Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

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, ten players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, two players are on the 15-DAY IL, and two players are on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-17-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* 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: 10 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 2 
Seiya Suzuki, OF
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 2
* Justin Steele, P  
Jameson Taillon, P 

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P
 





Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

M*A*S*H

Can Hawkeye Pierce be added to the coaching staff? It's not just incoming, we've finally got some outgoing from the M*A*S*H unit. Last week we added Kerry Wood to the bullpen (it's a miracle!) and now pinch hitter deluxe, Darryle Ward is in Colorado almost fully recovered from his calf/gastrocnemius muscle strain and just might be reactivated for the weekend. Darryle doesn't want to miss the high altitude hitting. Friday Morning Update on Aramis Ramirez follows... Under the tent with that big red cross sign was seen entering Angel Pagan with colitis and a bleeding ulcer, who has been prescribed to have a week of bedrest and is now on the DL. Aramis Ramirez missed a few games earlier in the year with wrist tendonitis. Back then they did a wrist arthrogram (dye injection XRay) to make sure no structures were torn. Now they've choppered him out to the big medical unit in Chicago to have that sore wrist examined. But with the minimal power the lineup has shown, any significant injury here is really scary. Wrist injuries tend to affect a hitters power, so this may be the explanation for what we haven't seen at the plate of late from ARam. Update: ARam had a MRI that didn’t show any structural problems and got a cortisone shot on the little finger side of his wrist. He out until Tuesday but no DL stint is planned. Recent visitor to the DL unit, Alfonso Soriano was found on the phone chatting with his little buddy Felix Pie and says that his quadriceps soreness is better and he's off crutches. He can't wait for his physical therapy appointments to start. Pitcher Sean Marshall's scratched cornea is better after wearing his eyeglasses for a few days. Now all he needs to do is pitch better than his last outing vs the Astros. In the chronic ward is Henry Blanco who's neck/cervical disc herniation is better and at last it seems he's better from his mysterious left shoulder ailment. They are looking to transfer him to a rehab assignment in about a week. If he gets past the KP and peeling potatoes without pain, he just might get back to the active roster. In the dog pound was last seen Will Ohman, who's barking shoulder had an MRI which showed some minor inflammation of the AC joint. He's still heading to AAA Iowa after a few days of rest. Transferred out to the good ship Hope's 60 day DL are Mark Prior (shoulder/Bankart repair surgery), Angel Guzman (medial elbow tendonitis/ulnar neuritis) and Roberto Novoa (scapula/shoulder blade fracture), who won't be joining the team anytime soon. A few more days of this sickly offense (losing 6 of 7 games) and I'll be cueing in the M*A*S*H themesong for us TCR bloggers...Suicide is Painless. The cure? We need to MASH alot of baseballs in Colorado.

Comments

Dr., they tell me that suicide is painless. Well, with all the pain we endure as Cub fans, I welcome the sweet relief of death!!!!

Great news that Soriano is off crutches already. He might make it back sooner than we thought, maybe he won't even miss more than the mininum.

And Dr. I have a question. Soriano says that he's a 'fast healer'. While I'm sure that some people do heal faster than others, would you not agree that part of what makes an athlete great is his/her body's ability to regenerate and heal faster? And that Soriano is a great athlete so it's easy to believe that he can come back faster than expected?

"What’s the latest on Ramirez? Stewart rumors?" According to ESPN 1000 Aram is on his way to Denver. He got a cortizone shot and most likely is out this weekend. As for Stewart, Buster Olney had a blurb in his blog where he doubts a trade will happen.

R. Theriot ss J. Jones rf D. Lee 1b M. Murton lf M. DeRosa 3b M. Fontenot 2b J. Kendall c F. Pie cf

game thread is up.... Sullivan said the Cubs won't know if they even won the claim for Stewart until this weekend.

Chad...some people are definitely fast healers so all the estimates as to time to recovery are just based on a collective experience with a type of injury and the extent of the injury. Still from what I've seen, at most we're talking a week or two less than the 4-6 wk estimate for Soriano given at the beginning of the week. Darryl Ward was expected to be out 6 weeks and he's back 2 weeks sooner...so it can happen. The key is not to have a reinjury if one returns too quickly.

I totally get that. I"m saying would you not equate athletic ability to recovering faster?

To a certain extent, I would think being in excellent physical condition helps the ability to heal an injury a bit but I'm not sure it's a universal. Particular if there are secondary medical conditions (which are sometimes silent or not publicized like Ron Santo's diabetes when he was a player). Plus you can use ballplayer comps (not sure any were similar to Soriano though) to see how long it takes to heal...just find someone who's got a quad strain of similar extent. Those were posted on a previous thread. Many were out about 5 weeks.

cubster. why do i imagine you wearing one of those groucho marx eyeglass/mustache/schnozz getups when writing this?

For anyone who has seen Kerry Wood pitch in his 2 appearances, how has he looked? Could he be a decent 6th - 7th inning pitcvher, with perhaps the ability to eventually be able to go 2 to 3 innings? Steve

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I suspect Counsell/Hottovy will use the piggy-back extensively, with Taillon and Hendricks pitching as the "pig" (and with a very short leash) and some combo of Wicks, Brown, and Wesneski (whichever two do not start) as the "backers."  

    Keep in mind that Keegan Thompson has a minor league option available, and if Yency Almonte is not outrighted by 4/26 he cannot be sent to the minors without his consent after that date. Almonte is out of minor league options, so I am talking about him getting outrighted to the minors if he is not claimed off waivers, and if he is claimed off waivers, the Cubs save the pro-rated portion of his $1.9M salary, which helps lower the Cubs 2024 AAV.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Totally agree. The 26 man roster very rarely consists of the 13 best position players and 13 best pitchers.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Based on what Jed has done in the past, I’d say the plan is to

    -give Hendricks another few starts
    -give Taillon some runway ot get his season underway

    -Mix and match in the bullpen and see what sticks

    Jed usually doesn’t do a whole lot of waiver wire plays in-season, at least early in the season. He only reallly did that after he blew up the rosters in 21 and 22 because they needed bodies (guys like Schwindel, Fargas, etc).

    I think he’s a little handcuffed by a full 40 man in that he can’t really maneuver much with giving anyone showing ability at AAA (R Thompson/ Sanders/ Edwards etc). Brewer has the most tenuous grip there, and we will see what kind of chance he gets. Other than his spot, there isn’t a ton of 40 man wiggle room.

    I’m very curious to see what happens with Brown now that Taillon returns. Bullpen? Wicks to Iowa? 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Pro teams have to play their "big money" guys if they are healthy and not "locker room" issues.
    The Cubs wanted to deal JHey off well before they bought him out. They just didn't want to pay him to play for someone else for that long. Jed did give him 20+mil to play for LAD last yr.
    Jed might also let Kyle walk at some point this year. Similar scenario to JHey, except Jed thought Kyle was going to be good/solid in '24!!
    You'd think Smyly is in the same book as well. Same with Neris (he's a 1yr vet RP, so he's not really in this convo too much).
    That's ~35mil between those three and those three are going to get opportunities until at least late June) over younger guys even if their performance is "iffy".
    But, Jed is going to play Taillon a lot. They have to try and justify that contract and hope a veteran works out.
    So, Taillon, Imanaga, and Hendricks are locks for the rest of April and probably May.
    Assad, Brown and Wicks handle the last spots until Steele is ready.
    Now, you're question has real merit when Steele comes back. That will interesting if Brown is still good and Hendricks is still bad. But Taillon is entirely safe as long as he's healthy.

    And the bullpen moves were "money" based as well. Smyly has actually been okay. But he hasn't been clearly better than Little. Little had one bad outing. But Smyly makes 9mil. If they needed another RHRP and one of Little and Smyly had to go, it was going to Little. But that doesn't mean Smyly is one of the best 13 arms for the team. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: I think there was an issue with Luke Little coming into a game with men on base. He seems to need a "clean" inning to be dominant. So he is a future closer and needs to be used in that role at AAA. Same goes for Michael Arias. He needs to come into a "clean" inning, and is a future closer and needs to be used in that role at AA. Porter Hodge is a more versatile pitcher, a better version of Keegan Thompson (multi-inning RP). But Little, Arias, and Hodge (probably in that order) are the Cubs top three RP prospects (all three are Cubs Top 15 prospects).

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    So, let’s do a little war gaming. Taillon is back for tonight’s game. He pitched two rehab games, just a few innings each, and not especially sharp. Let’s face it, he hasn’t been lights out since the Cubs gave him the big contract. In other words, as flat out bad as Hendricks has been, the chances of Taillon being the savior don’t look exactly promising.

    If Taillon is equally ineffective or perhaps even worse, what’s the next move? Winning teams can often find a way to work around a dud fifth starter - kinda. Two dud starters make things much more difficult.

    I believe the biggest reason for the recent bullpen moves was dissatisfaction with the recent blowing of big leads and the recognition that the bullpen wasn’t all it was thought to be. In other words, they are exploring alternate options and configurations. If similar juggling becomes necessary (even more so than it already is), what kind of reasonable maneuvering do we think could be explored?

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Cubdom needs to prepare themselves for Wicks to be sent to Iowa for Taillon to come up.
    Ben Brown has 4 appearances. Wicks has 4 appearances.
    Ben has 16.1 IP.  Wicks has 17 IP
    Ben was a 1.1 WHIP.  Wicks has a 1.7 WHIP. Wicks does have significantly more SOs. 
    Ben has been better, though.
    I love Wicks. I think he's a fighter and his stuff has improved.
    But, Jed isn't ditching Hendricks just yet. He should. But he won't.
    Hendricks should go to the IL and Taillon-Imanaga-Assad-Wicks-Brown should be the rotation.
    Wont' happen though.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    AZ Phil,
    Did you agree with the demotion of Luke Little? He'd been pretty good up until the AZ/wild pitch appearance. I know that can't jettison Smyly (just yet) so they didn't need another LHRP. Especially with Leiter effectively being a LHRP. I still thought he deserved to stay. It's not permanent. He'll be back. Lots of moves to come with Taillon, Steele and other guys coming and going.

    Also, do you see Hodge being able to "control/command" his stuff to get a chance this year?
    Is Arias better than Hodge?   Thanks

  • crunch (view)

    just waiting to hear patrick wisdom and masterboney are spotted at the airport going in opposite directions...

    aj puk going for the marlins (lefty)...gotta imagine we'll see wisdom in the lineup.

    someone has to make room for taillon, too.

  • crunch (view)

    he's a low-level cubs star in the modern history of the cubs (c.zambrano, k.wood, r.dempster, etc), but that star has dimmed...and has been dimming since 2021.

    2024 has been ugly the whole way and we're only in mid-april.  homers aside (even though there's been 7 in 17ip) he gave up 29 hits in 20 spring innings and 31 in 17 regular season innings.

    he's pretty much only got 2 pitches at this point in his career and the mix isn't fooling anyone.  he threw a noticable amount more curves in his last start to add to the mix and it didn't help his issues.  he don't have many moves left to break out.