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

Cubs Lineup If They Play (Maybe They Shouldn't)

Update: First pitch now set for 2pm.


Update: Well, tomorrow's forecast is no bargain either--50% chance of precipitation--which is consistent with the latest from Paul Sullivan that the Cubs are determined to get today's game in. Sullivan also quotes Bob Brenly, who said on WSCR this morning that it seemed like an obvious move to slide Aramis Ramirez into the third spot and drop Derrek Lee (2-for-25) down into the fifth spot. Obviously not an issue today with Ramirez and Milton Bradley both out of the starting lineup.


Update: Yes, this would not only be Fontenot's first-ever start at 3B, it would be the first time he has ever played the position in the majors. From what I can tell, he played some third in '05 at Iowa, but other than that, it has been all shortstop and second base.


Gordon Witternmyer tweets that, according to Lou Piniella, Milton Bradley is feeling better, but Aramis Ramirez has a sore back and is not in the starting lineup:

Soriano, lf
Theriot, ss
Fukudome, rf
Lee, 1b
Fontenot, 3b
Johnson, cf
Miles, 2b
Hill, c
Lilly, p

Comments

Kind of surprised that he put Johnson given that Jimenez in his career has held RHB to a .228 BA. Given no Bradley, Ram, or Soto it would seem prudent to sacrifice some defense and put Hoffpauir in RF, even with Lilly pitching today.

Interesting that Piniella would rather break up the Theriot/Fontenot DP combo and start Fontenot at 3rd. Miles hasn't played there much, but he has played there some (15 games, 26 chances, no errors).

Very bummed about Harry Kalas; a great announcer. Another special baseball announcer gone. My condolences to the Philly fans-it sucks to lose your cool grandpa announcer. Plus, he did the Puppy Bowl, which was very kickass of him to do. Godspeed, Harry. Is this game going to worrth it today? Methinks meh. oh well, Go CUBS!!!!! Woooooooo!

No Aramis, No DL Bradley, and No Geo, I would have gone with a lineup closer to this: Theriot Fukudome Soriano Fontenot Lee Johnson Miles Hill P I know it's the home opener and all but this would have been a good time to move Fonzie into the heart of the order. FWIW Kosuke has never hit third in MLB.

Did I see correctly that Brandon Guyer is on the bench for the Cubs? CBSSports GameCenter shows Guyer on the bench for today's game. Did I miss something? I hope this isn't 3/44 and I get run out of here!!

Did Guzman just bat for himself in the bottom of the 7th with 2 out and no one on, and then get replaced in the top of the 8th? I understand we're playing with 22 guys today, but couldn't they have sent Soto or Hoffpauir up to PH there? There hasn't been a single bench player used yet, right?

CUBS WIN!!! CBS WIN!!! 4-0 shutout at the Home Opener for the Cubs vs. COL. Move the Cubbies to 5-2 currently ties with STL for the division lead. Didn't get to see the game today as I was at work and had to "watch" it on CBS GameCenter. THE GOOD: - Lilly. Took a no-no into the 7th inning in a dominating performance. - Hill. The back-up C did admirably holding the line while Soto was out. Hopefully these extra AB's will help keep him ready to go for the occasional spot start down the road. - Lee. Went 2-3 today and hopefully showing signs of breaking out of his slump. THE BAD: - Men LOB. The Cubs offense continues to leave a ton of guys on base. The had 9 BB's and 9 hits today and only scored 4 runs. THE UGLY: - The Weather. From the pictures and the last inning I saw it was not pretty out there. I am sure that went a long way helping with the low scoring of both teams. Great start to the homestand and now we got an offday tomorrow. Come back on Wednesday afternoon with Harden on the mound vs. Jason Marquis. Hopefully it is payback time to the heartache he caused some of us Cubs fans.

Nice game that probably coud have gone the other way. They probably could have scored alot more runs but Jimenez is actually a pretty good pitcher so its not like he's easy to get big hits off of, the walks really helped us obviously. Lilly looked great, maybe I'm a goof but Len and Bob did such a good job of not talking about the no-hitter that I didn't even realize it was going on. The bullpen still looked iffy even though they got the job done. Marmol is the only one I truly trust at this point and I think Lou might be in the same boat. Wednesday vs Marquis, no way will he beat Harden, write it down!

Watched the whole game. There were a ton of 3-2 counts. Reynolds got a lot of looks from both sides as he was very inconsistent, he was fooled more than the Rockies on a lot of Ted's curveballs. I'll bet Hurdle was ejected for complaining to the crew chief. One highlite was Sutcliffe leaving Len and Bob in an 8th inning hurry (after they held him over from the 7th), he said things were going bad on the field (a BB) and excused himself. They could have asked Jody to sit down but they didn't. Good anti-curse moment.

Was just listening to WGN radio tonight and they said this morning Chicago Police found a severed goat head on Harry Caray's statue outside Wrigley. Police say it was a prank. About 10% funny and cool, but mostly 90% just sick.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    bruce bochy is hobbling rather badly for a guy who's had 2 hip replacements.  his gait is extremely wonky taking the lineup card to the ump.

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • 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.