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

Let's Internet

A tour of the latest from the web...

-  A rather random rumor that the Cubs may have some interest in A's shortstop Bobby Crosby.He's set to make $5.25M this year, so you know he wouldn't cost much in prospects and the A's would probably have to eat at least half his salary. If he's willing to be a utility guy, he'd be a step up from Aaron Miles. Baseball Prospectus projects Crosby at a .243 EqA versus Miles .232. Defensively, Crosby's been a bit above average (according to UZR) to below average (according to BP) at shortstop but probably has a strong enough arm to handle third base. Of course, he'd be replacing Joey Gathright or Micah Hoffpauir on the roster - unless Lou comes through with a six-man bench - and in that case he'd be replacing Bobby Scales, Jake Fox, Luis Rivas or Corey Koskie, in which we'd finally have an acceptable scenario for acquiring Crosby. That is unless the Cubs wise up quickly on this Aaron Miles fiasco that is about to be unleased upon unsuspecting fans.

- Caption fun with Ted Lilly at Big League Stew. Comment #3 has to be the winner.

- Dave Pinto runs through the Cubs expected offensive output. Marcel Projections and the Lineup Tool come up with 5.15 runs per game with the projected lineup, 5.42 with the optimum lineup. The Cubs scored 5.31 runs per game last year.

UPDATE: One wonderful reader pointed out that the probable lineup has Fukudome batting second which(to steal kmokeefe's line) is improbable (at least to begin the season). Let's try it on our own using the lineup of Soriano, Fontenot, Lee, Bradley, Ramirez, Fukudome, Soto, Theriot and the pitcher as suggested by Lou (actually Lou suggested Aaron Miles batting second, but we'll do that next).

That comes up with 5.29 runs per game. The optimal lineup of Bradley, Soto, Fukudome, Ramirez, Lee, Soriano, Fontenot, Pitcher and Theriot comes up with 5.469 runs per game. Flipping Miles for Fontenot results in: 5.025 runs per game and 5.317 with the computer-generated optimal lineup. 

- Lou took on Steve Phillips...Lou will win.

- Baseball Analysts takes a look at the All-Time One Teamers - the best player at each position to play for only one club. I checked on Ryne Sandberg(80.8) and Ernie Banks (80), but both are out-WARP'd by the author's choices of  Charlie Gehringer (85.3) and Cal Ripken Jr. (120.7). I was quite surprised to see Lou Whitaker(85.7) with a better career WARP-3 than Sandberg; I think I'll need to add him to my subjective Hall of Fame class.

UPDATE #2: Clearly I need an editor, as it was pointed out that Sandberg played 13 games for the Phillies in 1981.

- The miracles of science. We'll be taking donations for TCR's own $10,000 electrolysis machine in April.

- Split-squad action today, Cubs travel to Goodyear to take on the Indians; Carl Pavano vs. Chad Gaudin to start. Milton Bradley will DH in that game as well. Here's the lineup from Muskat:

CF Joey Gathright, SS Aaron Miles, 1B Derrek Lee, DH Bradley, LF Jason Dubois, RF Brad Snyder, 3B Bobby Scales, 2B Nate Spears.

Jeff Samardzija will lead the team in Las Vegas tonight versus the White Sox. MLB.com shows radio for the Indians game and TV for the White Sox game.

Comments

the probable lineup used to calculate the 5.15 has fukudome hitting 2 i find that improbable.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Did they do a lineup projection for a the games Soriano,Bradley and possibly Aramis miss? It's better than average that Soto's off days might make us trot out a Theriot Miles Reed Johnson lee Kfuk Koskie/Rivas Bako Gathright

[ ]

In reply to by Dr. aaron b

So you are saying that it is better than a 50-50 chance that Soriano, ARam, and Bradley are all hurt at the same time? Someone needs to take a class on probability. Here are the average games played by Bradley, ARam, and Soriano over the last three seasons, respectively: 94, 146, 134. That means that there would be approximately a 42% chance that Bradley would miss a game, a 10% chance ARam would miss a game, and a 17% chance that Soriano would miss a game. That would mean that there would be less than a 1% chance that all three would miss the same game. If you combine that with the chance that Soto would get an off-day on the same day (based on Soto's games played last year), you get a .09% chance that all four would miss the same game. But sure... "It's better than average."

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

While the chances of all 3 being out at the same time is very very low, based on those percentages what is scary is that the chance of at least one of the three being injured for a given game is like 56%! Yikes!

[ ]

In reply to by WISCGRAD

Hey WISCGRAD, as the resident statistician, I was hoping you might be able to help out with this question I had after reading big_lowitzki's post - Are the odds that all three will be out at the same time affected at all by the increased probability that the games each will miss are consecutive? Saying Bradley has a 42% chance of missing a game seems a little misleading, because if he's injured he might have a 100% chance of missing, say, the next 30 games. It's not like flipping a coin where the odds of missing a game reset each day. Also, this probably isn't something you would know, but I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the likelihood of a player getting injured in a given month. Intuitively, it might seem more likely for a player to get injured in April due to cold weather, and maybe August due to being worn down from the grind of playing all summer. If there is an increased likelihood of guys getting injured in certain months, and we have a few injury-prone players, that might mean that there's an even better chance of them all being injured at the same time. All right, I've thought about this too much now.

[ ]

In reply to by Doug Dascenzo

This was more to the point I was trying to make. It isn't a huge leap to conclude that. 1. Milton Bradley misses somewhere between 35-60% of every season 2. Alfonso Soriano has spent at least 1 stretch on the DL in each season he has been in Chicago. So it is better than an average bet that those guys will miss some time. Mark Prior and Kerry Wood both had stretches where they were durable and healty. However we saw what happened when we built our roster around the plan that they would be a healthy 1 and 2.

[ ]

In reply to by Dr. aaron b

So it is better than an average bet that those guys will miss some time. Sure... "some time." But that is different than saying that it is an average bet that they will miss time together. And even more different than saying those two, along with Aram, will miss time together. And even MORE different than saying that those three will miss time together along with Soto.

[ ]

In reply to by Doug Dascenzo

I thought about that exact question too, but the probabilities wouldn't change. Because while there is a chance that Bradley would miss the first four weeks of the season and Soriano would miss say the last week - meaning they never overlap - it could also be that they both get injured at the same time and ALL of their days overlap. So if you change the unit from games to say weeks or months, the probabilities still say the same. Basically, what you've pointed out though is that our "less than 1%" answer is a bit misleading. Rather than saying each season we should expect 1 or 2 games in which all 3 are injured, we would really expect this to never happen in like 9 of 10 seasons, and in 1 of 10 to see a two-week span where all three are on the DL.

[ ]

In reply to by WISCGRAD

FWIW (not much), Excel's FORECAST function has the following predictions for games played in 2009 based on their games played going back to 2001 when each of them became full-time players: Bradley - 101 Soriano - 124 Aramis - 138 I'd love to see Bradley in the 120-130 range, but this is probably acceptable for the NL Central, right?

Bobby Crosby? ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. ............................................. No.

Here's the problem...though Crosby was already going to be shopped, he's already said he wants to be traded because he doesn't want to be a backup. So why trade for an expensive, shitty and pissed off SS?

[ ]

In reply to by The Joe

well Crosby isn't going to get that job right now unless an injury happens and he'd probably be happy just to get out of Oakland at the moment. And if/when the clock strikes midnight on Theriot, I'd rather have Crosby as a back-up option. Then of course, the deal will probably still be out there if they are looking for a replacement for Theriot.

The rumor seems much ado about nothing to be honest....

I suggest the A's trade Crosby for Ronnie Cedeno and Garrett Olson...so that they can flip Olson for Peavy. Scott Eyre still broke?

Bobby Dickerson doing the managing today in Goodyear versus Indians. Lou went to Vegas.

I finally got a response from Cubs.com on my waiting list position. I have numbers 27406 and 27405. Anyone want to do a 2 for 1? JD, I know you do...

[ ]

In reply to by CPH2133

I'm around 19K-something. When this came up a few months ago, I calculated that, at the rate I'd moved up over the last 2.5 years, it'd take me another 3,000 years to have a shot at season tickets.

[ ]

In reply to by John Beasley

Yea, i'll need ever longer. Can you leave your spot on the waitlist in your will? The cubs just need to build a new, huge stadium that has 100,000 seats, Wrigley is a dump (ducks)...maybe i'll have a chance then.

[ ]

In reply to by The Joe

Or, give the economy another couple years of being in the shitter, and I bet you'll see your number start to move up. I'm guessing season tickets are one of the first things to go for a lot of people/businesses when money starts to dwindle.

[ ]

In reply to by Doug Dascenzo

While that is most likely right, if they cant afford their season tickets (the companies, people who have them now) there will be no way in hell I can afford them! But I'll make it happen if my number ever comes up. I'm assuming to climb 30 thousand spots (which will most likely never ever come up) but if it did it'll be 40 years from now. Right after retirement...with some money coming in from retirement...sounds like a match made in heaven.

[ ]

In reply to by CPH2133

I was on the list and forgot my account. So I contacted them and they said they didn't have a record of me and I should sign up again. I recently contacted them again and they sent me both numbers...but they're right next to each other so that doesn't really make sense.

I noticed you left out Milton's first name in your lineup. He was the only one. Can we refer to him as "DH" from now on?

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

it was a cut and paste, standard journalism practice to omit the first name once it's been mentioned in an article.

I'm pretty sure Miles isn't going anywhere, but how would you propose getting rid of him if you could? To Rob or anyone else.

speaking of the lineup, she missed the catcher.. Mark Johnson batting 9th..

Cubs get 2 runs in 1st...Snyder 2 rbi single after Gathright, DLee got on with singles, 1st and 3rd. Bradley popped to 2nd, Dubois was hit by pitch which loaded the bases for Snyder's 2 run single

god bless the edit option... Scott Eyre is still broke, how's Howry doin'

Gaudin sucketh...hit by pitch, double, HR, double ugly...3-2 Tribe "they are teeing off and not wasting time" "Rothschild to the mound..." did I mention that I love having an edit option... Spears triples.

I have a feeling that "Scott Eyre is broke..." is the new, "3/44" Thanks Dr. Aaron B for the redundancy. Thanks Dr. Aaron B for the redundancy.

Hate to be a downer, fellas, maybe it's the economy or something, but I'm not real optimistic about the year. Of course, I don't see much competition in the division, but I think Chi, Stl, Mil, and Cin will all be contenders. Cincy will surprise.

Miles beats a high relay throw in a 5-4-nope DP attempt. 3-3 as Spears scored

Gaudin settled down after the first...3 IP, 3 K, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB for the day. Campusano in now.

Brian Schneider in according to Pat Hughes...Schlitter I assume.

is there any way to disable auto-play on videos on all websites? It ranks up there with pop-up and pop-under ads on Internet annoyances...

Dr. Aaron B drank way TOOOO much last Friday... --- reminded me of the Leo Durocher commercial Hey, fellas...let's have another Schlitz

WBC Fun: *Pedro Martinez - 2IP, 3H, 2ER, 1BB, 2K (Dominicans lose 6-1 to Baltimore) *La-T-Roy Hawkins - 1IP, 2H, 1ER *JJ Putz - 2/3IP, 3H, 3ER, 2BB, 1K Lastly, through 5 1/2, South Africa has scored 6 runs. It's not newsworthy, but I'm just stunned.

Ryne Sandberg qualifies as a one-team player despite the 13 games he played with the Phillies?

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.