Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

42 players are at MLB Spring Training 

31 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE at MLB Spring Training, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 
11 players are MLB Spring Training NON-ROSTER INVITEES (NRI) 

Last updated 3-17-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 17
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
Daniel Palencia
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

NRI PITCHERS: 5 
Colten Brewer 
Carl Edwards Jr 
* Edwin Escobar 
* Richard Lovelady 
* Thomas Pannone 

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

NRI CATCHERS: 2  
Jorge Alfaro 
Joe Hudson 

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

NRI INFIELDERS: 3 
David Bote 
Garrett Cooper
* Dominic Smith

OUTFIELDERS: 5
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

NRI OUTFIELDERS: 1 
* David Peralta

OPTIONED:
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, RHP 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, RHP 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

 



Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

TCR Friday Notes and Introducing a New Bears Blog

Well that little fling the Cubs had with the playoffs was fun, but I'm back to not giving a damn. One of our readers suggested a poll on what was the reasons for the Cubs demise in 2009. You never want to jump the gun too soon on something like that, but I think by the end of the weekend, it'll be safe to post.

- BP looks at the some of minor leaguers around the NL that took a big stride in their prospectdom. Kyler Burke and pitcher "Cub" Carpenter(so as not be confused with the Cardinals Chris Carpenter) get mentioned.

- A nice article on where and how the Cubs make their money and where new owner Tom Ricketts will try to boost profits.

-  Fun day at the ballpark yesterday....Cubs lose again and Randy Wells looks cooked. Milton got on-base finally, but complained of a knee injury and was removed from the game. This sent the press corp into some sort of odd frenzy, which of course Bradley fed with a terse post-game press conference around his locker followed by Lou sort of dressing Bradley down for his actions. This after Lou just decided he wasn't going to hold a press conference of his own. Oh yee double standard, how I love you so...

The writing is getting pretty clear on the wall that Lou and Bradley just aren't going to get along. I imagine Hendry will be working the phones for some overpriced relievers to try and swap bad contracts this offseason. Then he can cut the reliever and flush $23M down the drain.

- Speaking of Bradley, there's been some odd debate between the on-field merits of Alfonso Soriano vs. Bradley this year in the comments. Seems pretty cut and dried to me, but I did try to look at it objectively in this comment. I reposted the analysis after the jump as well.

- And I'd like to welcome all of you Bears fans, to The Bear Truth. A little Bears blog I'm going to start up. Right now, it's just yours truly, but hopefully I can blackmail a few more writers into joining the venture (drop me a note if you're interested, qualifications are the English language and not being an over-opinionated douchebag). If anything, it will hopefully keep the Bears talk off here. I'm sure it'll one day grow into something just as kick-ass as TCR, but for the time being, it'll be just a good place to gather and chat about the Bears, including Parachat on gamedays. I also plan on using it as my testing ground for improvements to TCR as the two sites run on the same platform. Stop on by... 


Bradley vs. Soriano in 2009 (with a few minor additions from the original comment)

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

Major Advantage Bradley

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 carry the information. 

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 on a home run) 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

Slight Advantage Soriano

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...

Major Advantage Soriano

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

Slight to Substantial Advantage Bradley 

There's some decent cumulative stats that try to sum up a player...WAR(via BP) and WARP(via Fangraphs) 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

It's like comparing turds in a punch bowl, but Bradley for the win in 2009.

Comments

http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/sharing.shtml

BR lets you share info automatically and pick your columns... I'm going to have to tweak some things to let you guys be able to post stuff, but I'll be do that tonight.

Split G GS PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB BAbip April/March 14 10 45 5 4 0 0 2 2 9 10 .118 .333 .294 .627 10 .091 May 24 22 92 14 22 3 1 3 12 9 15 .268 .348 .439 .787 36 .297 June 22 17 77 5 18 5 0 0 3 10 17 .273 .377 .348 .725 23 .367 July 24 21 94 14 19 1 0 3 9 23 17 .275 .457 .420 .878 29 .320 August 26 24 112 18 28 7 0 3 10 15 21 .308 .427 .484 .911 44 .373 Sept/Oct 14 14 53 5 10 1 0 1 4 0 15 .196 .226 .275 .501 14 .257 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/18/2009.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

nevermind, did it now, those are Bradley's splits btw...

 

Split G GS PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB BAbip April/March 14 10 45 5 4 0 0 2 2 9 10 .118 .333 .294 .627 10 .091 May 24 22 92 14 22 3 1 3 12 9 15 .268 .348 .439 .787 36 .297 June 22 17 77 5 18 5 0 0 3 10 17 .273 .377 .348 .725 23 .367 July 24 21 94 14 19 1 0 3 9 23 17 .275 .457 .420 .878 29 .320 August 26 24 112 18 28 7 0 3 10 15 21 .308 .427 .484 .911 44 .373 Sept/Oct 14 14 53 5 10 1 0 1 4 0 15 .196 .226 .275 .501 14 .257 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/18/2009.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

Click Share and then delete the columns you don't want (please keep them at a reasonable size 20-25 columns), hit html table and then copy and paste the code...

you can also click "pre-formatted text" and just copy and pase that

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

try it again, seems to strip away some of the styling, but it lines up, 20 columns should be the max, maybe less, although I can't really enforce it. Year Tm Lg G PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO OPS OPS+ 2007 CHC NL 135 617 97 173 42 5 33 70 19 31 130 .897 123 2008 CHC NL 109 503 76 127 27 0 29 75 19 43 103 .876 121 2009 CHC NL 117 522 64 115 25 1 20 55 9 40 118 .726 85 CHC (3 yrs) 361 1642 237 415 94 6 82 200 47 114 351 .837 110 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/18/2009.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

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121  678˙ 301 34  91 57  92 0  72 721 67  305  901 ןu   ɔɥɔ    8002
321  798˙ 031 13  91 07  33 5  24 371 79  716  531 ןu   ɔɥɔ    7002
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[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

I didn't realize this til just now - Ibanez is getting half a million more per year than Bradley. They're not going to be too happy paying Howard $20 million two years from now, but probably happier than the Cubs paying Soriano. On page two of that article there is this on Zambrano: "Big Z said he doesn't care about the speculation, adding, "If the Cubs want to trade me, it's because they don't like me anymore." This from a guy who skipped a team charter on his birthday, was suspended six games for "inappropriate and violent actions" and spent time on the disabled list with a chronic back condition that he acknowledged was a result of being lazy ... and then was spotted playing softball while still on the DL. Gee, what's not to like?"

Witty tweets... cst_cubs: No Milty today. What else they got: riot, fuky, lee, rami, hoff (rf), soto, baker, scales, lilly. --- Milty gets ak amp to get rid of his severe knee pain, prosthetic fitting with carbon alloy, able to jump tall buildings soon. What a trooper, all for the love of the cubs. Milty asks if he can wear #22, a number steeped in cub history, gorzelanny says pleeze take it...he'll take #5 since it's not being used

There's an ad network malware that is attacking sites (including this one). If you get a window saying your system is infected, and it shows a realistic windows screen with an animated "scan", DO NOT click on it. Instead, hit control/alt/delete to get to Windows Task Manager, then click on the processes tab and kill your browser process (either Firefox.exe or iexplore.exe). It's the only way to kill the window. Don't worry about the warning saying doing it can cause undesired results. On a Mac, just do a force quit. This is not something that Rob can fix -- it comes from one of his ad networks and is a known bug. I would think that the network that is distributing this thing would have resolved it by now. It's at least 2 days old.

Fox Sports Midwest feed opening their game with a montage about why the cubs suck using history and noting the cubs are full of failure this year. This was a 3+ minute piece using all cubs footage and included goats, bartmans, and everything. They totally buried Milton "he's been a disappointment at the plate and even worse in the field." Big rundown of all the Cubs injuries this year...fun stuff. Nothing to do with the Cards mentioned...and then to another commercial break. Way to go Fox Midwest...thanks.

Looks like double trouble for Smoltz in the first. Would have been a lot cooler had we won one of the last two games, but at least the Cubs have a chance to say 'FU' to the Cardinals and their fans over the weekend. Smoltz 3.27 ERA...Holliday 1.057 OPS - Fire Hendry!

I knew the beer at Wrigley seemed to be overpriced at $6.50 this year...at least it's setting things up for Tom Ricketts first important move this offseason to lower beer prices --- The Wall Street Journal reports that beer prices rise along with a big-league team's winning percentage. The Journal found that a team with a .600 winning percentage will charge, on average, $1.30 more for a 16-ounce cup of beer than will a team with a mark of .400 or lower. Thus, the Boston Red Sox charge $7.25 for 12-ounce cup of suds while the Pittsburgh Pirates charge just $4.75 for 21 ounces. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240529702034401045744007040553323…

nice work theriot

getting almost picked off wasn't good enough for you, you had to make sure the Cards got the call the 2nd time

ump has a strange zone where the ball can be outside and below the knees for a strike

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Did Theriot really get picked off? Was watching the Cardinals' broadcast and they had one shitty angle they showed twice. I've never seen a strike zone like that guy was calling tonight. Strike one to Soto from McClellan was a good 8 inches off the plate. Lou was talking about having an injury - it's becoming clear that he's got a muscle pull somewhere between the left and right ear. Splits are great and all, but bunting Miles for Hoffpauir was just stupid.

Holliday walk-off HR of Heilman

Smokies win, 5-4 on an rbi single by Starlin Castro driving in Brandon Guyer who had a pinch hit single and stolen 2nd. Guyer was player of the game. Series 2-1 Jax with game 4 Sat night game ends with a rendition of Go Cubs Go on the stadium PA and an interview with Guyer...who bloodied his nose sliding into home head first.

Tonight was Ryne Sandberg's 50th birthday (BD 9-18-59) ===== Sandberg interview just before the playoffs: “I think I’m somewhat of an aggressive manager,” Sandberg said. “I like action on the field; I like energy. I really enjoy the National League style of play, using guys on the bench and having some strategy in trying to win a game.” http://southern.league.milb.com/documents/2009/09/11/6904606/1/Vol_15_I… “It worked out perfectly to be doing this with the Chicago organization,” Sandberg said. “To be doing it with the Cubs makes it much more special and I feel like I’m gaining experience and I hope to one day do this at the major league level, wherever that opportunity may come.”

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

You had just criticized Sandberg for bunting and stealing too often, when I spoke up. I guess you're saying that Guyer had other ways to score without stealing. He could have stayed at first, then gone to third on Castro's single, and waited for a sac fly or a gift, a "wild pitch, balk, passed ball, K on a wild pitch, error, GIDP etc." In other words, play the game like the grown-up Cubs do--assuming their runner wouldn't have stopped at second on Castro's hit, which drove in the winning run in Sandberg's scenario. Is it really a stain on Sandberg's record that he lets Adduci (35 of 47 SBs) and Thomas (13 of 26) run so much? It depends what you think his job is. Both Adduci and Thomas have to be base stealers to have a chance to make the majors.

Sometimes when you watch a game, you bitch about the umpiring but think deep down inside "well, I am just being a homer". With the McClellan strike 1 pitch to Soto, it was pretty hard to not think, Soto at least, was not getting screwed. According to pitch FX, it wasn't just Soto: Long link - head to Brooks Baseball to look. If that link works... Throwing out the ones that were barely high/low, because that would change for each hitter: Cubs bad strike calls:7 Cards bad strike calls:3 Cubs free ball calls:0 Cards free ball calls:3 Seven more missed calls that went against the Cubs than were missed against the Cards - I've argued before the accuracy of the Pitch/FX stuff, so I am not going to say it's the be-all-end-all conclusive evidence, but it sure as hell was pissing me off last night.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

doesn't the ability to take an extra base depend on where the ball lands and who hit that ball to advance the runner? defender quality and arm? how the hell do you track that without a bunch of tape? -edit- i just read how they get a chunk of the stats on that page and more than a few are worthless curiosities. they fulfill the definitions, but are pretty flakey in substance. the don't take account any situations beyond the basic...though for some reason they park adjust some stats. i know you have to start somewhere to hash out a stat, but baserunning stats on this level seem as useless and young in hashing-out as defensive stats were/are.

Lou gives Scales the opportunity to make the highlight reels late in the season. Too bad it will be for turning a Brendan Ryan double into a homerun. Good effort, tough break. Jake Fox plays it off the wall.

"Not really," he said. "It's just not a positive environment. I need a stable, healthy, enjoyable environment. There's too many people everywhere in your face with a microphone asking the same questions repeatedly. Everything is just bashing you. You got out there and you play harder than anybody on the field and never get credit for it. It's just negativity. "And you understand why they haven't won in 100 years here, because it's negative. It's what it is." http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=322741

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

now if he'd just keep from falling for it...heheh... that said...seems like he just signed his sell-low ticket out of chicago. meh. we're about to jettison a good hitter/defender (when healthy) because he's got the attitude of gary sheffield. whatever...hope something good comes of it somehow.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

If Hendry was smart (a dubious proposition, I know) he would come out tomorrow and say "We're not trading Bradley and we're not trading Zambrano. They're going to shut up and play out their contracts." Then proceed to listen to offers for them during the off-season.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

milton's going out of his way at this point to get himself traded, it seems. it's one thing to say you're not happy and call it as you see it...it's another to bring up that "100 years" thing, call the entire organization negative, and add more fuel to the fans vs. milton fire all in 1 soundbite. i wouldn't mind having milton back next year, myself...especially given his current value.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Who does Bradley have to blame for his position at this point but himself? He chose to sign in Chicago. If he didn't know it was a big media town, he and his agent achieved an epic fail as far as research goes. If Hendry allows Bradley to force him into a trade, then he's not doing his job. What's to keep the team from coming out and saying, "We don't agree with Mr. Bradley's criticisms of the Chicago media. The opinions expressed in any Milton Bradley interview do not represent the opinions of the organization. We offer him as much support and help in constructing his own image and interacting with the press as he likes--it is up to him to take advantage of that offer." What, that would make Bradley even angrier? What's he gonna do, play like shit intentionally? Put himself on the DL? I guess it's possible--I'm not sure at this point that Bradley is above cutting off his nose to spite his face. I like his stats. I think he's an above average player and I do not want to see Hendry sell low on him. Get more creative in how to manage the situation, Lou and Hendry.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

"Who does Bradley have to blame for his position at this point but himself? He chose to sign in Chicago. If he didn't know it was a big media town, he and his agent achieved an epic fail as far as research goes." Agreed. Ideally, agents and players should do serious due diligence that playing for the Cubs means you're "Not in Kansas anymore, Toto." Along with New York and Boston, it is one of the three pressure places. The Cubs' unfortunately, is due to the 100+ year failure coupled with our expectations in the "$140MM Era". Fuck the players if they take the money knowing this, and then come here and suck. And, fuck Hendry for not doing his due dilligence as well.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I looked it up. Ironically, he took himself out of the first inning of his first game as a Cub and blamed it on his left leg. What a symmetrical season... By Paul Sullivan MESA, Ariz.- Milton Bradley's Cubs debut on Thursday was brief and interesting, to say the least. Bradley drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the first inning of the Cactus League game against Milwaukee, before being removed for a pinch-runner with mild tightness of the left quad. So what happened? "I had a tight quad," he replied. How did it happen? "When you work out hard, you get tight," he said. Asked if it happened during the game, Bradley finally smiled and said: "I didn't do too much in the game. I felt it before, warming up. So I just let them know it felt tighter than it should've been. We've got a quarter-season worth of games in spring training, so I thought the best course of action was to let them know right now." Bradley's history of injuries is well-chronicled, but he's not concerned that this one will turn into anything major. He worked out after leaving the game and expects to be back in the lineup in a couple days. Bradley is not going to take any unneccessary precautions. Spring is spring," he said. "I had like five at-bats last spring and hit .320 (during the season). "Spring is overrated... I'm gonna hit. That's not a concern."

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

Bradley makes a habit of taking himself out of alot of games. He doesn't wait for trainers or makes any attempt to stay in the game. He just picks up and goes into the dugout. And people think he doesn't fake shit to not play. That video of the last time he did it the entire team had the "I don't give a crap" look. No one even bothered to talk to Bradley. I have no doubt that if he is traded Bradley will come out with similar comments as he did in Texas. He is already commented on how he doesn't feel safe playing 9 innings, he didn't feel like playing for a team that didn't commit to him, now that a team has committed to him its on to another excuse. This time it will be the fans of Chicago who are ungrateful for not recognizing the hardest worker on the team. Now if Texas wasn't going to give him a multi-year deal and he was faking injuries to not play for them, what do you think Milton would do if he thinks the fans of a team don't properly respect him? If he is petty enough to fake injuries over a contract, you know damn well he will do it over people not respecting him. Either way he has 30 million in his pocket....or does he? The Daily Herald has an additional detail of the Bradley contract that i have never heard of before.... http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=322768&src=152 Bradley is in the first season of a three-year, $30 million contract. The third year can become a club option if Bradley is on the disabled list at the end of this season and not ready to play by next April 15 because of a specific injury, widely believed to be the knee. That would be hard to pull off.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    SF snags b.snell...2/62m

  • Cubster (view)

    AZ Phil: THAT is an awesome report worth multiple thanks. I’m sure it will be worth reposting in an “I told you so” in about 2-3 years.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The actual deadline to select a post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agent signed to 2024 minor league contract (Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta) to the MLB 40-man roster is not MLB Opening Day, it is 12 PM (Eastern) this coming Sunday (3/24). 

    However, the Cubs could notify the player prior to the deadline that the player is not going to get added to the 40 on Sunday, which would allow the player to opt out early. Otherwise the player can opt out anytime after the Sunday deadline (if he was not added to the 40 by that time). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Today is an off day for both the Cubs MLB players and the Cubs minor league players.  

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    For those of you keeping track, so far nine players have been called up to Mesa from the Cubs Dominican Academy for Minor League Camp and they will be playing in the ACL in 2024: 

    * bats or throws left 

    Angel Cepeda, INF 
    * Miguel Cruz, P
    Yidel Diaz, C 
    * Albert Gutierrez, 1B
    Fraiman Marte, P  
    Francis Reynoso, P (ex-1B) 
    Derniche Valdez, INF 
    Edward Vargas, OF 
    Jeral Vizcaino, P 

    And once again, despite what you might read at Baseball Reference and at milb.com, Albert Gutierrez is absolutely positively a left-handed hitter (only), NOT a right-handed hitter.

    Probably not too surprisingly, D. Valdez was the Cubs #1 prospect in the DSL last season, Cepeda was the DSL Cubs best all-around SS prospect not named Derniche Valdez, Gutierrez was the DSL Cubs top power hitting prospect not named Derniche Valdez, E. Vargas was the DSL Cubs top outfield prospect (and Cepeda and E. Vargas were also the DSL Cubs top two hitting prospects), Y. Diaz was the DSL Cubs top catching prospect, and M. Cruz was the DSL Cubs top pitching prospect. 

    F. Marte (ex-STL) and J. Vizcaino (ex-MIL) are older pitchers (both are 22) who were signed by the Cubs after being released by other organizations and then had really good years working out of the bullpen for the Cubs in the DSL last season. 

    The elephant in the room is 21-year old Francis Reynoso, a big dude (6'5) who was a position player (1B) at the Cardinals Dominican Academy for a couple of years, then was released by STL in 2022, and then signed by the Cubs and converted to a RHP at the Cubs Dominican Academy (and he projects as a high-velo "high-leverage" RP in the states). He had a monster year for the DSL Cubs last season (his first year as a pitcher). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    DJL: The only players who definitely have opt outs are Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta (Opening Day, 5/1, and 6/1), and that's because they are post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agents who signed 2024 minor league contracts and (by rule) they get those opt outs automatically. 

    Otherwise, any player signed to a 2024 minor league contract - MIGHT or - MIGHT NOT - have an opt out in their contract, but it is an individual thing, and if there are contractual opt outs the opt out(s) might not necessarily be Opening Day. It could be 5/1, or 6/1, or 7/1 (TBD).

    Because of their extensive pro experience, the players who most-likely have contractual opt outs are Alfaro, Escobar, and D. Smith, but (again), not necessarily Opening Day. 

    Also, just because a player has the right to opt out doesn't mean he will. 

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I love the idea that Madrigal heads to Iowa in case Morel can’t handle third.

    The one point that intrigues me here is Cooper over Smith. I feel like the Cubs really like Smith and don’t want to lose him. Could be wrong. He def seems like an opt out if he misses the opening day roster

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: Both Madrigal and Wisdom can be optioned without any restriction. Their consent is not required. 

    They both can be outrighted without restriction, too (presuming the player is not claimed off waivers), but if outrighted they can choose to elect free agency (immediately, or deferred until after the end of the MLB season).

    If the player is outrighted and elects free-agency immediately he forfeits what remains of his salary.

    If he accepts the assignment and defers free agency until after the conclusion of the season, he continues to get his salary, and he could be added back to the 40 anytime prior to becoming a free-agent (club option). 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil, 
    Madrigal and Wisdom can or cannot refuse being optioned to the Minors?
    If they can refuse it, wouldn't they elect to leave the Cubs org?

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    In my opinion, the biggest "affirmative" mistake the Cubs made in the off-season (that is, doing something they should not have done), was blowing $9M in 2024 AAV on Hector Neris. What the Cubs actually need is an alternate closer to be in the pen and available to close if Alzolay pitched the day before (David Robertson would have been perfect), because with his forearm issue last September, I would be VERY wary of over-using Alzolay. I'm not even sure I would pitch him two days in a row!  

    And of course what the Cubs REALLY need is a second TOR SP to pair with Justin Steele. That's where the Cubs are going to need to be willing to package prospects (like the Padres did to acquire Dylan Cease, the Orioles did to acquire Corbin Burnes, and the Dodgers did to acquire Tyler Glasnow). Obviously those ships have sailed, but I would say right now the Cubs need to look very hard at trying to acquire LHSP Jesus Luzardo from the Marlins (and maybe LHP A. J. Puk as well).