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 
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The Nightly News: Cubs Beat Crew in ESPN Game

Highlights, lowlights and other observations from the Cubs' 8-5 win over the Brewers Sunday night in Milwaukee, a victory that leaves the Cubs at 4-2 as they return home for the Wrigley Field opener on Monday afternoon.

"We've Seen This Movie Before" Moment of the Night:
In his first at-bat since beating the Brewers with a dramatic, ninth-inning home run on Saturday, Alfonso Soriano crushed Jeff Suppan's first pitch of the game over the centerfield wall, his fourth HR in the young season.

Play of the Night:
Reed Johnson's leaping catch to rob Prince Fielder of what would have been a game-tying grand slam in the bottom of the fifth. Instead Fielder wound up with a sac fly and a reason to tip his helmet to Reed Johnson.

Incongruous Inning Total of the Night:
Four runs on one hit—what the Cubs compiled in the top of the fourth, when they combined a Ryan Theriot single with a hit by pitch and five walks to turn a 1-1 tie into a 5-1 lead. All four of the runs scored on bases loaded walks.

Escape Artist of the Night:
Cubs starter Ryan Dempster, who yielded six hits and three walks and threw 110 pitches over six innings, but still emerged as a winner.

Erroneous Former Cub Mention of the Night:
When Mike Fontenot batted for the first time, Jon Miller called him Ray Fontenot. When Fontenot next batted, Miller corrected himself, explaining that Ray was a southpaw who used to play for the Yankees. What Miller failed to acknowledge was the lefthander's one inglorious season for our very own Cubs.

Box score line of the night:
9-5-8-8-10-4
(Combined pitching line for Brewers pitchers Suppan, Julio, McClung, and Stetter.)

"Oh crap!" Moment of the Night
Milton Bradley appeared to pull up lame on his way into third base following what should have been a run-scoring single by Ryan Theriot in the top of the fourth. Five games and four innings into his Chicago Cub career, Bradley was lifted from the game with an apparent injury and was replaced by Johnson, which, all things considered (see "Play of the Night" above), worked out pretty well.

Update (from Paul Sullivan in the Tribune):

The Cubs said Bradley had strained his right groin, which he apparently aggravated while taking extra batting practice. Piniella said Bradley would miss Monday's home opener. His status is day-to-day.


Instant Redemption of the Night:
After taking too long to throw to first and allowing Fielder to reach base in the last of the third, Mike Fontenot made a diving stop of a scalding one-hopper by the very next hitter, J.J. Hardy, to get the Cubs out of the inning.

Announcer Exchange of the Night:
Steve Phillips offered a reasoned, frequently heard argument for moving Alfonso Soriano down in the Cub lineup. Joe Morgan's response, which he repeated about five times, was that it takes a certain mindset to hit in the RBI positions in the lineup and anyway, Lou Piniella had tried moving Soriano down in the lineup previously and the experiment simply didn't work. For the record, in his previous two seasons with the Cubs, Soriano has started a total of 230  games in the leadoff spot; 11 games in other spots in the order (just 2 last season). If this qualifies as trying Soriano elsewhere in the lineup, it does so just barely.

Joe Morgan Circular Logic Example of the Night:
After the announcing trio endorsed the value of OPS, Morgan explained that the reason we know OPS is a valid statistic is that the best player, Albert Pujols, had the highest OPS last year.

Mascot Close-Up of the Night:
ESPN cameras caught Bernie Brewer just as Reed Johnson robbed Fielder of what would have been his first career grand slam. Though Bernie's giant mascot face continued to flash that permanent grin, his body language and arm flailing screamed, "Goddamnit!" or whatever they say in Milwaukee these days when they're desperately disappointed.

 

Comments

Great game tonight. Like most of us, I'd like to see less use of Howlin' Howry Light in key situations. As Morgan said (or maybe it was Miller) Gregg doesn't have the stuff to strike guys out and thus will give up hits (or at least balls in play) and things like tonight and Friday will continue to happen.

"Piniella said Bradley would miss Monday's home opener. His status is day-to-day." Ha! Bradley's status is ALWAYS day-to-day. I made a quick check of DH DL Bradley's injury history and was amazed to find that he has never used a groin injury as the reason he's not on the field. Milton has been day-to-day because of a sore hamstring a sore forearm a sore quadriceps a sore abdomen a sore wrist a sore back a sore calf a sore rib a sore oblique a sore ankle a sore shoulder a sore leg a sore knee a sore "side" (no details on which side was sore) a sore thigh a sore eye a sore finger and just plain general "soreness" in just the last seven years. He's also sat out with the "flu" more than once and the same goes for that old "I've run completely out of ideas" standby "illness." But never before has Bradley missed a game with a sore groin.

[ ]

In reply to by Jim Hickmans Bat

http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/weird_injuries.htm John Smoltz burned his chest while ironing a shirt that he was wearing. Wade Boggs hurt his back when he lost his balance while trying to put on cowboy boots. Odiebe McDowell cut his finger buttering a roll at the Texas Ranger's welcome home luncheon. Ricky Bones hurt his lower back getting out of a chair while watching TV in the clubhouse. Kevin Mitchell strained a muscle while vomiting. George Brett hit his foot on a chair and broke his toe while running from the kitchen to the TV to see Bill Buckner hit. Rick Honeycutt injured his wrist while flicking sunflower seeds in the dugout. Chris Brown injured his eye by sleeping on his eye wrong. Phil Niekro injured his hand shaking hands too hard. Nolan Ryan was bitten by a coyote.

That ESPN crew is just terrible. I feel stupider for just listening. But OK we are all used to all sorts of stupid that Joe Morgan, Steve Phillips, etc. will bring but after Reed's catch last night that was a new low. After an extremely electrifying catch (I don't care what center fielder makes a play like that, the bases were juiced, Prince Fielder hits a monster shot, the home fans are holding their breath, and . . . and . . . metaphorical crickets). I don't like a lot of hyperbole but they should have gone a little nuts. Morgan started talking about the great base-running of the Brewers for staying put and tagging up (which is true but completely wrong immediately after the catch). I will never listen to those idiots again. Ever.

[ ]

In reply to by Steve Christmas

Miller in my mind is fine. I hate how he adds 8 syllabus to names like "Aramis" but other than that he seems to do an ok job of play-by-play and his voice isn't super annoying. But Morgan should have been gone years ago, he adds nothing to the commentary. It's like dude, we get it, you were good when you played. You don't need to remind us every game that you played with Rose and Bench and new Aaron, etc. We get it. And why they thought adding Philips and his inane dribble to this tandem would improve things is beyond me. Sutt, Hershiser, basically any of the other guys ESPN has are better than these two.

Last night reminded me again of how much I miss the "Fire Joe Morgan" site - they had that guy pegged from the get - go, and their presence this season is already sorely missed. Regarding strange baseball injuries/excuses - I believe that Jose' Cardenal missed a ST game when he woke up with his eyes glued shut. Another game he missed entirely because a cricket was chirping all night in his hotel room.

Bradley begins his quest tonight for playing in the least amount of games and still get his 3rd year option. What a joke of a player. He probably is tired and wanted to take a week off.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

Bradley has already admitted he took games off down the stretch in Texas to preserve his stats. When his team needed him the most, he didn't give two shits about his team. He wanted to get paid and now his only concern is making sure he gets his 3rd year option. I said when we signed him he is either the toughest SOB in baseball or the biggest fucking pussy. Looking at his injury history, i lean heavily to biggest pussy in basebeall. He is a master of the day to day injury and will use it so he can take days off when he isn't even injured. I knew that then and I know it now. I don't really care if he is faking or not now. He isn't a player you can ever depend on for anything. He is either faking an illness to preserve his stats or he is as fragile as glass, either way he is fucking waste of a player that no team can ever count on or know when he is going to play or not play. I will give him credit, i thought he wouldn't survive Spring Training without getting injured. Now he might not survive the first week.

ESPN 1k is reporting that Aram has back stiffness and is not in the line-up. Given that the pitching matchup is Ubaldo Jimenez (really hard on RHB, career 1.26 WHIP and .229 BA vs. RHB) vs. Ted Lilly (Fly ball pitcher, meaning Lou could want to use Gathright over Hoffpauir) and given that three of our five best run producers arent playing I could see this craptastic line-up possiblities being empolyed by Lou: CF Gathright 3B Miles/SS Theriot/RF Fukudome 1B Lee LF Soriano RF Fukudome/2B Fontenot 2B Fontenot/RF Fukudome SS Theriot/C Hill/3B Miles C Hill/3B Miles

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.