Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
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

Elias Rankings for Cubs Free Agents

The official Elias rankings are out and they don't differ too much from the reverse-engineered list that MLB Trade Rumors was putting out (courtesy of Eddie Bajek).

Type A - John Grabow, Kevin Gregg

Type B - Rich Harden

Reed Johnson didn't make the cut and even if offered arbitration, the Cubs would not get any draft picks if he signed with another team.  The Cubs weren't going to offer Gregg arbitration as is, since the chances of a team signing him and giving up a draft pick are between zilch and none and the Cubs don't want him back. Grabow may get offered arbitration because the Cubs would prefer to have him back in 2010. Rich Harden should be offered arbitration because he's one of the two most talented pitchers available on the market and even with his arm issues, a one year deal is pretty low risk even at $10Mish a year. Plus Ted Lilly is broken.

In case you forgot the rules, a  Type A free agent - if offered arbitration by his previous team - nets a first round pick and a supplemental pick for his previous team if he signs with another club. That first round pick comes from the signing team but it could be a second round pick if that team has a draft pick in the upper half of the draft. It could also be a second round or lower pick if the signing team signs multiple Type A free agents.  A Type B free agents nets a supplemental pick for the player's previous team but costs the signing team nothing.

In terms of some players the Cubs might have some interest in and who might get offered arbitration.

Type A - Chone Figgins,  Billy Wagner, Johnny Damon, Placido Polanco

Type B - Mark DeRosa,  Mike Cameron, Randy Johnson, Randy Winn

Comments

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/11/cubs-billy-williams-dont-g…

"If we could salvage something here and get a good ballplayer after what has happened, I think it would be a good thing," Williams said Monday. "I am going to continue to try to talk to him and give my opinion on what he should do and what he shouldn't do. I know that he listens and he will tell me a lot of things."

Williams was one of the few people who maintained a steady dialogue with Bradley throughout last season.

 

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Williams is right. He's costing us $21 million, so salvage Bradley instead of giving him away--at least keep him next year. I think Milton is an over-emotional guy who just can't stop losing it. He's a basket case but now that the meltdown is over he could settle down and have a great year in 2010. Except for batting average and slugging, Bradley actually had an above average year for him. In his 11 year career here's how 2009 stacks up. 108 OPS+ 6th best year/ out of 11 .378 OBP 4/11 66 BB 3/11 124 Games 3/11 473 PA 3/11 61 Runs 3/11 101 Hits 4/11 17 2B 5/11 12 HR 6/11 40 RBI 5/11 11 HBP 1/11 Well that's a pretty mediocre stack of stats but you can see it was above average. Nice OBP though thanks to taking one for the team 11 times. But he hit well by any measure at Wrigley Field 246 PA, .296 .407 .485 and he handled LHP much better than Alfonso Soriano did which opens the possibility of a platoon in LF. If it were me, I'd do just that in April and May 2010 and bat him second where his OBP would be useful.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

yeah, but if williams is the only guy willing to put in the work to manage the baby then what's the point? and yeah, he did nice at wrigley...and some bleacher fans responded by pissing on him as if it's part of the price of admission and what a baseball game is all about. his "real" manager doesn't seem to like him and he got in a fight with a coach end-of-season. he seems destined to find a new home. the cubs, who need help hitting, are going to pay another team to take their .370-.400ob% hitter with a bit of pop who can play CF/RF away from them because 5-6m worth of managers and coaches can't make it happen.

I had advocated for Polanco prior to the Tigers getting him. McFail did not want to do it as we were so "stacked at 2nd" at the time. Now though, I wonder if he is past his prime?

glad to see one out of the three ground balls we see him take is fumbled also, I'm hardly an expert in the field, but he appears very loose and i'm not a fan of the 3-minus arm slot

"According to our records, Derek Jeter only had 58 walks in 1993 in the South Atlantic League. (As further corroborating evidence, the league record for walks drawn in a season is held by Jeff Gardner, who had 142 in 1985 with the Columbia club)." - Eric Krupa, South Atlantic League

[ ]

In reply to by dB

Yes, he's a mid-30s, single-hitting second baseman with limited defensive ability who's signed for two more years at $6M per. But his OBP is respectable, he steals bags at a nice clip, and more importantly, this would allow the Cubs to dump Bradley and move on with the other important pressing business of the offseason. And if the Cubs don't have to throw in much/any cash, all the better. I wonder if the Mets would do that deal straight up and take Bradley instead of Overbay. Not that it would really matter from the Cubs' end, but Rosenthal said Toronto might not bite.

[ ]

In reply to by dB

You're not bothered by the .361 BABIP that Baker put up last year? Before you start looking at his career numbers, keep in mind a big hunk of that came at Coors field where the ball falls 6% faster, which boosts BABIP. Not sure how these projections go, but unless that's a straight platoon projection for Baker, I'll bet a pair of Cubs tickets on each of the unders for the slash stats. That's pleasantly surprising about Baker's defensive statistics, though. He doesn't look very good. Remember way back in 2008 when we thought that Mike Fontenot could handle 2nd base based on a partial season and some good results in defensive metrics?

Let Tommie Harris follow Milton around and go into the bleachers while he's playing outfield in case any fans act like idiots. One way or 'tother Cubs should get their moneys worth and MB 'nother chance. But if Lou can't get better results from his players it's going to be at least one more long, difficult summer. So far the only thing I've heard about new owners is the hot dogs will be served faster with a smile and stainless urinals will be polished. When will TCR post the spring training countdown?

the Rosenthal article says there isn't much legs to it fwiw says Rays are the heaviest pursuers but want Cubs to pick up most of his 2011 contract...

-9.3, -12.0 UZR/150 over the last 2 years... hasn't touched average in Rate2 since 2005, 84 and 94 the last 2 years... but he takes walks...

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

But is that not true of practically all potentially available second basemen? So how does that help us figure his value in comparison to others? Would he especially benefit from Lee's presence (that is, do his troubles stem particularly from an erratic arm rather than a lack of range)?

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

Well, people are comparing his defense to Baker's, so if you're going to compare apples to apples, you would need to evaluate how Castillo would do playing with an actual first basemen instead of next to a DH or an outfielder. When you can pretty much throw any old thing towards firstbasish, like the Cubs infielders can and not get charged with errors, that's going to allow you to make throws that you wouldn't attempt otherwise, and turn some of those into outs.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

hey, Ryan Theriot comes out as a perfectly passable shortstop by most rankings, so there must be something to it :)

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

UZR is a shit stat. ask tiexera or elsbury about it...hell, you see guys with 10+ point swings over a single season. bobby abreu had a -25 uzr a while back. it's sketchy...

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

from what I understand, it takes 3 years worth of defensive opportunities to equal one year worth of offense in terms of sample size...

if you break down a player by every 2 months of their offensive stats, you'll see some some wild swings there too...

that being said, it's measuring performance, not talent....and anyone can have an unlucky year with the bat or glove...

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

UZR doesn't even measure performance. UZR could care less how well a middle IF'rs footwork is or what he does with a ball after he handles it. it is also pretty notorious for coming to flakey conclusions with 1st basemen and what players who play deep/close can do to UZR. also, part of what the stat is based on...error runs...is a horribly ill-weighted stat, imo.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

UZR could care less how well a middle IF'rs footwork is or what he does with a ball after he handles it. it is also pretty notorious for coming to flakey conclusions with 1st basemen and what players who play deep/close can do to UZR

the basics of any defensive metric are going to be how many more or less outs the player gets than his peers, how he goes about doing it, is going to be of no consquence...play deep or shallow, or ugly footwork are left for the scouts like we leave if a guy can handle a slider or not even though he hit a ton the year before....

also, part of what the stat is based on...error runs...is a horribly ill-weighted stat, imo.

how so? don't know enough about it myself...

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

RngR (range runs): The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by how the fielder is able to get to balls hit in his vicinity. ErrR (error runs): The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by the number of errors he makes as compared to an average fielder at that position given the same distribution of balls in play.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

it's not a quantitative thing except for the fact it's actually considered...i worded it incorrectly. i consider it to be an even worse part of the stat mixture than the range part, basically. i'm just not a fan of the stat on so many play positions that i don't consider it a good stat.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

My biggest beef with UZR is how it divides hits 'Through the hole(s)' between the infielders and that it ignores catching line drives for infielders. Fix those two aspects and it would probably be pretty decent.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.