Cubs MLB Roster

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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

Well Ain't That a Kick in the Pants

The St. Louis Cardinals have acquired former Cub super-utility Greek God Mark DeRosa for RHP Chris Perez and a player to be named later.

I wonder how many standing ovations he'll get from the Wrigley faithful before they realize they're cheering for the Cubs most bitter rival to beat them.

Comments

I'm not sure which is worse, knowing that DeRosa is now helping the Cardinals or knowing that the Indians were the big winners of "Flip that Ballplayer" since the Cardinals are giving up far more to get him than the Cubs got for getting rid of him.

Tough to say until we know the PTBNL, but I'm confused by the "far more" statement. I know Perez is one of the Cardinals top 5 prospects and all, but I don't think he's a sure thing either. He's got 2 good pitches but plenty of control issues he needs to work out.

Numbers wise, Archer, Gaub and Stevens compare quite nicely, I can't speak enough of their stuff or ceilings and prospect lists don't rank any of them as well as Perez, but they're prospect lists. They thought Felix Pie and Hee Seop Choi were close to sure things.

IF I'm Mark DeRosa I'm having a hard time understanding why Jim Hendry let me go twice in six months. I mean the Indians were trying to shop him back to us already in May. But, not to worry, we have Aaron Miles. sigh

we'll see what that PTBNL is...trying to think who the Cubs would have to give up to make this comparable. I know Indians wanted major league ready pitchers so I guess Samardzija, Guzman or Hart or 2 of those 3. Or Marshall or Wells...

Fox Sports speculates on the PTBL: "Over the coming weeks, the Indians will scout the St. Louis farm system to determine the second player in the trade. One official with knowledge of the transaction said minor league right-handers Jess Todd and Francisco Samuel are on the list of possibilities. It's not known if other players are on the list agreed upon by the clubs. But Todd and Samuel are hard throwers who could fit into Cleveland's bullpen next year." http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9740910/Cards-acquire-versatile-DeRo… It's in the sidebar.

The biggest problem with our team right now seems to be the bullpen. I do not know how our bullpen stats compare to the rest of the NL, but it does not pass the stink test. Teams with championship pens are able to lock down wins like the game yesterday. We just do not have the horses in the pen to do so. Who can you trust with a one run lead? Blanco can really field and if he can hit .250 he is well worth having. Our 2nd base production has to be maybe the worst in the majors. Freel and Miles are close to useless. If Aram can't hit like before when he comes back playing with an injured shoulder, we are toast anyway.

One good thing about all this is that Rosenbloom won't get paid this week, because his column -- "boo HOO, Cubs fans, have you slit your wrists yet?!?! That is SO CUB!!!!" -- will write itself.

This sucks. While the Cubs wait to see how Ramirez does when he comes back before they make any moves (as if that's their only problem), the Cards went out and improved their team. I've been a supporter of Hendry's in the past, but I think he really screwed this one up.

I support Manny on this: Fuck You Hendry! I want his ass fired, too! This makes a formidible Cards lineup even more so compared to our last-in-the-league RISP one. As I have been saying all along, an still maintain, due to the ownership bullshit, the Cubs will NOT acquire any players of consequence this season. Hendry has made his bed...

Like the sailor said, quote, "Ain't that a hole in the boat?" http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/swingerstoo/aintthatakickinthehead.htm --- Hendry is like the professional gambler who is on a current really severe loosing streak. Craps again (so to speak) but on this one he didn't have to roll anymore as another roller just took the dice and rolled better. DeRosa the Cardinal hurts on several levels, one of course is like the Yankee-Red Sox acquisition battles where one makes a move to keep the other from getting someone they are targeting. Texeira for example. The sick part is DeRosa's availability was Hendry's own doing. Last year he tried to match mid season acquisition Sabathia with Harden and Hendry said it wasn't a deal made to match the Brewers move although the timing said it was. This year I suspect/fear we will be as silent as the Cardinals in 2008 were regarding mid year acquisitions. The only things that can save this season is a big bucket of good luck (or So Taguchi). The Cardinals filled a big need with this deal and we've at least got Jake Fox to fill in at 3B now but we had virtually the same needs as Stl did ever since ARam went down. The Cubs have used Fontenot for the most part and sat on that thinking that scrappiness will save the day...so this reminds me more of the 2006 disaster (which was a much worse season, but this year doesn't feel like it is better) when he finally got Nevin on 5-31-06 for Jerry Hairston Jr to replace DLee's absence. It was way too little, way to late to save that season. In 2006, as I remember it the problem was Juan Pierre, et al. sucking after Hendry had tried to fix the leadoff spot with the Furcal miss followed by the Pierre backup plan and hoping that when DLee got back from his wrist injury he would be the 2005 DLee. This year, after ARam, it's a mix of bad streaks from Soriano/Bradley/Fontenot and until recently Soto that have made this season unpleasant. Given how the season is going I'm not expecting the ARam RBI machine to return when he gets back...just because the season 'feels wrong'. just for grins, here was the 6-27-06 starting lineup (DLee was back for awhile then went back to the DL): Pierre (.249), Perez (.241), DLee (.298), ARam (.249), Nevin (.228-LF), Cedeno (.277), Jones (.290), Blanco (.227) and Z...and Dempster got a blown save and a loss that day. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20060627&content_id=1526426&vkey=w…

Hendry picked a bad time to have his worst season. Still, my big weenie award goes to Sam Zell and his feckless, debt-based purchase of the Tribune and his current greed in trying to squeeze every penny he can out of the Ricketss clan. The dude is the douche bag of the fucking century.

sori, riot, milt, lee, fox, soto, farni, fuky, blanco.

meanwhile in StL... Schumaker (2B), KGreene (3B), Pujols, DeRosa (LF), Ludwick (RF), Ankiel (CF), LaRue, Piniero, TGreene (SS) vs. Liriano and the M&M boys

I heard on the radio last night that the largest deficit made up at this point of the season last year was 2.5 GB by the Dodgers. They added a top 5 hitter in the game and were looking at Mark Teahan and Felipe Lopez. We should just the white flag and try to improve our putrid farm system.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

St. Louis by comparison. Memphis 35-40 Springfield 41-33 Palm Beach 31-42 Quad Cities 31-41 Overall: 138-156 Milwaukee looks strong: Nashville 43-33 Huntsville 42-33 Brevard County 41-26 Wisconsin 37-36 Overall: 163-128 This is Tim Wilken's fourth draft. I think you have to give him five or six years before you judge his drafts, because you have to fill the pipeline and create a logjam at the top, so your good players are older than your opponents'. Tennessee, for example, had very little talent last year, so their top pitchers this year, Jackson and Coleman, are young for AA.

[ ]

In reply to by Chifan

agreed, w-l means very little in judging a system. I mean, I sort of believe in the idea of creating a winning atmosphere at each level, but at the end of the day, the talent is the most important thing. The Cubs system, while there are some signs of hope, is still in the lower levels in how their value is perceived. Of course, it's important to note that value doesn't always pan out, and sleepers happen, but value is important in a variety of aspects beyond the talent itself (namely, trades). I mean, a case could be made that the Cubs are the worst system in the game (Houston and Detroit would be in that battle), and this is coming from someone that likes some signs within the system. I think the trade was interesting. Value wise, excellent for the Indians, if the reported 2nd names are true (Todd/Samuel). I do think, though, that the trade was shortsighted for the Indians unless they get a guy who can start (Todd can start, but his future may be brighter out of the pen). It seems like the trade was focused on filling a short term need. I mean, they have Perez type, inconsistent arms, for the long run. While they have some bright pitching assets in the minors, they could use a few more. That said, the value works. For the Cardinals, DeRo could be a key difference for them. Losing Perez didn't hurt that much - Motte had emerged enough. Perez was a good arm with control issues - I thought Jose Ceda was a better talent. Mozeliak has done a good job of rebuilding that system, and it's a sound system, although probably still a bit thin at the top in terms of impact. Of note is, most indications are that they wouldn't be able to get Holliday without giving up one of their elite talents in Brett Wallace, arguably their top prospect with Rasmus moving on, he of the good bat and questionable defensive ability. Essentially, if they can add Holliday to go with Derosa, they'd be giving up two top pieces in the system. Ugh, this isn't coming out clear - short of it is, we have the ability to compete with these types of trades if we are willing to leverage our top chips. That said, the Cardinals have a deeper, better system and are better able to withstand those losses at the moment.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

W-L record isnt the best way to judge a farm system. A lot of Iowa's success is because of a 4A or life long minor leaguer types. If you to take the consenous top 20 prospect of the top minor league analyst, the mode team of the list would likely be Tennessee which has the worst record manly because of all the roster changes due to changes in the MLB and AAA rosters. Daytona and Peoria have had nice years and it seems like the respective coaching staffs are doing a good job of player development. Maybe putrid was a bad choice of words, but I think its fair to say it is below average in terms of talent and needs an infusion of talent.

[ ]

In reply to by mannytrillo

Is the Cubs system the best in the majors? No. But it is not a "sinking ship." For years now the Cubs system has produced players that have helped it at the big league level or been traded for players who were. The list is long and I don't have the time or energy to type the whole thing up. I've done it before on here. A sinking ship does not produce major contributors to playoff teams like Soto, Theriot, and Zambrano, and produce enough players to trade for guys like Ramirez and Harden. Your arguments against Hendry would resonate slightly better if you weren't so over-the-top with your comments. You act like he is the WORST GM in the WORLD, that the system is the WORST in the league, that he has the WORST drafts of any GM, that he ALWAYS loses on every trade, that EVERY player he signs is a bust or he paid too much for, etc. That's how it comes off, and it's simply not true.

The full ramifications of Hendry's treachery are now apparent. Today, in some dark room in Moscow, there is laughter. Clealry, Hendry snapped after last year's playoffs, and was a prime target to be turned as a double agent. There is no posible other explanation for this offseason.

I seriously dislike this season immensely. The new goal?:Gee, maybe we can stay above .500 when the season's over. Playoffs?! Are you kiddin' me!!!? I would love to hate the Cardinals for this but I hate Hendry for this. DAMN HIM!

You are all ba-foozled! BOO LOO! He was out managed by both Ozzie and BB in the booth. Rothschild comes out and asks Z who is buying dinner, and Soto keeps given the signs to runners at second (even Z noticed it). I'm all for a comeback, but Trammel, Brenly or?? let LOO go back to Tampa.

well that sucked. at least after 200+ab's our low-ob% power hitting leadoff man has 3 doubles in his past 4 games. how about some homers sori? team's been asleep too long. and yeah...that pen...yeeeesh.

Random question for Mr. Arizona Phil - I heard Joe Simokaitis was back in the Cubs system as a pitcher after being released by the Mariners this spring. He's in Boise now but did pitch twice in AZ. Did you get a chance to see him throw? How did he look? Thanks!

[ ]

In reply to by ddp33

Submitted by ddp33 on Sun, 06/28/2009 - 3:12pm.

Random question for Mr. Arizona Phil - I heard Joe Simokaitis was back in the Cubs system as a pitcher after being released by the Mariners this spring. He's in Boise now but did pitch twice in AZ. Did you get a chance to see him throw? How did he look? Thanks!

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

DDP33: I saw him once, and he looked good. He has a low 90's fastball and a decent breaking ball. And he throws strikes, too.

He was used as a pitcher a few times in his minor league career (in blow-outs) so he has had a little bit of experience as a pitcber, but what's unusual about Simokaitis is that he made the conversion from shortstop to full-time pitcher on his own after the Seattle Mariners released him at the end of Minor League Camp (Spring Training).

Then he contacted the Cubs about a month ago and requested a tryout as a pitcher, and he was so impressive that the Cubs signed him on the spot.

As I predicted - the Cubbies lost two of three at the Cell. That makes 5 of their last six. The Pirates are not "lowly" anymore to this current Cubs team. What a shitty year so far.

all I can say is that they are lucky bastards even though this team sucks, because... it's a long season and there are unknown things that can change the way they play down the stretch (ie. secret weapon = So Taguchi) stl (L 6-2) and milw (L 7-0) looked just as bad today. the division is bunching as only cincy won today, leaving the spread from -5 to +5 around the .500 mark

even sunny Pat Hughes was questioning Zombie's maturity/fortitude on today's broadcast...a blowup of this team starts w/ our imposter of an ace...

Santo called for holding of hands in the booth today as he sang Kumbaya in a desperate move to reverse fortunes...he was giggly; almost slap-happy

Cubster: DeRosa's impact today was 0-3 with a walk. He did make a nice catch in LF. Sorry, Cubster... I got love for you and I respect you, but I'm going to have to throw the bullshit flag on this play. DeRosa currently has a .799 OPS. Exactly 5 Cubs (1 sent to Iowa, 1 on the DL) have an OPS equal to or higher than DeRosa... in order: Aramis Ramirez DL, Jake Fox, Derrek Lee, Kosuke Fukudome, Bobby Scales AAA DeRosa has also shown the ability to play passable defense at 2B, 3B, RF, and LF. DeRosa also doesn't bring drama to the clubhouse. I can think of very few legit reasons why the Cubs got rid of DeRosa and/or didn't go after DeRosa from Cleveland. Hendry eff'ed up this off season and to reacquire him would mean owning up to that mistake. Also, we don't even know if the Cubs are able to make roster moves with ownership in limbo.

Also, this might be 3-44, but did you hear Brenly on that play in the 6th inning? When Soriano lolligagged his way on a lazy pop up? I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like "I sure don't understand why we talk about Jake Fox's or Micah Hoffpauir's defense when we see things like this on a daily basis." I love the newer, edgier Brenly.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

I really like Len and Bob in the booth. Len is professional and calls a good game and Brenly tells it like it is. I had to listen to that dumbfuck homer of an announcer in Hawk Harrelson in the interleague games and he sucks balls. Stony is so fucking bitter that he can just barely remain objective. Brenly deserves a helluva lot of credit for making those comments about Alf. I wish Lou would quit coddling him and Zambrano.

Come everyone, sing it with me... "The wheels on the bus are falling off, falling of, falling off. The wheels on the bus are falling off all through Wrigleyville. I can't say I wouldn't be too surprised if Lou called it quits after this year, not a huge deal to me, but it would make me sick to have Hendry being able to hire another manager. Hopefully that would be a perfect way for the new owners to clean house.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

I don't think we can necessarily second guess Hendry on his manager hires. We were probably all excited when he hired Dusty, and same thing for Lou. Nobody could have known that Lou has mellowed so much he seems to lack any fire, and his desire for a lefty facelift is what led Hendry to destroy the roster. As for Dusty, even I, one of his biggest haters, was happy when we got him. But I don't think many of us, with the exception of Rob G., really could have watched Dusty manage that often in SF to understand his biggest problems, but I think Dusty's single biggest problem is that he isn't a hands on manager and expects his players to know what to do and also police themselves. That's fine if you have a veteran team with mostly good characters, but as we saw with the Cubs in 2004, give Dusty a few bad apples and it falls apart. That and that Dusty is a brain dead turd of a manager. Lou also has a horrible time managing bullpens. Lou picks his 2-3 favorites and pitches them until their arms fall off while the other relievers sit for prolonged periods. One can argue that the other relievers he has on the roster are poor at best, but a manager has to work everyone in or the top guys will have dead arms by the all star break. My biggest beef with Hendry, from his first few rosters to the present, is he loves high strikeout, low walk, no speed hitters who also happen to be mediocre to awful on defense. That might be fine if it's 70's Night in the American League, but not here. And completely blowing up a 97 win team was either ballsy or idiotic, and it's proving to be the latter. Hendry also favors high mph pitchers over control. And when the GM has his own idea of how to build a team, he normally hires managers who share those ideas. Dusty loves the same type of hitters. Luckily Lou started publicly asking for higher on base guys, and Hendry took a chance on Fuku (paying too large a salary I think) and did the same with Bradley (once again far too high a salary and length of contract given the financial situation of the country and baseball at the time). It seems that Hendry's two best moves, trade wise, were both taking on salary other teams couldn't afford (ARam and DLee). He has made a nice move in Lilly, signing DeRosa, and a few other minor moves, but every single one of his free agent moves were criticized at the time for overpaying (Lilly, Dero, Howry, Eyre, Jockstrap, Soriano, Bradley). What I think we have in Hendry is an old school GM who doesn't appreciate on base percentage and doesn't know how to build a roster from within AND keep the farm system pipeline flowing. Maybe in some cases Hendry had to overpay to draw a better quality free agent to a perennially bad team, but he keeps doing it and we are supposed to be one of the most sought after places to play now. Hendry only knows how to throw money at problems. He would be a good fit with the Yankees, but with any kind of restrictive payroll his mistakes often can't be fixed in season because he can't take on more salary.

OH MY GOD. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT YOSH KAWANO IS THE *REAL* PROBLEM HERE. HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN HERE? HOW MUCH HAVE THEY WON??!?!? YEAH...YEAH...DO THAT MATH. THERE'S YOUR **PROOF**. I WOULDN'T HIRE YOSH TO WASH THE CARDINALS UNDERWEAR. THE GUY IS WORSE THAN HITLER AND BACK IN 1978 HE KICKED MUH DOG AND IT UP N' DIED.

Hendry took a big, unnecessary gamble by making big changes to a 97-win team, in panic response to one poor 3-game series in October. He bet big on Bradley, Fontenot, and Rammy's health, and came up empty on all counts. GMs who take big, unnecessary risks -- and fail -- get fired. Jim has been around long enough to know the risk he was taking.

[ ]

In reply to by billybucks

he shifted dero (who's not much of a middle IF'r anymore, even 2nd) and his 34 year old body out. he didn't re-sign kerry wood. he traded wuertz for peanuts and he shifted out jason marquis. two were marginally stupid, one was a wash, and one was good that he avoided. i still think bradley for 10m a year is isn't a bad deal, but he hasn't delivered. ...neither has almost EVERYONE on the team. those that were part of that 97-win team...what they doing that's 97-win-worthy?

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Trading Dero and his 34-year-old former QB body, which would be leading the team, BY FAR, in RBIs, for the dreaded "prospects" -- given Rammy's injury history, no backup 3B in sight, and this team's opportunity to win now --was more than "marginally stupid". It's like Hendry was a motivated seller at the deadline in the offseason and the team ws getting ready to rebuild. Bradley was a stupid gamble, as many, including me, said at the time. Putting an emotional trainwreck in the glaring spotlight of Wrigley is a recipe for disaster. Milt was a great hiiter in Texas and in spring training, where nobody cares.

[ ]

In reply to by billybucks

im not saying dero was useless and in retrospect it's not a good one for the 09 cubs...however, i have a hard time not standing behind the decision at the time of having fontenot cover 2nd with miles backing him up. i'll leave alone the whole "giving miles a 2yr deal" cuz that's "wtf" as hell. as far as bradley handling chicago's pressure...he seems just fine. every time another person tries to rope him into some crap it's milton that keeps taking the high road. evidently, his personal tantrums on non-human items is getting old, though. bradley is always going to K a lot...he's a 150K guy, easy. he's also a 100 walk guy, easy. now, if he'd start elevating the ball instead of pounding everything into the ground he'll probably look better at the plate and i don't think that has much to do with cubs, media, wrigley, etc.

Ryno: you musta missed my DeRosa comment in post #19. Hendry is like the professional gambler who is on a current really severe loosing streak... The sick part is DeRosa's availability was Hendry's own doing. --- post #35 which you called bullshirt on was just a note on today's game (not intended to be commentary on his impact for the rest of the season). I was watching the stl/minn game on the computer today and posted it after the game had ended. He didn't add to their offense but made a lunging catch in LF around the 8th inning. In fact he rolled after the catch but the dive was more of a loss of balance to reach. We've seen him make this same type of catch in RF at Wrigley. It was appropriate and not for the theatrics like Edmonds used to do. Soriano on the other hand in LF makes me sick with all the loping and hopping and crashing into infielders and outfielders. I'm sure there will be a comment here every time DeRosa hits with RISP as he surely will do that more often than Soriano, Bradley, Fukudome, Fontenot or even imaginary Farney.

Congrats to Mariano Rivera on his 500th save. For those who didnt watch the game he had a RBI as well. Who would have thought that he would be a better run producer than the Cubs today.

As stated before i would like to know who has full or partial trade clauses if the cubs dont look into who is willing to trade what for the likes of lee,zambrano,hielmann and so on shame on them. By the allstar game hendry should be able to figure it out are we buying or selling. Pittsburgh, milwaukee,st louis eleven games should be telling.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

Submitted by jacos on Wed, 06/17/2009 - 9:56am. Acccording to WGN Dempster will pitch today. Terry Cowley of Sun Times on WSCR said the Cubs might be underplaying the severity of Aram's shoulder and fans should not be suprised if Cubs pull plug on rehab and have him get season ending surgery. Apparently the Sun-Times just makes things up in the absence of real news, can we count on TCR for some journalistic integrity?

Arizona Phil, I see the Cubs signed Glenn Cook on Friday and assigned him to AZL. When you get a chance to see him over the coming days, would greatly appreciate an update on how he looks having not played baseball since HS!

I read 60 posts, and they could all have been summed up with one simple statement: "The sky is falling." I will post it if we lose tonight and instead of talking about whoever the scapegoat of the day is everyone else can just sign it.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

you must have missed the 2 years of "dusty picked his nose, let's have 100 posts about how that made jason dubois suck." you're totally finding the ones where i raise alarms about a BASEBALL PLAYER, though. sorry about that soriano leading off thing...sorry it took 200ab's for it to become an issue to you. i'll go start a thread about how lou is losing control of his clubhouse and pick apart his every move daily. that TCR enough for ya?

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

geez louis....sorry if you weren't aware how much you repeat one point over and over, I thought everyone kind of knew that about your Internet persona...

I have no issues with what you're saying, yeah I disagree on some, don't on others, but you recycle your material quite a bit, including the same punch line each time...kind of like a girlfriend telling you to take the trash out. I know the trash needs to go out, don't need to hear about it every 5 minutes.

But yes, a lot of people will all pile on a certain topic, but everyone wants to get their two cents in, so I guess I find that less annoying than repeating the exact same joke or topic each time you say something. And I'm not saying others aren't guilty of it as well, some are just worse at it.

it was more a joke than anything, I was kind of assuming you guys knew that you did that and it annoys people, since I'm not the only one that has mentioned it. If you didn't, I apologize for being the bearer of bad news.

Well, I've reached my blog Nazi commenting quota for the last 3-4 days....carry on.

I seem to get logged out every time I reload the site. Anyone else having this problem? Just started late last night for me and I'm wondering if it's my stuff or the site?

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I was logged out this morning, but it hasn't done it to me again. Maybe someone is trying to send you a message...

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

weirdness, seems to just do it on the front page as it'll keep me logged in if I'm in the comments. Also is doing it in Safari...

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • 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.