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

A Public Safety Alert for TCR Readers In and Around Chicago

Be forewarned—the entire downtown area is overrun with Nordic boys wearing Kirby Puckett jerseys. I know; I have seen it for myself!

This afternoon's Twins starter, Kevin Slowey (8-2, 4.21), is prone to the gopher ball. (That's "gopher" as in home run, not Golden Gopher.) Cubs starter Randy Wells is prone to getting screwed by the non-performance of his offense and/or his bullpen.

Go Cubs!

Comments

Q: What are some things people don’t know about you, away from the field? A: We do some weird things out here, man. I’m an art major. That’s usually the first thing I tell people. I really enjoy art and focus on painting ceramics. I love going to Lake Tahoe and it’s a home away from home for me. I enjoy the lake and the boat. Other than that, I enjoy my family. One of the reasons I went to school close to home was so I could see my younger siblings grow up and be close to my family. http://cubs.scout.com/2/871803.html rest is pretty standard fluff, says he had very little contact with Cubs before the draft despite all the scouts supposedly going out to see him.

Funny, awkward exchange this morning on Mully & Hanley show on The Score as they interviewed Bert Blyleven:

Mulligan asked Bert if Kevin Slowey can hit and then said, "If he can, maybe the Cubs can get him to come over. They could use the bat."

Bert then replied, "You boys are kind of rough on the Cubs, aren't you?" and then later, "It's easy for guys who've never played the game to criticize a team's hitting. But the hardest thing to do in all of sports is to hit a round ball with a round bat."

I think that is what they call "closing ranks."

Wonder if they'll have Bert back on the air anytime soon.

already signs with Brewers...

Naw, everything is fine. They'll get Ramirez back and I figure they'll win 70% of the second-half games. With their 29 wins now that's... umm... 86 wins. But they might win some games before the halfway point, too. That's just gravy. Wooo, 70% second-half games!!! Yea Cubs!

The whole bench sits up and says... "Wait... you can do that? You mean you don't have to hit the ball right to them?"

i posted this in an old thread... but is blanco out of options?

catches out number two, thinks it was number 3 and throws it in the stands. runner would have scored anyway, runner went from 1st to third though...no run ultimately.

Rob, I'm not denigrating his effort, but these were balls that looked easily catchable while diving. They weren't full-out, Reed Johnson in D.C.-type dives. (Or, as you state, Edmonds-type dives.) And he botched them. If you dive for the ball and it clanks out of your glove...

Hoff in and Patton in for the 9th, soriano to 2b....

sitting with Cubster today. we both said we had never seen a player do what Bradley did. Somehow, i'm feeling like its thr beginning of the end with Bradley after that. it will be JJ redux, and thanks to Hendry, we are all stuck. what an underachieving $140mm ballclub! blech!!

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Submitted by The E-Man on Fri, 06/12/2009 - 3:57pm.

sitting with Cubster today. we both said we had never seen a player do what Bradley did.

Somehow, i'm feeling like its thr beginning of the end with Bradley after that. it will be JJ redux, and thanks to Hendry, we are all stuck. what an underachieving $140mm ballclub! blech!!

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

E-MAN: You wil be happy to know that Milton Bradley's automatic "no trade" (the one he got as an Article XX MLB FA who signed a major league contract after the end of the Free-Agency Filing Period) runs through this coming Monday.

So if Hendry were so inclined, he could trade Bradley (without having to get Bradley's approval and without any restrictions) starting on Tuesday. And with the Rangers having lost Josh Hamilton for a while, they might possibly be interested in reacquirng Milton, bringing him back to the place where he had his best year and seemed the most at ease, and where he can DH full-time. Of course the Cubs would have to eat some of his salary or take back a similar contract, but so it goes. .

Now, Aaron Miles has not and does not have a "no trade," so it's just a matter of finding a taker (ANY taker) for him, even if it's the Cardinals or the Brewers. Of course that still won't bring DeRosa back, but sometimes there's something called "addition by subtraction."

Back in the early 1990's the Cubs signed free-agents Danny Jackson and Candy Maldonado, and both were lemons. But the Cubs were able to make a little bit o' lemonade out of it, by trading Maldonado to Cleveland for Glenallen Hill and Jackson to Pittsburgh for Steve Buechele, and both deals actually filled needs and made the Cubs a better club. So all is not lost.Yet.  

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090612&content_id=52… I'd have to copy and paste pretty much the whole article for all the good quotes. Here's the out gaffe though... "[I've seen it] on replays on some of that 'Best Damn Sports Show' stuff of the '50 Not Greatest Moments,'" Gardenhire said. "I think that's going to rank right up there with one of those plays. That wasn't a lot of fun for him. I'm sure he's not feeling too good about that." Did Piniella need to talk to Bradley? "Do we need to go over math? One, two, three," Piniella said. "I don't know what else to say. I'm sure he's somewhat embarrassed by it. I've never seen it before. The only thing we can do is go over how many outs there are. You've got to keep your head in the game. Outside of that, look, it didn't cost us a run but it's embarrassing to the person it happened to." Bradley put his hands on his head right away. "I wasn't embarrassed," Bradley said. "I've done a whole lot of things to be embarrassed about. That's water under the bridge. The run was going to score, the fan got a souvenir. Worst case scenario.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

you know it's bad when Carrie even takes a shot at you...

"Everybody's got to relax," he said. "We have a ton of media here, everybody has expectations that we're supposed to run away with the division. It's June, and we're [three] games out. We're right there. We talked about it today -- just have fun, relax. It's hard to get me to smile, but I had to smile today. You can't keep taking yourself too seriously. Just chill, have fun."

And keep count.

 

Re: Trading Bradley. Cubs having Bradley isn't the problem. Bradley not hitting is the problem. If they get rid of him they'll have the same problem of lack of a productive power bat, right? The Real Neal: Funny, when I run that 88 MPH fastball through the reality machine it comes out 93! What did you mean by this? His fastball has been sitting around 88-90 all year. Ryno (8:40 this morning): Is Slowey still throwing a boring 89MPH fastball? Answer: Yes, but maybe not "boring". If Gameday is to be believed (and it isn't always), he finally has some life in that fastball. FWIW Slowey owned spring training.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

When did I get all offended? When I called Dave names for being a little 'me too' sissy, hiding behind others comments? He'd being saving that one up for a few weeks, he should have at least done some basic research before he used it. Let's go on a wild goose chase of speculation here. Say we see 3 fastballs for K's in that video, one of which shows 91 MPH. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Slowey was rearing back for a little extra when he got two strikes on a hitter, is it? Because I was watching the game, and that's what he appeared to be doing. If you think the pitch he K'd Soto on was 88 MPH's well...

According to Bruce Levine reports Scales optioned for Harden. Unfortunately, Aaron Miles will still be onthe team. sigh...

Looks like Tony Thomas is heating up a bit again. Casey Coleman has been awesome this year. Starlin Castro keeps churning along - still a work in progress but boy, he sure doesn't get enough attention, imo, from general minor league fans. I hope Rosa is heating up, 3 game hitting streak, 6 out of the last 8. 2 solid starts from Bristow is a nice sign.

Yes, I said they looked easily catchable. The assumption there is "by a major leaguer" not "by a guy on a message board." Is it somehow a stretch to say a couple of balls Bradley dived for and missed looked easily catchable for a major league OF? I guess I need to be more clear for the likes of you. These were not "Reed Johnson in D.C., full-extension, be lucky if you caught it" plays. These were plays where the dives were ill-timed, even awkward-looking but still getting there in plenty of time and the ball clanking off his glove. So yeah, in my mind, easily catchable. Guaranteed catchable? OK, maybe not. But easily catchable. I wish I had the time/inclination to somehow search through all of Bradley's plays to show you what I meant. But I don't. It's anecdotal, and if others see it differently, so be it. It was an innocuous comment based on having seen Bradley miss at least two plays. I didn't see the diving catch in Houston that Rob mentioned, which I'm sure was a thing of beauty.

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.