Cubs MLB Roster

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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

Bradley's Error Will Live On in Cub Lore Forever...or Maybe Not

Submitted by Cubnut on

Though we're in early June, the Cubs are still very much in the thick of the division race (mathematically, at least), and Milton Bradley's bone-headed play in right field didn't cost the Cubs a victory on Friday or even a single run, the symbolic potential of this play is truly awesome.

It is a lightning rod for everyone who:

  • Hates the fact that Milton Bradley is on this team, and/or...
  • Hates the fact Mark DeRosa is not on this team, and/or...
  • Feels that Jim Hendry shouldn't have taken such a heavy hand to overhauling a 97-win team, and/or...
  • Thinks Lou Piniella is coddling these underachievers too much and isn't publicly calling them out enough, and/or...
  • Is just sick and tired of all these decades of Cub bumbling and fumbling, regardless of who is the Bumbler of the Moment.

(By the way, count me among the last group.)

Of course, the Cubs could still turn this season around and then "Milton's Mistake" ("Bradley's Boner"?) would just become a humorous footnote when the story of 2009 is finally written.

Right now, nobody in Cubdom is laughing.

Pragmatically speaking, our own Arizona Phil, in a response to The E-Man in the comments following the previous post, pointed out the following:

Milton Bradley's automatic "no trade" (the one he got as an Article XX MLB FA who signed a major league contract after the end of the Free-Agency Filing Period) runs through this coming Monday.

So if Hendry were so inclined, he could trade Bradley (without having to get Bradley's approval and without any restrictions) starting on Tuesday. And with the Rangers having lost Josh Hamilton for a while, they might possibly be interested in reacquirng Milton, bringing him back to the place where he had his best year and seemed the most at ease, and where he can DH full-time. Of course the Cubs would have to eat some of his salary or take back a similar contract, but so it goes. .

Now, Aaron Miles has not and does not have a "no trade," so it's just a matter of finding a taker (ANY taker) for him, even if it's the Cardinals or the Brewers. Of course that still won't bring DeRosa back, but sometimes there's something called "addition by subtraction."

Back in the early 1990's the Cubs signed free-agents Danny Jackson and Candy Maldonado, and both were lemons. But the Cubs were able to make a little bit o' lemonade out of it, by trading Maldonado to Cleveland for Glenallen Hill and Jackson to Pittsburgh for Steve Buechele, and both deals actually filled needs and made the Cubs a better club. So all is not lost.Yet.  

Tags
Jim Hendry
Cub History
Milton Bradley

Comments

Submitted by Pell Mell on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:41 am

I'm sorry, but I can't see it as a failure for the ages if it didn't have any significant consequences. Legendary Cubbery is Barrett throwing to an empty third base to end that game in Philly a few years ago. For an example from a different club, what about Yunel Escobar? In Wednesday's game, he ate the ball rather than throw home on a play with a runner (Craig Monroe!) at second, assuming that Monroe wouldn't try to score. Monroe never stopped running, though, and wound up scoring the winning run for Pittsburgh. This during a homestand in which Escobar also had four officially scored errors! Now that is an epic fail. Also, Escobar ducked the media afterwards, whereas Bradley at least faced his accusers, and witnessed the construction of yet another mountain atop yet another molehill.

Submitted by The Real Neal on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:47 am

No offense to AZ Phil or others pitchfork carriers, but trading those two guys right now is well... not a real smart idea. I think it's also time to put the 'Bradley is a DH' nonsense to rest. Yesterday aside, he's been a pretty damned good right fielder, and none of his injuries this year have happened while he was playing right field. He played DH in 2008 because he was coming off ACL surgery, not because teams thought he can't play defense. Miles has shown in the last two days, that he's the team's best fielder at 2nd. Let's give him more than 11 PA's with his healed shoulder before we release him. Focusing all your frustration for the Cubs 2009 season on one or two players, I guess it's the simple thing to do, but getting rid of Bradley and giving more time to the Bobby Scaleses and Andres Blancos of the world is not going to get us closer to the playoffs.

Submitted by carmelo on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:47 am

What Bradley didn't even have any effect on the inning, let alone the game---it's not the first time we have seen a player forget the number of outs, the problem is it comes when we are all disappointed with season---instead of throwing the guy under the bus let's all hope the entire team can turn around their poor play to this point and move forward.

Submitted by toonsterwu on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:26 am

i haven't bothered looking at the big league stats in awhile, but i just realized that bobby scales has the 4th highest OPS on the team ... but Jake Fox only had 12 AB's and Aramis has been out ... ouch. He also has the 5th highest SLG ... with Fox/Aramis/Z ahead. Actually seeing those stats is still a startling sight.

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Submitted by Ryno on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:17 am

For the stat people... Bobby Scales 4th in OPS on the team: 1. Jake Fox (Sent Down) 2. Aramis Ramirez (*sigh* *sadface*) 3. Kosuke Fukudome 4. Bobby Scales ... 16. Neifi! Miles... 17. Gathright 18. Freel

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Submitted by Chifan on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:48 am

Great we will be playing with a 4 man bench with a manager who uses his bench pretty liberally. You would think that when he rarely uses 3 relievers they would send one of those guys down.

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Submitted by WISCGRAD on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:56 am

Well, 8 officially, but Patton of course rarely pitches. And Waddell has been up for what 16 days and has only pitched in 3 games for 1.2 IP - and that was when he was the only lefty in the pen, now with Marshall there I see less of a need for him. But I expect one of the pitchers - probably Waddell - will be sent down and Fox recalled for AL-Park games.

Submitted by granolaCUB on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:40 am

No matter what happened yesterday - the fact that Bradley is a show boater still pisses me off. He is batting fricken .200 and watches his fly balls as if they are heading for the lake! Get your ass moving big fella and if it does go in the lake, then hats off. His overall demeanor is 'my shit doesn't stink' and that is annoying. I am all for giving the guy a chance but when he isn't hitting for crap, and fielding poorly - he should at least have the decency and professionalism to run out a hit and pay attention the the fricken game! As much as I was jaw-dropped when he threw the ball in the stands, I also thought that hey, maybe this will wake him up and bring him down to earth ... then again this is Milton Bradley we are talking about. P.S. miss you DeRo and Woody

Submitted by Rob G. on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:41 pm

"I've got to be careful how we use our players," Piniella said. "You can run out of players very quickly." One of the reasons the Cubs opted to keep 13 was because they had played five extra inning games in the last eight, and a couple relievers were a little "tender." Piniella wouldn't say who.

Submitted by Mike Vail on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:58 pm

I put MB's gaffe on the same level as the pop-up bouncing off A-Ram's head a few years back. It's nice to know the Cubs always make the blooper reels. The played-to-death highlight reels? Not so much. Pursuing Pedro Martinez reminds of the returns of Jon Lieber/Steve Traschel; sounded nice, didn't work out all that well.

Submitted by artskoe on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:38 pm

Fire LOU!! They got their heads hanging down like a defeated team before the game even starts. Fire LOU! Get some rah-rah in there like Dale Svem and do unto the Brewers what they wanted to do to us (by hiring Brenly)! Lou is tired, he's old and he goes too much by the book. Wednesday in Houston he pinch hit Koske instead of Hoffpaiur and K-Fu struck out in a crucial moment of the game. Fire Lou! Brenley at times wants to leap out of the Booth and knock some sense into this team, and they need it. Fire LOU! Don't make a move just to make it, and cripple your minor league teams for the next 10 years. Fire LOU!

Submitted by Andrew on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:51 pm

What's so depressing is that the pitching and (for the most part) the defense have been really great, especially of late. We're losing consistently by 1 or 2 runs. It's one thing if you're getting blown out every game -- at least you feel like that can't continue. But this team just has NO offensive life right now and there's NO sign of any on the way. Soriano's in the worst slump since becoming a Cub, Bradley's not as great as many thought he'd be, Soto's tanked (cuz he's bulked up like one), Fukudome's looking like 2008 all over again, Fontenot can't handle the starting gig, and Theriot's swing is all messed up since he started hitting for power. There's some quality bats in that mix, but none of them are playing like it right now. When you throw the Miles and Scales of the world into the lineup, things just get worse. With all that said, we're still only 4 games back.

Submitted by toonsterwu on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:02 pm

I'm glad that Lou is willing to do what it takes to win, as I like the Blanco move, but geesh, you know you aren't doing well when you get taken out in a situation like this. That said, I applaud Lou for the move and Blanco for coming through.

Submitted by Doug Dascenzo on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:07 pm

It's a fucking disgrace how many Twins fans are at Wrigley this series. Kosuke just struck out in the bottom of the 9th and the place erupted. Len and Bob keep saying Joe Mauer bought "hundreds" of tickets. How the fuck does he get his hands on hundreds of tickets? Can MLB players just get as many tix as they want or what? In any case, the Twins never sell out their own stadium yet somehow there's thousands of them in attendance at Wrigley. Fuck them and fuck the Cubs' pitiful abortion of an offense.

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:14 pm

Yes & Mauer is in a position to pay secondary market value for a practically unlimited number! Plus, the way the Cubs are [not] playing of late, Wrigley is back to being perhaps more of a tourist attraction than a home ballpark...

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:31 pm

can't recall being less engaged this deep in a season...this team is like rooting for the presidency when you don't like the incumbent; they wear the right uniform, but otherwise...they don't even make me mad - it's more like apathy which, especially if you're a bean-counter, is worse...

Submitted by jacos on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:41 pm

way to bring the suck. Lou should put all the names in a hat and have them pulled out for the line up tomorrow like the did on "Bronx Zoo". Lou reaches into hat- "Batting first ...7 1/2. 7 1/2? Gdamn it! Can't even do that right." Brewers sucking though today.

Submitted by billybucks on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:56 pm

Is anybody really surprised that Milton Bradley has gotten off to a lousy start, and the fans have turned on him? I mean, really -- anyone surprised? His new jackass move -- talking about how hard he plays ("I hive 250% every game"). Hey Milton -- others are supposed to say that about you.

Submitted by The E-Man on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:59 pm

OBSERVATION: After attending the first two games of this series, I can say the following about the Twins fans: They are nice, knowledgeable fans. It was tough to think of hating on them - In one sense I am a bit envious as I look at our $140MM, and their $60MM one. Their guys come up primarily through their farm system, they play stellar defense, and the pitchers throw strikes. They are good situational hitters. We are now at the bottom of the MLB with RISP. With the $140MM payroll. I could not muster the hate like I have for the Cards fans, Sox - when we play them, or even the Brewers fans. My cousins drove down from the Twin Cities and we went to the game. They informed me that because of the lack of big free agents, the Twins media have weekly radio shows on their flagship that concentrates on their minor league teams. So the fans know what to expect down the road. My guess is that this was the one series where there was money to be made on the secondary market. As the season goes on, it is going to be harder and harder to sell tickets for over face value (yeah, I know you guys are broken up about that) because the team is gonna suck worse. Two games in a row at home, the team is fucking clueless at the plate - and the two before that in Houston were pretty pathetic as well. Soto can only hit pop-ups or take 3rd strikes. And, his lack of finding the ball on a pitch in the dirt, led to a run. A one-hit wonder, that Soto!

Submitted by Rob G. on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:33 pm

on ESPN right now....LSU vs. U of Virginia in College World Series...

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Submitted by Arizona Phil on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 06:13 am

Raisin: Sounds like a decent prospect. I'll keep an eye out for him.

It's possible the Cubs will send him and/or recently-signed Korean OF Dong-Yub Kim to the Australian Academy for a couple of months before bringing them to the U. S. There are only a finite number of H2-B visas available every year (and even fewer in the years since 9/11), and it may be tough to get one or both of them here on short notice.

BTW, I know you follow the Cubs minor league ops probably more closely than even Oneri does, but I was wondering if you check Los Broncos de Reynosa (Mexican League) box scores?

Reynosa is the former Tijuana franchise that has had an informal working agreement with the Cubs for about three or four years now, and RHP Oswaldo Martinez has been on loan there all season and is one of Los Broncos rotation starters. Not that he's having much success so far (1-5, 5.40 ERA, 1.59 WHIP), but at least he's there and making all of his starts (he had TJS post-2007).

Also, LHP Marco Tovar and RHP Alan Guerrero (the two Los Potros de Tijuana pitchers who were invited to attend Cubs AZ Instructs in 2007) are pitching for Reynosa, too. The Cubs apparently had a chance to acquire both pitchers at the time (October 2007), but declined, but they might have more interest in Guerrero now. (Guerrero is the Broncos closer this year, and is doing very well).

Occasionally the Cubs will "loan" a player to the Tijuana (now Reynosa) franchise, like O. Martinez this year, and Issmael Salas and Rafael Cova last year.

While it's just an informal arrangement, I suspect the Cubs might acquire a player or two from Reynosa at some point (even if it's just minor league roster filler), just to stay visible in Mexico and to show that they have an interest there, and then we'll see if anybody from Los Broncos gets an invite to Instructs this year. (It didn't happen last year because the Tijuana franchise was in a state of flux).

And just as a further point of information, while MLB lists the Mexican League as a "AAA" league, scouts I have talked to say it's actually equivalent to somewhere between Intermediate "A" (like Peoria) and Advanced "A" (like Daytona).

Submitted by rokfish on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 06:32 pm

soriano leads the cubs in runs,doubles,homers,rbis and is second in hits granted he has more at bats but if we took a poll probally 70 percent would say he needs to ride the bench a couple of days or longer,how man y runs has his defense costed us? the scarry part is he leads cubs in these stats and the majority of us thinks he sucks and ha does.

Submitted by Arizona Phil on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 06:50 am

With Bobby Scales having been optioned to Iowa, OF-1B Doug Deeds gets demoted to AA Tennessee, OF Brandon Guyer gets moved down from AA Tennessee to Daytona, and OF Dylan Johnston (in a funk all year at Daytona, where hit "hit" 185/259/289 with 71 K in 191 PA) has been assigned to Boise, although he actually is being sent to Fitch Park to be converted to a RHP.

Johnston is one of the last three remaining players in the Cubs organization from the 2005 draft (LHP Jayson Ruhlman and RHP Jake Muyco are the other two), having been selected as a shortstop in the 4th round (130th overall) out of Hamilton HS in Chandler, AZ. And he played shortstop 2005-07, before being moved to the outfield in Spring Training 2008 after he essentially outgrew SS (he also made WAY too many errors to stay there).

Johnston did have a good year at Peoria in 2008 (288/349/524 with 15 HR), but it was his third straight year at Peoria (he flopped there in 2006 and 2007) and he was unable to carry his success over to Daytona this year.

Probably his main claim-to-fame as a member of the Cubs organization was in March 2006, when (as an 18-year old, called up from Minor League Camp just for the day) he hit a HR is a big league Spring Training game.

Submitted by Cubster on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 06:20 am

Wiscgrad: Yes, I think that's what it means but obviously he didn't ask the right question (or wasn't allowed to ask)...or just didn't spend the time to clarify what he meant. After strengthening exercises they have let him field ground balls. Since it's his glove hand side that got injured I'm sure the grounders are controlled in terms of not diving for balls and that will be the case for as much as another month. Obviously, throwing isn't an issue. Regarding hitting, since it's his front (left) shoulder in hitting that is the concern and the follow thru on a swing is where he can hyperextend, that probably will be controlled in the beginning, probably slow down the pitch speed or just monitor his follow through. The oddity here is the back shoulder (right in a RH hitter) in hitting isn't as exposed to hyperextension, so in terms of hitting, it's probably this fact that makes it an activity that comes later in the rehab in ARam's situation. If he were a lefty hitter or thrower with a left shoulder injury, hitting would be less of a concern, although his throwing would be a much bigger concern. He's probably close to being let hit noting that the WC article was from 6/11 so it's a few days old. ARam is now just past 5 weeks post injury (from May 8th) so they probably are empirically waiting until after 6 weeks to up the "intensity" of activity and so I'd expect them to clear him for hitting by next weekend.

Submitted by navigator on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 06:50 am

Jim Hendry just called Gerald Perry off the field and personally fired him. Von Joshua is the new hitting coach.

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Submitted by Chifan on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 06:07 pm

It was the only move that could be made because of our lack of resources, but I dont know how much it will help. I mean is Theriot going to stop trying to hit a HR every time up now, because Joshua is telling it to him now and not Perry. Is Soriano going to lay off sliders in the LH batting box because of Joshua. The one guy this is likely to help is Soto though since Joshua turned him into a good hitter at AAA.

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Submitted by Wes on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 06:05 pm

I've always felt that firing a coach (non-manager) is more of a PR move than anything. You're not going to get wholesale changes from this sort of stuff. Lou's still going to do the same shit he's done all along, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. These guys already know how to hit (in theory, of course. The Cubs have not yet illustrated that.) I like Von Joshua. I think he's a good coach. I think he's a good teacher. But, I thought Gerald Perry was, too. So, I guess I don't particularly care about this move either way.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Players on the 40 can be recalled and be placed on the MLB Taxi Squad for one day, like for example if a club is unsure if a player might or might not be placed on the IL ("game time decision"). Like maybe Happ, for example. 

    Also, a player on the MLB Taxi Squad must be returned to his optional assignment the next day if he is not officially recalled to the 26-man roster. 

    The player is NOT paid at the MLB split rate and does NOT accrue MLB Service Time while he is on the Taxi Squad. Also, it is not considered to be an official recall / option back if he is not added to the 26-man roster. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Wesneski has not spent 15 days on optional assignment since he was optioned so he cannot be recalled unless he is replacing a player being placed on the IL or other MLB inactive list (Paternity, Bereavement / Family Medical, et al), a player who is traded, or a player who is claimed off waivers.

  • crunch (view)

    excited to see more power in the lineup.

    HOU going with 3 righty starters vs the cubs and their only lefty pen arm is hader.

    unless busch has a mystery injury, we should see busch+mervis working all 3 games.

  • fullykräusened (view)

    More than 50 years ago (I'm old), I was in the audience when my HS choir performed the whole thing. (It was a really elite choir and director.) That was my first exposure to the piece. You're right, Sonicwind75, there is a lot more to it than "O Fortuna," just like there's a lot more to Beethoven's Ninth than the Ode to Joy, etc. Much if it, as you say, is bawdy: "O! O! Totus florio! Iam amori virginali, totus ardeo!" Basically, "I'm really horny for these virgins!" And the guys in the choir adopted the "Skoal"- type greeting from the tavern scene: "Wafna!" 

  • crunch (view)

    i would have pause if the cubs had a pitching squeeze.   as it is, they have more guys than they have roster.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Maybe Brewer

    He'd be able to leave the Cubs. He's out of options. That would open up a 40man spot.

    I don't think Jed would do that.

  • crunch (view)

    brewer has done nothing to keep him on the big league roster...imagine that's 1 guy gone.

    yeah, it's only 2 appearances, but they were both unimpressive.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Yeah it is.....sorry......closers don't throw 89mph

    It would be unique for sure.

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  • Childersb3 (view)

    Supposedly Happ said on a radio show he's good to go

    I hadn't read that anywhere from the usual accounts, so this could be off.

    If true, Canario goes down.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Hmmm. Maybe my idea of transitioning Hendricks into a closer role isn’t so crazy.

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