Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL 

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, one player is on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-18-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 
* Justin Steele, P   

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Holiday Hangover

Submitted by Rob G. on

Judging by the number of hits and comments, you guys are either ridiculously bored or still passionate about the Cubs...or just like to argue. I find myself rather indifferent after the holiday break, the Cubs instilling no confidence in me that they know what they're doing and seemingly content to blame the entire failure of 2009 on Milton Bradley and injuries.

I did score my usual swag of Cubs gifts for Christmas. The Angel Fan Wife got me this 1984 Cubs cap, plus I got a new Cubs jersey to add to my collection and various other Cubs-themed knick knacks that always seem to find my stocking including a Cubs-themed Connect Four. I tried to teach the G Twins how to play, but they seemed more interested in making pretty patterns with the red and blue pieces and then releasing the support bar from the bottom so all the tiles came crashing down.

Fun little sidenote about the G twins and living in a split household. Back during the playoffs while the Angels were making a little run, they were of course on the TV a lot. A few days after getting eliminated by the Yankees, I was watching another game and one of my daughters asked where the Angels were. I explained that they lost in the playoffs and that there season was over. Her little lip started to quiver, she whimpered "It's ooover...why?" and the sobbing began. Sadly, that probably won't be the last time she cries about baseball.

Here's the update to the Free Agent Frenzy contest. One person got Rich Harden right (for 10 pts), another Jason Bay(for 8 pts) and a third person got DeRosa to the Giants (for 5 pts).

Here's a link to an All-Decade Team at The Blue Workhorse. Corey Patterson is on it and I don't think it's meant to be sarcastic.

Stop by and wish Aisle 424 a happy birthday, one of the finer new Cubs blogs to emerge in my opinion.

A detailed look into how the Ricketts are financing their loans.

Ken Rosenthal predicts the Cubs will sign Ben Sheets.

May the New Year bring love, joy, peace and a pennant for the Cubs.

Tags
Links
Cubs Nonsense

Comments

[ ]

Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:18 pm

At the beginning of the off season I thought I read Ben Sheets wanted some ridiculous money considering his injury history and being out of commission in '09. If he signs with the Cubs (and I'm not totally opposed to it), I hope it's a smallish, one-year redemption contract. He can rake next year, not this year.

Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:19 pm

Judging by the our web hits and comments, you guys are either ridiculously bored or still passionate about the Cubs...or just like to argue.
I would guess it's a little bit of all three... at least for me.

Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:28 pm

In the article about Ricketts' financing of the Cubs:
"This is A-grade paper"...
Somewhere, an executive at Standards & Poors shudders and remembers saying the same thing about mortgage-backed securities.

Submitted by Aisle 424 on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:43 pm

Hey, thanks for the link and birthday wishes, Rob! I blame the failure of 2009 on Aaron Miles. Of course - you can't eliminate the injury problems completely, so Miles and injuries. Oh, and also the bullpen. But that is all: Aaron Miles, injuries, and the bullpen. And Soto being all fat and useless. That really wasn't an injury so you have to count it separately. And the middle infield consisting of the Lollipop Guild, so I blame: Aaron Miles, injuries, the bullpen, fat useless Soto, and the Lollipop Guild, but that is all. Plus the excruciating sale process. And racists in the bleachers. And Lou losing his edge. But that is all I blame: Aaron Miles, injuries, the bullpen, fat useless Soto, the Lollipop guild, the sale process, racists in the bleachers, and Lou losing his edge. And Milton Bradley.

[ ]

Submitted by Aisle 424 on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:05 pm

I could have sat right behind the plate in 422 when I bought my package in 1998, but I would have been in the last row and under the press box. So I chose slightly closer to the field, and out from beneath the press box with the sightline almost straight down the third base line. Luckily, I made that choice because they tore up the last couple rows of 422 and made them handicap accessible seating a few years later and I would have been relocated way down the lines.

Submitted by Paul Noce on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:49 pm

Milton ruined 2008 also? Damn. Pretty amazing feat since he wasn't on the team. :)

Submitted by The Real Neal on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:17 pm

I am starting to think that 2005 is the true Hendry level of team construction and anything that happens to seem to make the team better or worse will eventually just regress to a 78 win mean.

Submitted by Old and Blue on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:01 pm

"Judging by the number of hits and comments, you guys are either ridiculously bored or still passionate about the Cubs...or just like to argue." If I remember right, I tried to pick a fight with Real Neal, which is like trying to argue with an Ayatollah. I say that with affection, TRN.

Submitted by artskoe on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:07 pm

What, no blame to the stainless steel urinals? Smokey Links aisle cart? Bud Lite roof? Torco sign? etc., etc...

[ ]

Submitted by John Beasley on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:33 pm

At any more than $5 million, why would the Cubs not offer arbitration to Harden? What's the "risk" that Hendry was talking about? The risk of looking dumb after botching another first-round pick?

Submitted by Rob G. on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:31 pm

Beltre to Red Sox for 1/$9M with a $5M player option for next season or $1M buyout. guess they're counting on winning a lot of 3-2 games next year...

Submitted by Rob G. on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:40 pm

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/3177
If Sheets' agent is looking of mega-millions, he won't find it with the Cubs, who are scraping together the dough to afford a veteran right-handed reliever and maybe a veteran backup outfielder.
If Sheets hasn't signed with somebody, say, by Valentine's Day, I can see the Cubs offering some sort of a deal with a low base plus incentives. But nothing's imminent, based on the talk I've had with people today and throughout the winter.

Submitted by Wes on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:34 am

May the New Year bring love, joy, peace and a pennant for the Cubs. I guess 3 out of 4 ain't bad, because this team sure as fuck isn't winning the pennant.

Submitted by mjmiller73 on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:41 am

I'd bet that the training staff has Sheets as the top-rated remaining FA.

[ ]

Submitted by Ryno on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:11 am

Ben Sheets: Keeping doctors and trainers employed since 1978. I joke, but that would be a high reward/medium risk transaction. He is He was such a great pitcher, if he can regain that fastball/power curve form he'd be a big deal. Unfortunately, I think Rosenthal was just making predictions on all the free agents. This rumor isn't rooted in any fact.

Submitted by Doug Dascenzo on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:37 am

After reading that article on Ricketts, I'm getting seriously concerned that this guy simply doesn't have the money to keep this team competitive. You never want an owner leveraged to the hilt just to buy the team. Owning a sports franchise needs to be a hobby for someone insanely rich (i.e. billionaires), not a financial burden for someone who needs all kinds of loans and investors to afford it. Ricketts simply doesn't have that kind of cash, and thus I'm worried he will be far too concerned with payroll and finding new revenue streams. Damn, I wish Cuban was more polite.

[ ]

Submitted by garsky on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:10 am

Actually, I'd be surprised if there were any pro sports teams that were bought with cash, with no financing. And the amount financed was $425 million, of the $824 million purchase price. That's not really leveraged to the hilt. I'm more concerned with having a GM who can't build a winner with the 3rd or 4th highest payroll in baseball.

[ ]

Submitted by navigator on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:49 pm

You're leaving out the subordinated loans. The article says $674 million of the $845 million purchase price is debt. As far as I can tell, the Ricketts family sold stock worth $403 million to do this deal. Of that, apparently $170 million in cash went to purchase and another $175 million went into the deal as a subordinate loan---a loan basically to themselves. The structure of this purchase makes me wonder just what the Ricketts mean when they say they plan to plough all the profits the Cubs make back into the organization. Maybe they'll just use profits to retire these loans rather than refinance them. That will always remain an option but it's not exactly what Cubs fans are expecting. I don't know what the average interest is on this financing package but if it's between 4 and 5% then the carrying cost is around $30 million/year. That could be paid for by reducing team salary to $110 million (I'm guessing that's the base they're working from now) in the next couple years or by increasing revenue.So far it looks like they're going the revenue increasing route...significant ticket price jumps, more advertising in the park, new income streams in the future from spring training facilities..etc.while freezing the team budget.

[ ]

Submitted by navigator on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:36 pm

Just to summarize what's new this year in Cubsenomics, Cubs go from a debt free operation, to one that owes $675 million dollars. Debt service is approximately ($30 million) Net Income last year approximately $30 million 10% Ticket price increase this year raises $15 million New income probably is eaten up by 9 arb eligible Cubs.

[ ]

Submitted by garsky on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:42 pm

I left out the subordinate loans because, as loans to themselves, they're not really loans per se; there's no payback schedule and they're not subject to being called. MLB agrees, since the deal couldn't have been made if they were considered real debt. And they can't be paid back until the other, real loans are. The Ricketts family may well ignore it until such time as they sell, or they may convert it to real debt once the outside lenders are paid.

[ ]

Submitted by navigator on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:03 pm

I have no idea WHAT you're talking about. Subordinate loans are loans like any other, they're just riskier because they're unsecured for all intents and purposes. And where did you learn that they earn no interest? Riskier loans should earn more than the bank loans do.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:36 pm

don't think he was implying there was no interest...just that, as you noted above, they basically are loaning the money to themselves and probably aren't going to make a call for that loan if they run into problems down the line.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:49 pm

don't forget, the deal was leveraged per request of Sam Zell for tax purposes even if the Ricketts wanted to pay cash. plus any business is going to be run to be self-sufficient and not require infusion from their personal bank accounts. The McCourts pretty much borrowed all the money to run the Dodgers and it hasn't really been a big issue on their payroll

Submitted by Cubster on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:10 am

No Gila Monster... CarrieMuskat: Report out of AZ says #cubs have dropped Gila River from list of possible spring sites. Mesa is still alive, with location off Loop 202

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Indeed they do TJW!

    For the record I’m not in favor of solely building a team through paying big to free agents. But I’m also of the mind that when you develop really good players, get them signed to extensions that buy out a couple years of free agency, including with team options. And supplement the home grown players with free agent splashes or using excess prospects to trade for stars under team control for a few years. Sort of what Atlanta does, basically. Everyone talks about the dodgers but I feel that Atlanta is the peak organization at the current moment.

    That said, the constant roster churn is very Rays- ish. What they do is incredible, but it’s extremely hard to do which is why they’re the only ones frequently successful that employ that strategy. I definitely do not want to see a large market team like ours follow that model closely. But I don’t think free agent frenzies is always the answer. It’s really only the Dodgers that play in that realm. I could see an argument for the Mets too. The Yankees don’t really operate like that anymore since the elder Steinbrenner passed. Though I would say the reigning champions built a good deal of that team through free agent spending.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    The issue is the Cubs are 11-7 and have been on the road for 12 of those 18.  We should be at least 13-5, maybe 14-4. Jed isn't feeling any pressure to play anyone he doesn't see fit.
    But Canario on the bench, Morel not at 3B for Madrigal and Wisdom in RF wasn't what I thought would happen in this series.
    I was hoping for Morel at 3B, Canario in RF, Wisdom at DH and Madrigal as a pinch hitter or late replacement.
    Maybe Madrigal starts 1 game against the three LHSP for Miami.
    I'm thinking Canario goes back to Iowa on Sunday night for Mastrobuoni after the Miami LHers are gone.
    Canario needs ABs in Iowa and not bench time in MLB.
    With Seiya out for a while Wisdom is safe unless his SOs are just overwhelmingly bad.

    My real issue with the lineup isn't Madrigal. I'm not a fan, but I've given up on that one.
    It's Tauchman getting a large number of ABs as the de factor DH and everyday player.
    I didn't realize that was going to be the case.
    We need a better LH DH. PCA or ONKC need to force the issue in about a month.
    But, even if they do so, Jed doesn't have to change anything if the Cubs stay a few over .500!!!

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Totally depends on the team and the player involved. If your team’s philosophy is to pay huge dollars to bet on the future performance of past stars in order to win championships then, yes, all of the factors you mentioned are important.

    If on the other hand, if the team’s primary focus is to identify and develop future stars in an effort to win a championship, and you’re a young player looking to establish yourself as a star, that’s a fit too. Otherwise your buried within your own organization.

    Your comment about bringing up Canario for the purposes of sitting him illustrates perfectly the dangers of rewarding a non-performing, highly paid player over a hungry young prospect, like Canario, who is perpetually without a roster spot except as an insurance call up, but too good to trade. Totally disincentivizing the performance of the prospect and likely diminishing it.

    Sticking it to your prospects and providing lousy baseball to your fans, the consumers and source of revenue for your sport, solely so that the next free agent gamble finds your team to be a comfortable landing spot even if he sucks? I suppose  that makes sense to some teams but it’s definitely not the way I want to see my team run.

    Once again, DJL, our differences in philosophy emerge!

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    That’s just kinda how it works though, for every team. No team plays their best guys all the time. No team is comprising of their best 26 even removing injuries.

    When baseball became a business, like REALLY a business, it became important to keep some of the vets happy, which in turn keeps agents happy and keeps the team with a good reputation among players and agents. No one wants to play for a team that has a bad reputation in the same way no one wants to work for a company that has a bad rep.

    Don’t get me wrong, I hate it too. But there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

    On that topic, I find it silly the Cubs brought up Canario to sit as much as he has. He’s going to get Velazquez’d, and it’s a shame.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Of course, McKinstry runs circles around $25 million man Javier Baez on that Tigers team. Guess who gets more playing time?

    But I digress…

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Seems like Jed was trying to corner the market on mediocre infielders with last names starting with "M" in acquiring Madrigal, Mastroboney and Zach McKinstry.  

     

    At least he hasn't given any of them a Bote-esque extension.  

  • Childersb3 (view)

    AZ Phil:
    Rookie ball (ACL) starts on May 4th. Do yo think Ramon and Rosario (maybe Delgado) stay in Mesa for the month of May, then go to MB if all goes "solid"?
     

  • crunch (view)

    masterboney is a luxury on a team that has multiple, capable options for 2nd, SS, and 3rd without him around.  i don't hate the guy, but if madrigal is sticking around then masterboney is expendable.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    I THINK I agree with that decision. They committed to Wicks as a starter and, while he hasn’t been stellar I don’t think he’s been bad enough to undo that commitment.

    That said, Wesneski’s performance last night dictates he be the next righty up.

    Quite the dilemma. They have many good options, particularly in relief, but not many great ones. And complicating the situation is that the pitchers being paid the most are by and large performing the worst - or in Taillon’s case, at least to this point, not at all.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Wesneski and Mastrobuoni to Iowa

    Taillon and Wisdom up

    Wesneski can't pitch for a couple of days after the 4 IP from last night. But Jed picked Wicks over Wesneski.

Click HERE for the last 50 comments