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

I Can See Four Miles (ABs)

Aaron Miles got four at bats and reached base twice, and four Cubs pitchers combined to throw a four-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts, as the EXST Cubs blanked the EXST A's 5-0 this morning at Fitch Park Field #3 under mostly-cloudy skies. 

Miles, on the Cubs 15-day DL since May 27th with a sore shoulder, got the start at shortstop, and hit 2nd in each of the first four innings. He was the middle-man on a 4-6-3 DP in the top of the 2nd, but otherwise had a quiet day in the field throughout his four innings at SS.

At the plate, Miles grounded out to 2nd base (4-3) on a hit & run play that advanced a runner to 2nd base in the 1st inning, walked in the 2nd inning, popped up to short in the 3rd inning, and singled to right (sending the runner on 1st to 3rd) in his final AB in the 4th.  

In addition, IF-OF Ryan Freel (on the Cubs 15-day DL with a strained hamstring since May 28th) and INF Luis Rivas (on the Iowa Cubs DL with a hamstring strain since April) took "live" BP, but did not play in the game. (Rivas has actually been at Fitch Park for several weeks, but he is just now starting to get out onto the field). 

18-year old Dominican LHP Jeffry Antigua got the start for the EXST Cubs today and was outstanding, throwing four shutout innings, allowing two ground singles and no walks, while striking out eight. He kept the ball down on every hitter, getting four ground outs in addition to the eight punchouts, including the 4-6-3 DP that featured a nice "turn" by Aaron Miles. 

19-year old RHP Tarlandus Mitchell (Cubs 2008 22nd round draft pick out of Alto HS - Alto, TX) followed Antigua to the mound, and threw two hitless & shutout innings, striking out four while walking two. Mitchell had a very poor outing last week in Tempe (he was yanked out of the game after only one inning), so I'm sure he felt good with his comeback outing today.  

RHP (and ex-OF) Andres Quezada then threw two shutout innings, and RHP Carlos Rojas finished up with one inning of shutout relief.

The Cubs offense got going right off the bat in the bottom of the 1st. Jose Valdez was hit on the foot with a pitch (he also was hit on the same foot with a pitch in his next AB), and advanced to 2nd on the Aaron Miles ground out. Then with two outs, John Contreras blasted a double off the LF fence, scoring Valdez.

The Cubs scored again in the 4th. Matt Cerda (2008 4th round pick out of Oceanside HS - Oceanside, CA) led off with a walk, and advanced to 3rd on a line single to right by Miles. Then with one out, Chris Weimer lined a single to CF, scoring Cerda.

The Cubs got three insurance runs in the 8th, as 20-year old lanky Dominican switch-hitting infielder Robert Bautista (batting right-handed) led-off the inning by blasting a home run over the left-field fence onto 8th Street. (The normally light-hitting Bautista hit an inside-the-park HR yesterday, so maybe I should stop comparing his speed and defensive play to Junior Lake and his hitting prowess to Veronica Lake). Jose Valdez and Dwayne Kemp singled, and Valdez scored on a passed ball. Then Contreras singled, scoring Kemp. 

Here is today's abridged box score (Cubs players only):

LINEUP:
1. Jose Valdez, CF:           1-2  (HBP, HBP, F-8, 1B + 2 R, 1 CS)
2a. Aaron Miles, SS:          0-1 (4-3) 
2b. Dwayne Kemp, SS:      1-2  (4-3, 1B + 1 R)
3. Matt Cerda, DH-C:          0-3  (F-7, BB, F-9, 4-3 + 1 R) 
3x. Aaron Miles, PH:          1-1 (1B)
4. John Contreras, DH #2:  3-4  (2B, 1B, K, 1B + 2 RBI)
5. Chris Weimer, 1B:          2-4  (K, 1B, 3B, L-6 + 1 RBI)
6. Jae-Hoon Ha, LF             2-4  (1B, 1B, K, 1-3)
6x. Aaron Miles, PH:           0-0  (BB)
7. Logan Watkins, 2B:        1-2  (1-3 SH, P-6, 1B)
8. Jesus Morelli, RF:           0-2  (5-2 FC, K, 5-3 SH)
9. Alvaro Sosa, C-DH:         1-3  (F-7, E-6, 1B + 1 PO)
10. Robert Bautista, 3B:      1-3  (F-7, F-7, HR + 1 R, 1 RBI)
10x. Aaron Miles, PH:          0-1  (P-6)

PITCHERS:
1. Jeffry Antigua -        4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, 1 GIDP, 4/0 GO/FO
2. Tarlandus Mitchell - 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K
3. Andres Quezada -    2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 4/1 GO/FO
4. Carlos Rojas -          1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 1/2 GO/FO

ERRORS (2):
1. C Alvaro Sosa - overthrow at 2nd base on stolen base attempt, allowing runner to advance to 3rd.
2. 2B Logan Watkins - dropped pop-up in short RF, allowing batter to reach base.

CATCHERS DEFENSE:
1. Alvaro Sosa: 0-1 CS, 1 E (see above)
2. Matt Cerda: 1-3 CS

WEATHER: temperature in the 90's, mostly cloudy, not as hot as yesterday,  

ATTENDANCE: 8

Comments

AZ Phil- I love ya, but please don't associate that piece of crap ball player with the one of the all time greats, the Who. How about "2000 Miles" by the Prenteders(also good) as in keep Aaron Miles 2000 miles away from Wrigley. Thanks always for the great reports.

Wittenmyer http://twitter.com/cst_cubs Lineup: sori, riot, fuky, lee, font, rejo, hill, blanco, z. McLouth will bat third tonight for Braves. "Harden to throw today and head to Iowa for Sunday rehab start. Barring setback, returns from DL 6/12 vs. Minn." No DL for Bradley for now. and then seems like some jokes by Z about players going into Lou's office.

Hopefully there will be a Jeff Gillooly sighting, and a possible mysterious injury that keeps Miles in Arizona for the rest of the summer.

Oh my goodness, it looks like Antigua was trying to top Suarez' last outing. Arizona Phil, is it safe to assume these two will be locked into Boise's rotation (along with Nagel) in a few weeks, right? I hope so because Boise allows you the option to watch their home games online for free.

Submitted by Raisin101 on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 4:13pm.
Oh my goodness, it looks like Antigua was trying to top Suarez' last outing.

Arizona Phil, is it safe to assume these two will be locked into Boise's rotation (along with Nagel) in a few weeks, right? I hope so because Boise allows you the option to watch their home games online for free.

===============================

RAISIN: Yes, unless one of them ends up in Peoria before then.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Good. In general I am against the US being 'A nation of litigants' as my grad school roommate described us. However, the amount of really nasty shit people think they can get away with on the internet is way out of whack.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I'm definitely no law expert, and I understand and respect your point, but libel is specific to harming someone's reputation. And if someone is talking about true events: i.e. Tony getting busted drunk driving, I'm pretty sure that is more about Tony La Russa hurting his own reputation. If he doesn't like it maybe he should do less drinking and driving. The bit about his feelings being hurt is B.S. He can ignore Twitter if he wants. Litigators do this crap for juries. Throw a few different charges out there with the hopes that a jury will pick one: Plaintiff gets what they want and the jury can go home feeling like they split the middle.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

Impersonating someone and saying stupid shit is harming to his reputation, so that's libel right there. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the things quoted in the article aren't the only things these knuckleheads said. Imagine, for instance, if Kile's kid thought this was the real Tony LaRussa and signed up for the Twitter.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

If only! It's not that easy at all. If all you had to do was impersonate someone and say stupid shit there would be millions of libel suits more than there are now. You have to prove harm to your reputation, emotional distress, or loss of money. You can't just be annoyed. Just being bothered or annoyed by something is the first reason these cases are dismissed. The onus is on the supposed victim to prove this. Did someone call him wondering why he was saying these things, did the newspaper pick up on it and report those quotes as his, did someone cancel a talk he was supposed to do because they thought he said them, etc.? Did people believe he said them. The site explicitly said that "bio-parodies are funny." The quotes were also outrageous. Would a reasonable person attribute those quotes to him, did anyone? If Darryl Kyle's kid did think he said that and called him and Tony then experienced emotional distress as he had to talk to him, then fine, but he would have to show that. Most likely is that an agent or friend said "hey, there is this parody site out there pretending to be you, how do we go about shutting it down and discouraging this type of shit in the future?" Answer - file a libel suit. It gets attention to the problem, shuts down the site, gets twitter to be tougher on who signs up for accounts, make sure they never let anyone else sign up as Tony LaRussa ever again - and then in the MONTHS between now and when the case would go before a judge, you drop the charges, or you let the case get thrown out early on.

[ ]

In reply to by WISCGRAD

Well, yeah, there has to be damages, or there's no reason to sue. If Twitter people thought they had a rock-solid case, they wouldn't have taken the pages down. I would imagine they're going to wind up having to be a little more thorough on what is defined as a 'parody' page in the future. You can see my comment below if you want an example of a page that has been up for 2 years, with no policing of it whatsoever.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

What a load of crap! The Twitter Tony L was clearly labelled a PARODY which is protected speech. Here's Twitter's policy The standard for defining parody is, "would a reasonable person be aware that it's a joke." An account may be guilty of impersonation if it confuses or misleads others—accounts with the clear INTENT to confuse or mislead will be permanently suspended. What happens to impersonation accounts? Parody impersonation accounts are allowed to exist. The profile information on a parody account must make it obvious that the profile is fake, or it is subject to removal from Twitter.com. If it is not evident from viewing the profile that it is a joke, it is considered non-parody impersonation. Non-parody impersonation accounts may be permanently suspended for Terms of Service violations. But because the perpetually inebriated LaRussa is suing Twitter, all parody accounts using his name are being pulled including NotTonyLaRussa.

"Aramis Ramirez will begin baseball-related activities this weekend in Cincinnati." --- Nice news. Today (Friday) is exactly 4 weeks after the Friday, May 8th shoulder injury to ARam. So he is on track for the schedule the Cubs (via Tribune writer Paul Sullivan, link below) reported. As per the Piniella quote (below) we'll get a better estimate as to ARam's return as he returns to baseball activity. Everyone has extimated 6-8 weeks for this recovery then add a few games in the minors (rehab assignment). 4 weeks is vs Brewers at Wrigley (July 3rd) and 8 weeks is at Washington after the all-star break, July 16th. --- MILWAUKEE (May 9th)-- Aramis Ramirez will be in a sling for one week and spend three weeks in non-baseball activities, namely motion and strengthening exercises on his shoulder. That suggests his stint on the disabled list will probably closer to eight weeks than 4-6, though the Cubs said it's too early to speculate on how long he'll be out of action. "You're looking at a while," manager Lou Piniella said. "We'll know more after the first month." http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2009/05/c…

Impersonating someone and saying things in that person's voice might damage that person's reputation, but it's not necessarily libel. (He's suing for trademark infringement, among other things, not libel.) A libelous statement is more along the lines of someone not impersonating him said, "Tony LaRussa likes to kill and eat kittens."

These are the tweets in question: "Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher... I'd call that an I-55 series." "Fortunately, Ian Snell sucks now... when Molina and Duncan Jr. go deep off of you it's time to look yourself in the mirror, have an ice-..." "drinking a cold Zima and wishing fucking Hancock was alive, I bet he could've gotten Jack Wilson out." Dumb but not libelous.

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • 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...