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

Once Upon a Time, When the Cubs were Bought by a Family

The Ricketts Family owns the Cubs. That sentence has a certain lasting ring to it. We've all followed the travails of how the Cubs ownership has transitioned from the now bankrupt Tribune company and was midwived through the gnarly fingers of real estate magnate Sam Zell, finally getting delivered into our proud new Papa's (Tom Ricketts) loving grasp. To celebrate this rite of passage, I decided to learn more about the events that took place over 90 years ago when the last dynastic family came into control of our Chicago National League franchise.

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to 1916.

January 16th, 1916 is when Charles Weeghman bought the Chicago Cubs ballclub from Charles Murphy and Charles Taft. Murphy had been the owner in the glory years of Tinker to Evers to Chance circa 1906-8. Charles Taft owned the Cincinnati Times-Star and was the half brother of US President #27, William Howard Taft (in office, 1909-1913) who was the first US President to throw out a ceremonial  ball on opening day (1910).

Weeghman was the owner of the Chicago Whales in the Federal League. The Federal league started in 1913 and was essentially a minor league circuit but in 1914 proclaimed themselves to be a third major league. The Whales won the league title in 1915 (bragging they were the best baseball team in Chicago that year, woo) but the league was put out of business after losing an anti-trust suit at the conclusion of the 1915 season. The suit was presided over by eventual Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Landis was  supposedly a trust buster (but obviously not) and that decision would lead to the owners handing over the keys to the commissioner's office when the Black Sox gambling scandal developed in 1919-20. Weeghman was permitted to buy the Cubs out of that event and with co-owner, Harry Sinclair (of Sinclair Oil) they were allowed to merge the Cubs and Whales. Thus, back to the Cubs came the Whales manager Joe Tinker and a few of the other Whales star players including outfielder Dutch Zwilling and now much older, three-finger Mordecai Brown to join/rejoin the team. Owning the Cubs had it's perks with the press back then too. As owner of the Whales, Weeghman was villified for being in it for the money but upon becoming  the Cubs owner the press portrayed him as  a sportsman who was there because of his love for the game.

Did I mention he brought to the team a new ballpark? Weeghman park was built in 1914 on vacant land purchased by Weeghman from the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary.  Weeghman hired the architect who had built Comiskey Park, four years earlier. The new facility sported 16,000 seats. We all know how Tom Ricketts first actions were about refurbishing the facilities (the trough vs stall debate). Under Weeghman, in addition to a new ballpark he was credited with the innovation of putting another type of stall in the back of the stands, where food and beverages could be purchased. Previously, only the walking, hawking beer and peanut vendors sold to the fans. He is also credited with initiating the policy that fans could keep balls hit into the stands although it took years before that policy was woven into the fabric of baseball everywhere.

It's about the economy, stupid. Ringing a bell Mr. Zell? The deepening national recession took it's toll on the Weeghman Cubs leading to his selling of the team. To keep himself solvent, Weeghman sold more and more of his Cubs stock to one of his original minority interest partners, William Wrigley.

Wrigley started out as a scouring soap manufacturer in the 1890's but that morphed into a baking powder business. He used to give away two sticks of chewing gum with every can of baking soda as a promotion but when the gum became more popular than the powder he went into the chewing gum business. Wrigley's initial investiment in the Cubs was $50,000 and he had little involvement with the team until 1917.

As a club director, Wrigley persuaded Weeghman to go to California for spring training (not so coincidentally, Wrigley would buy Catalina Island in 1919). Wrigley believed in keeping large cash reserves and never borrow money which made his financial position strong in the context of a crumbling economy. Then came the crash of 1918 and Weeghman was deeply in debt. By December 1918, Wrigley attended his first Cubs stockholder meeting  where Weeghman resigned as club president. Team manager, Fred Mitchell became the new president and a sportswriter, Bill Veeck (Sr), became vice president and both were supported by Wrigley. Veeck ultimately became Wrigley's right hand man and team President (and it would be his son, Bill Veeck Jr,  who would be credited with planting the ivy on the Wrigley Field outfield wall in the late 1930's). By 1919, Weeghman went bankrupt and Wrigley recieved all of his stock, so Wrigley was now the largest shareholder of the team. Finally, by 1921, Wrigley took total control of the club when he purchased a large stock interest from Albert Lasker. Wrigley and Lasker had battled over many issues and eventually Lasker tired of the wrangling. Lasker has been credited as the founder of modern advertising including Sunkist Oranges.

Wrigley's team in 1921 wasn't so good. The Cubs landed in 7th place just ahead of the perennial doormat Phillies who would remain woeful for decades more. The '21 Cubs finished with a record of 64-89, some 30 games behind the champion Giants. Manager Johnny Evers was replaced by catcher, "Reindeer" Bill Killefer, whose playing days ended in 1921 as well. The Cubs had acquired renown pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in the 1918 season for cash from the Phillies and he was still their best pitcher. Wrigley had much to do with the Alexander acquisition as well. After arranging a golf meeting in Pasadena to discuss terms including the promise to pay Alexander's wife $500 per month for as much as 3 years, while Alexander was away during WWI. Wrigley kept this promise. Alexander, also known as "Old Pete", in 1921, was still the team ace at age 34 with a 15-13 record. Awesome, considering this was a 64 win team.

The starting 8 for the majority of that season wasn't much to remember. Here they are, "You're Chicago Cubs", circa 1921: Catcher Bob O'Farrell (90 games), 1B Ray Grimes (147), 2B Zeb Terry (122), 3B Charlie Deal (122), SS Charlie Hollocher (137), LF Turner Barber (90), CF George Maisel (107) and RF Max Flack (130). Several of these Cubs would retire shortly after this season (Deal, Maisel and Terry) and looking at their stats, it probably was for obvious reasons.

Opening day 1921 was at Wrigley Field on April 13th vs the Cardinals. Starting off the season with a bang, the team won 5-2. In fact, the Cubs won 6 of their first 8 games before reality set in.

Hippo Vaughn was also on the '21 Cubs. He's better known for the double no-hitter on May 2nd, 1917, where Vaughn and Fred Toney of the Reds dueled into extra innings but both pitchers had no hitters through 9 innings. Of course, the Cubs lost in 10 when Vaughn lost his no-no.

Who can forget Abraham Lincoln "Sweetbreads" Bailey pitching for the '21 Cubs? He got into 3 games for 5 innings before he got shipped off to Brooklyn where his career ended.

Hopefully, Mr. Ricketts will have a MUCH better honeymoon season.

 


I want to acknowledge an excellent book written in 1999 by Peter Golenbock, titled: Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs as a major source for this article. It's well written and a recommended read.

Comments

ricketts spent the spring signing more fan autographs than the entire team combined. i like his statement he made a few days ago about not meddling with the team's everyday operations and leaving it to the GM/manager/scouts/etc. he also seems adamant in interviews that this is a ricketts family team, not just "his" team. ...i second that "Wrigleyville" book recommendation, too.

I'm really hoping that Ricketts, Wilken, and the depth of our farm system can turn this into a team that develops the core of the team from within and then uses it's impressive revenue to augment where needed. If that happens, the Ricketts family will be loved by Cubs fans for a long time.

Thanks for that last comment, Charlie, on the previous thread. It's why I like this site so much. I don't really need to do any homework, you guys just do it for me, out of passion. I even like the manipulation of stats to make a point (not meant for you). Rob G really should get some kind of award for this site for the comments (especially now that Chad seems to be gone -- that's a joke chad) and AZ Phil. And Rob seems to have every baseball player in the MLB in some iphone contraption. Anyway, I don't eat and sleep baseball anymore like I used to so I sure enjoy you guys bickering. I can't bicker much cuz, as I demonstrated, I'm sort of an ignoramus about stats. I do know, however, that A Soriano can't hit his way out of a paper bag if he's lobbed a bunch of off speed stuff. EDIT: In his defense, it better be pretty good off speed stuff but that still means he's a dead bat in the playoffs.

I think it's weird how the Cubs have such a twisted history with the White Sox. There's the Veeck thing of course, which has always been pronounced wrong by his own family (It should be VEEEEEEEK not veck). But there's also the Harry Caray thing, who I'll never forget immortalizing Walt Williams on Channel 44 with, "There he goes, spitting into his helmut again. What a hairdresser he would be!" That of course was in the days when he said stuff like, "that wouldn't be a home run in a phone booth". Which I never heard him say with the Cubs. I won't even talk about RAHHHHHHHHHHHD Carew.

Weeghman being allowed to purchase the Cubs and merge his Federal League Champion Whales and the Cubs contributed to the Cubs winning the pennant in 1918. The only other Fed team that merged with an MLB outfit was the St. Louis Terriers, which was merged with the St. Louis Browns when Terriers owner Phil Ball was permitted to buy the Browns and Sportsman's Park (Sportsman's Park was owned by the Browns, and the Cardinals were the tenant) as part of the MLB-FL settlement. Players on the six other Fed League teams were sold off piecemeal to the higest bidder.

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • 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.