'S PAP in 2003 1. Javier Vazquez 2. Wood 3. Livan 4. Prior 5. Redman 6. Leiter 7. Woody Willliams 8. Russ Ortiz 9. Jason Schmidt 10. Joel Pineiro 2004 1. Livan 2. Schmidt 3. C. Zambrano 4. V. Zambrano 5. Leiter 6. Russ Ortiz 7. B. Madritsch 8. Ben Sheets 9. Oswalt 10. Tomko 2005 1. Livan 2. C. Zambrano 3. Prior 4. Harang 5. Zito 6. Schmidt 7. Doug Dais 8. Noah Lowry 9. Marquis 10. Oswalt 2006 1. Livan 2. C. Zambrano 3. Harang 4. Willis 5. Schmidt 6. Arroyo 7. Smoltz 8. Zito 9. Matt Cain 10. Jake Peavy

This is a total crock. It's well documented that pitchers who used to be in a 4 man rotation who started 40 games a year would pitch well over 300 innings. They also have shown that many times they probably threw over 200 pitches in a game. They didn't have pitch counts back then so its hard to prove. Burning out a pitcher is total BULLSHIT! Mark Prior was un-hittable in 05 until that ball broke his arm. I'm talking Cy Young un-hittable. Kerry Wood had TJ surgery at age 21. Long before Dusty Baker was the Cubs manager. You gonna blame Dusty for that one too.

Chad, do you have any explanation for why pitchers don't make 40 starts and throw 300 innings anymore? Who the hell is B. Madritsch?

How about Fracisco Liriano. He pitched 484 innings in 5 years of minor league baseball. Then 144 in the majors. He had TJ surgery. Where did he get burned out? Why do we see this more today? IMO kids are throwing too much as a child/adolescent. Their muscles and joints are not forming correctly or not being able to repair themselves correctly do to overuse as a kid. Couple that with kids throwing curveballs and pitching both ends of a double header at age 17 (Kerry Wood) all the while weight training at too young of an age and this is what is going to happen. Buy the time a guy is 24 years old either the damage has been done or he will be ok. But you are not going to burn someone by over working them as a pro. Its a MYTH!

Do they have this CGA 'Give a little love and it all comes back to you' Coca-Cola commercial in the US?

'Buy the time a guy is 24 years old either the damage has been done or he will be ok. But you are not going to burn someone by over working them as a pro. Its a MYTH! ' So, Roy Oswalt could have pitched 300 innings last year. Why didn't he?

"The Real Neal — March 16, 2007 @ 12:39 pm Chad, do you have any explanation for why pitchers don’t make 40 starts and throw 300 innings anymore?" Yes. As a employee, if your boss told you that you only had to work every 5 days as opposed to 4, would you complain? I wouldn't. My question in return is, do you know how the 5 man rotation started and why it started? I do. I would like to hear your answer first, though.

I don't think we're seeing more of anything. Back in the day, you blew out your arm and there were no TJ surgeries or shoulder surgeries that would ever get you back, the guy was done and those who stayed healthy survived and there the ones who made their trips to the mound every 4-5 days and threw 300 innings, etc. Now, a guy gets hurt and you hold onto him and cut him up and hope he comes back.

And Neal, why is Francisco Liriano currently rehabbing from TJ surgery? Was he overused? If so where?

Chad, Quit imagining an argument. You're logic is flawed though about Liriano. The theory is that overuse causes pitching injuries. It doesn't mean that all pitching injuries are caused by overuse. I suspect that the reason they moved to 5 man rotations is because the four man rotations were no longer effective. Rising ERA's and fewer innings.

Chad, Also wanted a real answer to the 4 man 300 inning question, if you have one. What motivation would the managers and coaches have to see less of Clemens, Petite and Oswalt so they could have more Wandy Rodriguez?

That's right Chad, because someone said the ONLY reason pitchers ever get hurt is because of abuse. Since Liriano was hurt without being abused, it proves without a doubt that pitcher abuse doesn't exist. Thanks for clearing that up.

No. The 5 man rotation was invented by the New York Mets. They had 5 can't miss young pitchers. Seaver, Ryan, Koosman to name three. I think the other two were Dick Selma and Jim McAndrew (I could be wrong about those two). So they didn't want any of them to stay in the minor leagues so they had this great idea to start all five. Viola, the 5 man rotation. Why did other teams follow suit? Maybe they saw that and realized they could avoid injury or wear on a pitcher. Maybe the Mets pitchers told their friend that they felt stronger each start. But in the end, the who thing didn't start to save pitcher's arms. It was started to accommodate 5 good pitchers. What's my point? My point is that without the Mets, we may still have had a 4 man rotation today.

re 59 and 60: No my point about Liriano is that Mark Prior was going to be hurt no matter what. As long as he pitched as a starter it was going to happen. If he you never let his pitch count go over 100. it was going to happen. His fate was probably sealed by the end of high school. Now do you see my point?

this is funny... Piniella few years back... http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050724&content_id=1143257&vke…
Piniella also said he doesn't know the origin of the five-man pitching rotation, but he believes baseball teams should explore the possibility of going back to four-man rotations. If it is to happen "it's got to start down in the Minor Leagues," said Piniella, who noted most Minor League pitchers operate on 100-pitch counts. "I don't see why [a five-man rotation] is such a good idea." Piniella said he was only making an observation and didn't want to ruffle any feathers, adding that if conventional wisdom ever reverted back to a four-man rotation, "I'm not going to be around anyway.

of course BP who's writers created PAP, advocate the return of the 4-man rotation as well...good stuff. Different writers though...

okay, I don't get what Rany was going at it, maybe he was saying the Dodgers popularized it because now I see the stories on the Mets

So can we place wagers on whether Towel will ever provide the list of 2 dozen similar aged pitchers who were worked harder than Prior?

'What’s my point? My point is that without the Mets, we may still have had a 4 man rotation today. ' So you're explanation for the Japanese leagues using a 6 man rotation is that one team had 6 young pitchers that came up at once and were all really good? 'Why did other teams follow suit? Maybe they saw that and realized they could avoid injury or wear on a pitcher' Ok, why haven't you realized this then?

So we have gone back to the pitcher abuse topic...fun fun!!!! I would of loved to see what Cubs fans would of said back in 2003 if Dusty pulled Prior out every start after 100 pitches and then the bullpen blew those games and the Cubs missed the playoffs by 1 game.

Neal, don't cherry pick a sentence that is totally out of context. I was pointing out that I don't know why the 5 man rotation spread throughout the league but it may never have if not for the Mets and their 5 young studs.

"mannytrillo — March 16, 2007 @ 1:20 pm So we have gone back to the pitcher abuse topic…fun fun!!!! I would of loved to see what Cubs fans would of said back in 2003 if Dusty pulled Prior out every start after 100 pitches and then the bullpen blew those games and the Cubs missed the playoffs by 1 game." Considering that I know what did happen in reality, I would take that tradeoff any day. Not to spare Mark Prior but to spare me game 6.

Well actually I researched it, and the Mets went with a 5 man rotation in guess what year... 1969! I knew Ryan wasn't part of that rotation, he was a 6th starter. One guy, Don Cardwell was 33, but it is a better story with Chad's version. And the Orioles, who faced them in the WS actually had a 5 man rotation as well that year, but it's a good story. Well the Orioles had a 5 man rotation in as early as the 1950's so besides being a nice story, it actually isn't true. Now that that's clear....

OK Neal nice write up, but you are wrong. I heard this on the radio. I forget exactly who it was but it was an old manager. And they developed the five man rotation for those guys. If they didn't utilize it until after Ryan left, that doesn't mean anything. It was created for him. Also, please notice that the concept was in place much earlier. If you look you will see the 5 man actually started in 67. I would imagine that the lack of players who consistently made the fifth start was more due to them trying to figure the whole thing out. None the less you're still wrong.

'None the less you’re still wrong. ' Sorry, what was I wrong about? This is the number of starts for the Mess staff in 1967. 34, 30, 16, 13, 13, 11, 4, 1. How did you look at those numbers and decide that was a 5 man rotation? This is the number of Orioles starts in 1957. Note that's 1957. 32,30,20,18,17,15,8,4,3 It's possible that they weren't in a rotation at that point, but I tracked back from '69. They were never in a four man rotation. Like I said, the Mets story is a good story, and I am not accusing you of making it up. But someone made it up. If you read the Link Rob put in, they didn't even have rotations until the 50's so the 5 man rotation has been around just as long as the 4 man rotation.

Now I think it was the lowered mound that lead to the 5 man rotations, plus maybe the '69 world series. Cubs Rotation in 1969. Pitcher 1st H 2nd H Jenkins 2.69 4.07 Hands 2.68 2.26 Holtzman 3.48 3.74 Selma 3.41 4.14 For example.

What a shock, still no list from Towel. Once again the only time he is silent is when he is actually asked to back up his statements.

Well, ST is right you can come up with that list. What you couldn't do is come up with that list from say 1990 onwards. But over the 120 years of MLB, yeah you could make that list.

Neal, I have no doubt that with enough research, over a century of baseball, you or I could come up with a list. But Towel apparently already has his list of 20 pitchers who were used more than Prior at a similarly young age, and he promised to share if we provided evidence of pitching abuse. I did that, now I want Towel to live up to his word.

Re Article in #73 The author did the study wrong. If the league average ERA is 3.82 in one study group and 4.48 in another you cannot compare the innings on a 1:1 basis like he is attempting to do. If your ERA is higher, your innings last longer. The descrpancies he found are more likely to be because of a shrinking strike zone than pitcher starting patterns.

Recent comments

  • 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

  • crunch (view)

    alzolay...bro...