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

Marginally Meaningful Cubs Baseball is Still Being Played

The Cubs have won 8 of 10, and 7 of their last 8 to get within 5.5 of the wild card and 8 of the Cardinals. At the very least, it makes the games bearable to watch for the time being. The Cubs have 19 games left and play a few more games than their current competitors, so they're actually just 4 back in the loss column to the Rockies and tied with the Marlins and Braves in that category. They trail the Giants by 2 in the loss column but play them next week. So they'll need some help from teams to beat the Rockies, but in a round-about way, they still control most of their own destiny for the rest of the season.

As for the sort-of-big weekend series versus the Cardinals, it's already guaranteed that the Cardinals won't be able to clinch anything this weekend. That's not going to stop them from trying to bury the Cubs though. They'll send out John Smoltz, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright for the series against Ted Lilly, Ryan Dempster and Carlos Zambrano. 

Lineups for tonight:

Lopez 2b
Theriot SS
Hart RF
Fukudome CF
Braun LF
Lee 1B
Fielder 1B
Ramirez 3B
McGehee 3B
Soto C
Cameron CF
Bradley RF
Kendall C
Fontenot 2B
Escobar SS
Scales LF
Looper P
Harden P

I wouldn't be suprised if things get a little chippy tonight. The teams have become almost as intense rivals as the Cubs and Cardinals and there were 3 HBP's last night and a few almost HBP's, following Braun getting hit by Dempster the night before.

In the hot 'n cold department, Soto's found his groove with a 1.252 OPS in September and 7 XBH's in 7 games played. Derrek Lee has a 1.333 OPS since August 25th with 9 HR's in 19 games. Then there's Milton Bradley, who hasn't walked since August 30th and has a .447 OPS in that time. Bobby Scales keeps getting playing time in LF despite a .617 OPS in September and some boneheaded defense and baserunning, while Micah Hoffpauir has a 1.122 OPS since being recalled. Godenot has returned as well for the final month with a 1.071 OPS in 8 games (6/14 at the plate).

Parachat actually had a small crowd last night, so stop on by.

Comments

No score in Jacksonville in Double A Finals...top of the 5th.

Papelbon pitching for Smokies. Guyer reached on an error in 4th with 0 outs, Adduci failed at a sac bunt and M. Smith doubled, but Guyer was thrown at home.

Harden pitching badly. 5-0 Brewers in the top of the third. Under any rosy scenario, we would likely be talking about the Cubs losing 3-4 games the rest of the season to get in the playoffs. Looks like one will be tonight.

boneheads? per Trib/Sullivan Milton Bradley and Geovany Soto weren't into the game either. Soto violated Rule 7.05 by using his mask to try to pick up a ball that got away from him, allowing a baserunner to advance. "I don't think Soto knew the rule," Piniella said with a laugh. "I'll be honest with you. We told him he couldn't use his helmet either, just to make sure." Later in the inning, Soto tagged out a runner at home on a bases-loaded grounder instead of just stepping on the plate for a force. Bradley looked so disinterested during his second-inning strikeout that Piniella yanked him after the third. Piniella downplayed it afterward, saying it was only a double-switch.

So is the Bradley hot streak over? A little less than a week is all we get? Damn what a bummer. Despite all of Bradleys walks and his relative health he is gonna struggle to out perform Soriano who played on one knee most of the year and will be on the DL to finish out the last month. I will use PA for Rob.... Bradley 470 PA, .256 BA, 61 runs, 17 2b, 12 HR, 40 RBI Soriano 522 PA, .241 BA, 64 runs, 25 2b, 20 HR, 55 RBI Bradley should finish near Soriano in PA, but i don't think he has a shot in hell of beating out the one legged gimp in extra base hits or RBI. Soriano has had a shitty season, but please tell me what kind of season is worse than shitty when your under performing a guy on the DL and who played on one leg when you were considered healthy most of the year?

more Paul Sullivan/Trib douchbaggery...after hasseling Z about the no trade he's apparently backing off because it was about stoopid "sources" (probably wrongway phil rogers): A day after falling apart on the mound and leaving a postgame news conference in a huff, Zambrano was able to sit back and laugh about his situation. He knows he has the hammer with a full no-trade clause in his contract, and sources indicated Wednesday he has no intention on waiving it this off-season.

I'm no sabermetrics guru but I thought I could pretend like I understand these things... Since Bradley was brought in to balance our righty hitters in the 3/4/5 spot (DLee-ARam), he's obviously failed miserably. So with this initial premise I thought I'd just look at BA/RISP. With his higher walk rate batting 2nd made sense until the last fall off the table slump. Now all we can hope for is a reset of his 2010. using hardball times data, looks like Bradley is having a slightly worse and very miserable season (compared to Soriano's also miserable season). I realize RISP is probably enhanced if your top of the order guys are getting on and the hitter is in the 3/4/5 slot. Soriano in 2008 was probably helped by the bottom of the order getting on leading to his career high in this stat. I don't know what their "clutch" stat is but on a scale of -10 to +15 it's interesting to see how it correlates with BA/RISP. So I added some comps. if you compare BA/RISP. ARam is having a career year on that stat...too bad it's a diminished sample size. http://www.hardballtimes.com/thtstats/main/player/369/milton-bradley Bradley 2009 BA/RISP .205 (career season high .297, 2006 w Oak) Clutch -5.5 (career low -7.5, 2004 w Dodgers) Soriano 2009 BA/RISP .216 (career season high .276, 2008) Clutch 0.7 (career low -6.8, 2005 w Texas) Aram 2009 BA/RISP .423 (career high) Clutch +7.0 (career high) DLee 2009 BA/RISP .313 (career high .364, 2007) Clutch -3.0 (career low -3.8, 2005 and high +4.8, 2007) Pujols 2009 BA/RISP .364 (career high .397, 2006 Clutch 0.2 (career low -2.5, 2007 and career high 13.7, 2006)

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

you're right, you're no sabermetrician. :)

to be an effective baseball player, there's basically 4 things I look at...

you get on-base, you drive in runs, you hit for power, you can play defense...if you want to add a 5th, you can add baserunning and speed, but it's very much the 5th wheel...

1. you get on-base

it's pretty easy, look at OBP

.376 vs .303 (Bradley vs. Soriano)

.371 vs. .326 for their careers

2. you drive in runs

yeah, there's RBI's, they don't tell a good story. They don't tell you about the RBI opportunities. I've preached this for a long time but BP and the game logs of individual players on Baseball Reference do.

Bradley: 288 Runners have been on-base (ROB) when he's come up, he's driven in 28 of them for a woeful 9.7%

Soriano: 276 ROB, 35 driven in (this excludes driving themselves in) for an also woeful 12.7% 

Generally about 15-16% is considered average and only Ramirez and Lee are above that this year for the Cubs. The only thing about driving in runs and hitting with runners on, is that is has shown to fluctuate greatly from season to season.

Bradley's ROB% from 2008 in descending order (2007, then 2006 and so forth): 15.6, 16, 14, 12.9, 12.8, 17.6, 12

Soriano's ROB%:  16.4, 13, 13.9, 16, 16.2, 14.1, 17.7

3. you hit for power

Bradley: 12 HR's, 30 XBH's in 2009 (terrible)

Soriano: 20 HR's, 46 XBH's in 2009 (about the only decent thing from him all season)

Soriano obviously has the career advantage as well...

4: you play defense

I think Soriano has been a disaster this season and certainly taken a step back from some decent years he had before that, mostly thanks to his arm. Left field tends to be the place you sacrifice defense so comparing him to his peers versus Bradley's right field and center field peers is hardly ideal. Nonetheless...

Soriano BP rate2 (100 is average): 114 for his career in LF, 102 in 2009 (that's a tough one to swallow)

Bradley BP rate2: 104 for his career in RF, 107 in 2009

Soriano UZR/150: 5.4 for his career in LF, -13.1 in 2009, 5.2 in 2008, 22.4 in 2007

Bradley UZR/150: 7.8 for his career in RF, 6.6 in CF, - 2.3 in 2009, 14.2 in 2006

There's some decent cumulative stats that try to sum up a player into one stat. WAR and WARP are the most prominent.

Bradley: 1.3 WAR in 2009, 2.4 WARP

Soriano: -0.8 WAR in 2009,  0.8 WARP

Salary: $16M for Soriano this year, $7M for Bradley

Recent comments

  • 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...

  • 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.