Cubs MLB Roster

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40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

42 players are at MLB Spring Training 

31 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE at MLB Spring Training, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 
11 players are MLB Spring Training NON-ROSTER INVITEES (NRI) 

Last updated 3-17-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 17
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
Daniel Palencia
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

NRI PITCHERS: 5 
Colten Brewer 
Carl Edwards Jr 
* Edwin Escobar 
* Richard Lovelady 
* Thomas Pannone 

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

NRI CATCHERS: 2  
Jorge Alfaro 
Joe Hudson 

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

NRI INFIELDERS: 3 
David Bote 
Garrett Cooper
* Dominic Smith

OUTFIELDERS: 5
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

NRI OUTFIELDERS: 1 
* David Peralta

OPTIONED:
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, RHP 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, RHP 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

 



Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Game 74 Recap: Cubs 4, White Sox 3

Daylight Drama

W - Wood (4-1), back-to-back jack winners, Aramis Freakin' Ramirez, A day's worth of bragging rights, listening to stunned silence of Hawk and DJ

L - Linebrink (2-2), Blithering idiocy, Hawk Harrelson, listening to blithering idiocy, listening to three hours of Hawk Harrelson's blithering idiocy

Box Score, Photos

Things to Take from This Game

1. Quality starts by the lefties

Lilly continued to have problems with the Home Run ball, giving up a solo shot to Dye in the second and a two-run blast to Pierzynski in the third.  Those wound up being the only runs the Cubs gave up, as  Lilly worked out of trouble in both the fifth and sixth.  Danks had a stronger game, striking out five and walking none, and left with a 3-1 lead.  He only gave up a run-scoring GIDP to Lee in the first.  However...

2. No Contest in the Battle of the Bullpens

Dotel came in for the seventh, and promptly surrendered back-to-back jacks to Lee and Ramirez.  Howry by contrast got the last out of the seventh and had an easy eighth, while Wood survived a near-miss home run that only registered as a leadoff double, and got out of the ninth without damage.  That set up the bottom of the ninth, where... 

3. Ramirez Walks Off

Aramis hit his second home run of the game, this one off of Linebrink and to dead center into the juniper bushes. Cubs win a great game, 4-3.

 

 The "why did you miss this game, and need to rely on my thrilling recap?" details, below.

Game Recap

Inning 1 - Top

  • Cabrera with a lazy fly to Fukudome in center.
  • Pierzynski with a soft pop towards teh very shallow left field foul line that Theriot runs out for, catching it a few paces behind Ramirez.
  • Quentin hits one well into the right-center gap, but DeRosa makes a nice running catch.

Inning 1 - Bottom

  • Fukudome with a swinging bunt a third of the way up the third base line. Danks makes a poorly advised and more poorly executed throw to first, Swisher makes a fantastic save. Fukudome safe, either way
  • Theriot hits one into the right-center gap. Anderson races over to keep Theriot to a single. Fukudome to third.
  • And Danks almost throws one away on the pickoff at first.
  • Lee has a 1-2 count, checks his swing on a pitch that looked pretty close on the inside corner. Gets the ball call, and the checked swing call. Phew. 2-2 count. Backed off by another pitch for a 3-2 count. Nice job coming back from 0-2.
  • Lee with a hard-hit ball right at Cabrera, 6-4-3 GIDP, but run scores.
  • Ramirez also goes from 0-2 to 3-2, before K's swinging.

Inning 2 - Top

  •  Dye hits an 0-1 pitch onto Waveland.  Looked like a letter-high rolling curve.Tie game.
  • Swisher with a soft blooper to right, DeRosa runs in for the catch.
  • Crede bounces one to his third-base coach, who gives it to a middle-aged guy in the first row who is wearing a two-billed cap.  Facing in opposite directions, he has stitched together a Cubs hat and a Sox hat, so he can flip one bill or the other to the front as needed.  Cute. 
    • Recovering from my moment of gullability, I guess it must be something he bought from a vendor.  Still a cute idea.
  • Long AB by Crede, finally K's swinging at a fastball
  • Alexei Ramirez is very, very slight of stature
    • And of course he immediately turns on one, hitting a double into the left-field well.
    • I mean really, this guy is skinnier than I was in high school.  That's skinny.
  • and Anderson K's swinging, stranding the runner.

Inning 2 - Bottom

  •  Soto grounds an outside fastball through the 6-5 hole.  On the WGN TV broadcast DJ observes that the Cubs are attacking the first-pitch fastball
  • and indeed, DeRosa fouls off the first-pitch fastball.
  • DeRosa fists a weird little blooper towards Ramirez at second.  He's near the bag, but makes this too-soft shovel pass to Cabrera.  Nice job by Cabrera to wait for it, get off the bag, and turn the double play.
  • Murton's huge quads line one to center for a hit.
  • Cedeno lined out to left.

Inning 3 - Top

  • Danks K's looking at a breaking ball on the inside corner
  •  Cabrera rolls a 1-2 pitch up the middle, left of the second base bag for a single.
  • Pierzynski reaches down for a fastball that gets a bit too much of the plateand golfs it into the first row or so of the blechers just right of center.  AJ is very pleased with himself.  3-1 Sox.
  • 3-0 count to Quentin.  Walks after a 3-1 count on a curve that floats high and outside, not unlike the floating curve Dye hit out.
  • Lilly jams Dye, flies out to DeRosa
  • Swisher walks, Rothschild out to the mount.
  • Crede with a weak pop out to Theriot, in front of the second base bag.  Inning over.

Inning 3 - Bottom

  •  Lilly's thrown 60 pitches through three.
  • Lilly K's swinging at a fastball
  • Fukudome misses a breaking ball low and outside, by a foot.  Strikes out.
  • Crede with a nice diving play to his left on a grounder by Theriot.  Gets him at first.
  • Way, way more gloating from Hawk than I can stand in that inning.  Two "he gone"s and a "yes!" on the Crede play.  Glad I also have Pat and Ron going on, via mlb.com

Inning 4 - Top

  •  Alexei Ramirez K's swinging
  • Anderson grounds to Theriot.
  • Danks with a broken bat, soft fly out to Murton.  Quick inning.

Inning 4 - Bottom

  •  Lee hits a 3-1 fastball intot he right field well, Dye makes the catch
  • Ramirez grounds to Cabrera
  • Soto K's looking.

Inning 5 - Top

  •  Cabrera K's swinging through a very nice change up
  • AJ with a soft liner to shallow center, Fukudome gets it
  • Quentin hits one high and deep to just left of center.  Fukudome can't decide if he can make a catch right at the Ivy or not, and gets caught in between.  At the last second decides to play it off the wall.  Probably a good call there.  Ball is maybe a half-foot short of landing in the basket.  Double.
  • Dye promptly grounds to Theriot.

Inning 5 - Bottom

  •  (Missed this inning due to phone call, but DeRosa K'd, Murton grounded out and so did Cedeno.  As far as I can tell, it sounds like it was a very nice 3-1 play by Swisher.  (On replay, Danks' foot beat Cedeno's sliding hand to the bag, by a few inches.)

Inning 6 - Top

  •  Swisher hits a double into the left-field well.
  • Crede K's swinging.
  • Ramirez pops up behind home plate.  Soto circles it, makes the catch.  Lilly with two nice outs to keep Swisher on second.
  • Lilly really slowing things down against Anderson.
  • Anderson waves at a pitch low and away for strike 3.  Looked like a change to me, but the gun read 88mph.  Pat and Ron now saying it also looked like a change to them.   Regardless, nice work by Lilly to strand Swisher

Inning 6 - Bottom

  •  Lilly flies to Dye.  Battles the sun, but makes the catch
  • Fukudome singles to left.
  • Danks giving Fukudome a lot of undue attention at first base.  DJ and Hawk even note he's on the edge of balking
  • Theriot bounces into a crisp 5-4-3 GIDP.  gyeh.

Inning 7 - Top

  •  Uribe hits for Danks, dumps a hit into center just in front of Fukudome.  He overruns it a bit, makes an awkard lunge back for it, hopefully didn't strain anything
  • Cabrera pulls one right down the left field line, it actually slices back a bit towards the foul pole, just barely missing it.  Foul ball.
  • K's looking at a curve on the outside corner on the next pitch
  • Pierzynski with a weak pop to Theriot.
  • Quentin walks.  Lilly out, Howry in to face Dye
  • Dye with a soft liner right at Murton, out of the inning

Inning 7 - Bottom

  •  Dotel in for Danks, leaves having thrown 106 pitches
  • Very first pitch, Lee hits one maybe a dozen rows up in straight-away right.  Some Sox fan gets a hole of the ball and throws it back on the field.  3-2 game.
  • Ramirez gets out in front a bit of a breaking pitch, but still manages to drive it into the left field bleachers.  Looks like it almost was one-handed.  Santo is going nuts on the radio broadcast.  WGN still hasn't shown a replay of that homer, jerks.
  • There we go.  A rolling slider.
  • Hawk, your "he gone!" rings a bit hollow when it comes on the heels of back to back home runs that tie up the game against your sorry reliever.  That said, Soto K's.
  • DeRosa drives a liner to right, but Dye makes a nice catch running in on it.
  • Murton rolls a single in to right.  Reached out for a low and away breaking pitch.
  • Hawk says Marmol reminds him of Fausto Carmona
    • Sure.  The only real difference being that Marmol strikes out NINE AND A HALF MORE BATTERS PER NINE INNINGS than Carmona.  Otherwise, they're practically the same guy.
  • Cedeno K's swinging

Inning 8 - Top

  • Heh, Pat points out that we had Back to Back Jacks winners in that silly radio contest that no one ever wins.  Woo.
  • Swisher lines a single in to right
  •  Crede grounds into a 5-4-3 GIDP.  No problem.
  • Ramirez bounces out to Cedeno at second.

Inning 8 - Bottom

  • Hoffpauir to hit for Howry, and with that, Matt Thornton in for Dotel.
  • and Blanco in for Hoffpauir
  • Blanco flies to Quentin in left
  • Fukudome K's swinging at a fastball
  • Theriot dumps a single into right-center.
  • Crowd on its feet for Lee.
  • Thornot paying a lot of attention to Theriot.
  • Lee with a fly out to Anderson in center.

Inning 9- Top

  • Wood in for Howry
  • Anderson smashes one to center, right over Fukudome's head.  I thought it was going out.  But it hits off the ivy, just right ofthe 400 ft sign.  Fukudome gets too close to the wall and it gets past him, but Anderson plays it very cautiously and stays at second.  Second time that Fukudome has struggled with some very tough judgement calls at the wall
  • Thome with a fisted popup to Theriot.  That makes at least four weak pops to short this game, that I count.
  • 2-0 count to Cabrera, Wood buckles him with a curve for a strike.  Next pitch in the dirt, 3-1
  • Cabrera flies to DeRosa in medium right, Anderson holds.
  • Pierzynski up, lots of booing.
  • Pierzynski K's on a check swing.  The appeal declares he swung at it, and Pierzynski, to no one's surprise, is pissed and it's Not His Fault!!!!!!! ~sob~.  Barks all the way back to the dugout.  Pitch was probably a strike, anyway.  Inning over.

Inning 9 - Bottom

  •  Linebrink in for Thornton
  • Ramirez hits one into the shrubbery in center field.  Rounds first base with the fist in the air, and Wrigley goes nuts.  Everyone comes out to greet him at home, and does the Group Jump.
  • Dead Silence from Ken "Hawk" Harrelson.
  • Meanwhile, Santo screams his lungs out.

Parachat Recap

 

Inning 1

  • Our bodies are revolting.
    • Er, rebelling.
  • last night's game.
  • Scrap
  • Len references OPS, woo

Inning 2

  • Where is everyone?
  • Kenny and Ozzie's classless comments about the Cubs and Wrigley.
Inning 3
  • Blasting the bark off a tree.
  • Lilly's mental stature.
  • Lilly and Fukudome's swings.

Inning 4

  •  Publishing
  • Oblivious students.
  • Bite-me land.

Inning 5

  •  Cito Gaston
  • Lilly's HR pace
  • How long until we can panic?

Inning 6

  • Lilly's pitch count.
  • Gallagher
  • Carlos, Carlos, Carlos
  • HOF prospects for current pitchers
  • Cito Gaston, again
  • Trade rumors
  • Other Cubs blog message boards.

Inning 7

  •  Jerry Manuel will cut you.
  • State Capitals
  • Greinke rooming with Brett
  • The Recliner Incident
  • Why let Lilly lead off one half inning, then pull him mid-way through the next?
  • Vodka advertisements

Inning 8

  • fending off a gang with a couch.
  •  Danks' bulletin-board quotation about Wrigley

Inning 9

  • Following the game
  • fantasy trades
  •  Pandemonium


Cubs record in games recapped improves to 10-5

 

Tags

Comments

Fab recap, Trans. I missed much of the game, but saw the Ramirez homer in the ninth. My only regret is not getting to experience the silence of Hawk & DJ firsthand (I was watching the Comcast broadcast). A great, great, great, great win.

After Lee hit into the double play in the 1st, I wondered to myself "when are Lee and Ramirez going to show up and start helping out again?" Now I'm wondering when I'm going to win the lottery.

Olney reporting on ESPN that Z will probably miss at least two starts, including a stint on the DL. Additional medical evaluation over the next few days as well.

Hmmmm. If Harrelson was doing the game, then why do you get Len and Bob describing the video highlights on Gameday? Seems odd. Maybe not.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    SF snags b.snell...2/62m

  • Cubster (view)

    AZ Phil: THAT is an awesome report worth multiple thanks. I’m sure it will be worth reposting in an “I told you so” in about 2-3 years.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The actual deadline to select a post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agent signed to 2024 minor league contract (Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta) to the MLB 40-man roster is not MLB Opening Day, it is 12 PM (Eastern) this coming Sunday (3/24). 

    However, the Cubs could notify the player prior to the deadline that the player is not going to get added to the 40 on Sunday, which would allow the player to opt out early. Otherwise the player can opt out anytime after the Sunday deadline (if he was not added to the 40 by that time). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Today is an off day for both the Cubs MLB players and the Cubs minor league players.  

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    For those of you keeping track, so far nine players have been called up to Mesa from the Cubs Dominican Academy for Minor League Camp and they will be playing in the ACL in 2024: 

    * bats or throws left 

    Angel Cepeda, INF 
    * Miguel Cruz, P
    Yidel Diaz, C 
    * Albert Gutierrez, 1B
    Fraiman Marte, P  
    Francis Reynoso, P (ex-1B) 
    Derniche Valdez, INF 
    Edward Vargas, OF 
    Jeral Vizcaino, P 

    And once again, despite what you might read at Baseball Reference and at milb.com, Albert Gutierrez is absolutely positively a left-handed hitter (only), NOT a right-handed hitter.

    Probably not too surprisingly, D. Valdez was the Cubs #1 prospect in the DSL last season, Cepeda was the DSL Cubs best all-around SS prospect not named Derniche Valdez, Gutierrez was the DSL Cubs top power hitting prospect not named Derniche Valdez, E. Vargas was the DSL Cubs top outfield prospect (and Cepeda and E. Vargas were also the DSL Cubs top two hitting prospects), Y. Diaz was the DSL Cubs top catching prospect, and M. Cruz was the DSL Cubs top pitching prospect. 

    F. Marte (ex-STL) and J. Vizcaino (ex-MIL) are older pitchers (both are 22) who were signed by the Cubs after being released by other organizations and then had really good years working out of the bullpen for the Cubs in the DSL last season. 

    The elephant in the room is 21-year old Francis Reynoso, a big dude (6'5) who was a position player (1B) at the Cardinals Dominican Academy for a couple of years, then was released by STL in 2022, and then signed by the Cubs and converted to a RHP at the Cubs Dominican Academy (and he projects as a high-velo "high-leverage" RP in the states). He had a monster year for the DSL Cubs last season (his first year as a pitcher). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    DJL: The only players who definitely have opt outs are Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta (Opening Day, 5/1, and 6/1), and that's because they are post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agents who signed 2024 minor league contracts and (by rule) they get those opt outs automatically. 

    Otherwise, any player signed to a 2024 minor league contract - MIGHT or - MIGHT NOT - have an opt out in their contract, but it is an individual thing, and if there are contractual opt outs the opt out(s) might not necessarily be Opening Day. It could be 5/1, or 6/1, or 7/1 (TBD).

    Because of their extensive pro experience, the players who most-likely have contractual opt outs are Alfaro, Escobar, and D. Smith, but (again), not necessarily Opening Day. 

    Also, just because a player has the right to opt out doesn't mean he will. 

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I love the idea that Madrigal heads to Iowa in case Morel can’t handle third.

    The one point that intrigues me here is Cooper over Smith. I feel like the Cubs really like Smith and don’t want to lose him. Could be wrong. He def seems like an opt out if he misses the opening day roster

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: Both Madrigal and Wisdom can be optioned without any restriction. Their consent is not required. 

    They both can be outrighted without restriction, too (presuming the player is not claimed off waivers), but if outrighted they can choose to elect free agency (immediately, or deferred until after the end of the MLB season).

    If the player is outrighted and elects free-agency immediately he forfeits what remains of his salary.

    If he accepts the assignment and defers free agency until after the conclusion of the season, he continues to get his salary, and he could be added back to the 40 anytime prior to becoming a free-agent (club option). 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil, 
    Madrigal and Wisdom can or cannot refuse being optioned to the Minors?
    If they can refuse it, wouldn't they elect to leave the Cubs org?

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    In my opinion, the biggest "affirmative" mistake the Cubs made in the off-season (that is, doing something they should not have done), was blowing $9M in 2024 AAV on Hector Neris. What the Cubs actually need is an alternate closer to be in the pen and available to close if Alzolay pitched the day before (David Robertson would have been perfect), because with his forearm issue last September, I would be VERY wary of over-using Alzolay. I'm not even sure I would pitch him two days in a row!  

    And of course what the Cubs REALLY need is a second TOR SP to pair with Justin Steele. That's where the Cubs are going to need to be willing to package prospects (like the Padres did to acquire Dylan Cease, the Orioles did to acquire Corbin Burnes, and the Dodgers did to acquire Tyler Glasnow). Obviously those ships have sailed, but I would say right now the Cubs need to look very hard at trying to acquire LHSP Jesus Luzardo from the Marlins (and maybe LHP A. J. Puk as well).