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, ten players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, two players are on the 15-DAY IL, and two players are on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-17-2024
 
* 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
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 10 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 2 
Seiya Suzuki, OF
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 2
* Justin Steele, P  
Jameson Taillon, P 

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




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

TCR Friday Notes

Submitted by Rob G. on

I just wanted to thank Sweet Lou and Aisle 424 once again for their guest posts last week. Be sure to visit their blogs on a regular basis as well. I had one more guest column lined up, but the server issues last week preempted it. The plan is for it to be up next week.

Speaking of the server issue, everything seems to be working smoothly once again. Or at least it has since Monday when I got back. Anyone still having issues connecting? We did have to upgrade to a higher server package at three times the cost, so I'm now forced to take on advertising on my body parts for $5 a pop.

- The Cubs made some roster moves today, Marcus Mateo, John Gaub, Jeff Gray adnd James Adduci were optioned to Triple A. Darwin Barney, Bobby Scales, Robinson Chirinos were assigned to minor league camp leaving 33 in camp. It appears James Russell will be added to the 40-man roster and make the team (a 0 ERA in spring will do that for you) and Tom Gorzelanny and Carlos Silva will be the starters, leaving the bench as the final puzzle to be solved.

Starters: Soto, Lee, Fontenot, Theriot, Ramirez, Soriano, Byrd, Fukudome

Starting Pitching: Zambrano, Dempster, Wells, Gorzelanny, Silva (who has actually pitched decently since his first outing)

Bullpen: Marmol, Grabow, Berg, Caridad, Marshall, Samardzija, Russell

Bench: Hill, Nady, Baker with Hoffpauir, Blanco, Fuld, Colvin, Millar and Tracy fighting for those last 2 spots in theory.

If I'm keeping track correctly, that also leaves Mike Parisi, Chris Robinson, Ted Lilly and Angel Guzman to round out the 33 with Lilly and Guzman set to start the year on the disabled list. The Cubs are probably trying to work out a deal to keep Parisi is my guess(or move him to another club) and Robinson is just around to have an extra catcher.

- Say hello to new Cubs blogs, Cubs Locker and Cubbery: 100 Years and Counting. That makes 53 on the Cubs blogroll on the lower left sidebar. I don't know much about Cubs Locker, other than they've been around since 2006 so I guess they're not that new, but Cubbery is written by smalbrecht who many know from Parachat on game days. I'm not sure if he's paying residuals to Chad or not.

- Great quote discovered by Cubnut by Duke coach Mike Kryzewski on his seniors not living up to expectations:

“Just judge people for who they are right now. We are not the Yankees. We’re not – thank goodness we’re not the Cubs, who are my favorite.

- I can't remember if I linked to this before, but here's Alex Eisenberg's look at the Cubs farm system from Baseball Intellect and his top 15 Cubs prospects.

  1. Starlin Castro
  2. Hak-Ju Lee
  3. Brett Jackson
  4. Josh Vitters
  5. Jay Jackson
  6. Andrew Cashner
  7. Chris Carpenter
  8. Kyler Burke
  9. Ryan Flaherty
  10. D.J. LeMahieu
  11. Dae-eun Rhee
  12. Logan Watkins
  13. Chris Huseby
  14. Chris Archer
  15. John Gaub

- 10 minutes with Bill James and 1200 words on heart and Nomar Garciaparra from Joe Posnanski.

- Morgan Ensberg has a blog and it's really well-done. He, like everyone else in baseball or who talks about baseball or has ever watched baseball, has an opinion on Milton Bradley.

- I want to get up our yearly Cubs prediction contest by Monday. What would be some good questions? Here was last year's questions if it helps.

Tags
Friday Notes

Comments

Submitted by The Real Neal on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:47 pm

First player/coach ejected? I can't remember what all questions we had last year - or who won. Is the FA contest done yet?

Submitted by Ryno on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:03 pm

"Number of Chicago Cubs IP for Samardzija?" "Number of Zambrano meltdowns?"

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:12 pm

Which will we see first: ivy on the walls or the same old 'new' Zambrano?

Submitted by The E-Man on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:13 pm

Just heard Bruuuuuuuce on ESPN Chicago. Bench decisions will be made March 31st. Berg indeed did not get the pen spot and Russell did - he confirmed via Lou. Also, a Lou sound bite was played where he said, "All four guys pitched well this Spring (meaning Fat Boy, Wide-Out, Gorzy, and Marshall). I am just not impressed with Wide-Out, but who knows? Maybe Greg Maddux will teach him how to develop one more pitch and create more movement? Ha! We'll see in due time. Should Silva and Gorzo both pitch equally - what happens when Lilly returns???

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Submitted by The Real Neal on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:30 pm

Justin Berg, he's a right handed relief pitcher. AZ Phil has him listed under the auto-renewal guys on the right hand side of the page. Kidding aside, I have lost track. 5 starters, Marmol, Grabow, Russel, Marshall, Smardijia, Russel ... doesn't that leave room for Berg or Gaub?

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Submitted by The E-Man on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:51 pm

Geez maybe I did. I was pretty caffinated. It doesn't make sense to me that both Berg and Russel will make it. What I gathered, unless I did get the names f'd up, is that Berg will be down, and Russel up. Maybe AZ PHIL can straighten this out?

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:54 pm

as the post reads: Starters: Soto, Lee, Fontenot, Theriot, Ramirez, Soriano, Byrd, Fukudome Starting Pitching: Zambrano, Dempster, Wells, Gorzelanny, Silva (who has actually pitched decently since his first outing) Bullpen: Marmol, Grabow, Berg, Caridad, Marshall, Samardzija, Russell What doesn't make sense? Maybe he meant Parisi...

[ ]

Submitted by The E-Man on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:00 pm

Nope. That makes sense now. I guess I was not sure how many pitchers the team would be carrying to start the year. Also, I was thinking (always a source of trouble) that no way would Lou want two rookies in the pen.

[ ]

Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:14 pm

Lou likes rookies. Soto, Fontenot, Hoffpauir, Wells, Caridad. Koyie Hill was a rookie or near-rookie in 2007. It depends who they are. He didn't like Pie. He liked Fox but couldn't figure out a position for him.

[ ]

Submitted by The Real Neal on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:37 pm

I like "Fat Boy and Wide-Out", remeniscent of Jay and Silent Bob. You may even want to go with "Wide-Out-Side" for Smardijszia.

[ ]

Submitted by Arizona Phil on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:03 pm

Submitted by The Real Neal on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 12:37pm. I like "Fat Boy and Wide-Out", remeniscent of Jay and Silent Bob. You may even want to go with "Wide-Out-Side" for Smardijszia. ================================= REAL NEAL: I believe "Fat Boy" and Wide Out" were the two A-bombs the U. S. dropped on Japan in '45.

[ ]

Submitted by JoePepitone on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:56 pm

AZ Phil made another funny! Historical/pop cultural note for those who are unfamiliar (i.e., I'm going to explain the joke now): From Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man_and_Little_Boy Fat Man and Little Boy (a.k.a. Shadow Makers in the UK) is a 1989 film that reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret Allied endeavor to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II. The film is named after the nuclear weapons known by the code names "Fat Man" and "Little Boy", and also potentially as a reference to the portly Gen. Leslie R. Groves and the seemingly much younger Robert Oppenheimer, the respective military and scientific heads of the project, who dominate the film. Also a Simpsons reference: "Fat Man and Little Boy" is the fifth episode of sixteenth season of The Simpsons and the last new episode of 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man_and_Little_Boy_%28The_Simpsons%29

Submitted by crunch on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:07 pm

1 hour til CHC/OAK on WGN...replay at 9pm (Eastern) on MLB Network.

[ ]

Submitted by The Real Neal on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:34 pm

I really need to take a good luck at this - we talk here a lot about the 2008 Cubs - but the 2008 Cardinals were a 4th place (an 86 win 4th place) team. I just am not seeing a talent gap between them and the Cubs. Essentially these systems are saying that the Cards without Pujols are as good as anyone else in the NL Central. Does anyone really believe that?

Submitted by crunch on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:45 pm

well...WGN has their "bad music" CDs to play on tap. they're ready for the regular season. btw, this 80s revival is played out, but given the kids i run into, work with, and teach on campus there's a hell of a selfish "me me me" streak going on to match the 80s media revival. no one wants to get involved with anything, either...it's a very "spectator" lifestyle.

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Submitted by The Real Neal on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:05 pm

I am probably just getting my young whipper-snapper phase on, but man it seems like kids today are more self centered than I ever remember... any they have the attention span of chihuahuas on meth.

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Submitted by crunch on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:09 pm

i'm seeing less kids smoking, less overall bitching, kids more focused on their education, but they seem to lack even a shred of imagination or adventure unless the adventure is some "package" they can buy into. even without the bitching many seem to be on a real "take it!" streak and are willing to walk over people to do it. too many aren't good at it and either don't follow it through fully or just end up causing drama because of it.

[ ]

Submitted by crunch on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:19 pm

my family was too poor to have sticks and dead raccoons...we just sat on the floor and breathed oxygen. we made a game of it, seeing how many imaginary balloons (too poor for balloons) we could blow up. then we found an atari 2600 that someone threw away shortly after buying it because it was a flaming piece of crap. we broke it apart to use as sticks to kill raccoons with. good times.

Submitted by Cubster on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:20 pm

When we were kids we played with sticks and dead racoons. --- when I was a kid I had to walk 2 miles to school in sub-zero weather without earmuffs only to find school was closed. as expected, my ears fell off. Then they invented the radio, so they could announce school closings. Later on, I went to a Hot Tuna concert and stood next to the speakers and couldn't hear for weeks, of course without ears, nobody knew.

Submitted by John Beasley on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:37 pm

Rob: Len just mentioned that Tracy and Hoff are battling for the last "spot." I don't know if he misspoke or if you missed something. But your projection looks right to me.

Submitted by Charlie on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:54 pm

Sitting around 88-89 MPH in this relief appearance. I was present at his debut in 2008, and he ran it up to 98 that day. His delivery looks to slow to me right now; I'd like to see him amp up the windup, especially out of the pen, but maybe that exacerbates his control problems. An uneventful two outs so far.

Submitted by Sweet Lou on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:57 pm

Rob -- Thanks for the shout out and the opportunity to write a guest post. I appreciate the opportunity.

[ ]

Submitted by The E-Man on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:09 pm

God damn! I saw that too. What a pile of shit as Fuky tries to score on a shit pop-up off the bat of Millar. 1-out and 2nd/3rd. Terrible. I really do not want Millar on this team. Can't they ,just hire a part-time comedian if they need a "clubhouse lightener" so bad? Or, just have Seinfeld on?

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Submitted by John Beasley on Sat, 03/27/2010 - 03:51 am

I'm not a subscriber, but if I get the idea of where they're going, is BP actually suggesting there's a 50/50 chance of a runner scoring on a sac fly? Do they present any data? Even if the data says the runner scores 50 percent of the time, sending the runner more often will only lower that percentage. I might not be understanding that article fragment, but from what I see, it doesn't make mad sense.

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Submitted by The Real Neal on Sat, 03/27/2010 - 03:50 am

The guy essentially said that you should always send the runner from third regardless of how deep the ball was hit or who it was hit to, because the marginal value you get from the run scoring (having one run with 1 out is a little better than having no runs and a guy on third with 1 out) always justifies the chance of him getting thrown out. Fukudome getting throw out yesterday was a classic example of why the writer is a moron - because he said "only 10% of runners get thrown out, therefore the runner should always go, no matter what", not realizing that the 10% that get thrown out are on balls that are hit shallow like the one yesterday. The real reason that it was a stupid call, though, is because you risk hurting Fukudome and the catcher in a fucking spring training game.

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Submitted by Sweet Lou on Sat, 03/27/2010 - 03:42 am

The sac fly should at least make it into the outfield. IIRC, the ball Fukudome was sent home on barely made it out of the infield.

Submitted by crunch on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 03:15 pm

"Ken Griffey Jr. hit a walkoff grand slam off Kip Wells as the Mariners edged the Reds 6-5 on Friday." awwwwww...man...why couldn't that one have been on tv.

Recent comments

  • Bill (view)

    A good rule of thumb is that if you trade a near-ready high ceiling prospect, you should get at least two far-away high ceiling prospects in return.  Like all rules-of-thumb, it depends upon the specific circumstances, but certainly, we weren't going to get Busch for either prospect alone.

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Right on schedule, just read an article in Baseball America entitled "10 MLB Prospects Outside The Top 100 Who Have Our Attention".  Zyhir Hope was one of the prospects featured. It stated that he's "one of the biggest arrow-up sleeper prospects in the lower levels right now."

     

    Not sharing to be negative about the trade, getting a top 100 prospect who is MLB ready should carry a heavy prospect cost.  But man, Dodger sure are good at identifying and developing young talent. Andrew Friedman seems to have successfully merged Ray's development with Yankees financial might to create a juggernaut of an organization.  

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    I suspect Brown will spend some time in the bullpen due to inning restrictions.  Pitched only 93 innings last year and career high is 104 innings in 2022.  I would expect them to be cautious with a young player with his injury history.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    I wanted Almonte gone last week, but that was before Merryweather went down and Little got demoted. Almonte in his last 5 appearances has gone 4.1 IP with no ER or Runs. NO hits, 3 BBs and 8 SO. He did hit 96 with his 2S FB in AZ on Tues.
    I don't see Jed waiving him when we have injuries all over and guys with options that can be sent down.
    I probably won't like the move Jed makes, but he can't play the "let's hope no one wants his 1.7mil remaining deal and we can hide him in Iowa" card.
    That's why I think the current Bullpen stays as is and Wicks goes to Iowa.
    I don't like that, but that's the fix I see.
    We'll find out soon enough!!!

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Teheran minor league deal is done, per MLB.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Based on Phil’s sound analysis it sounds like a no brainer for Almonte to be placed on waivers as today’s roster move. We shall see.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I suspect Counsell/Hottovy will use the piggy-back extensively, with Taillon and Hendricks pitching as the "pig" (and with a very short leash) and some combo of Wicks, Brown, and Wesneski (whichever two do not start) as the "backers."  

    Keep in mind that Keegan Thompson has a minor league option available, and if Yency Almonte is not outrighted by 4/26 he cannot be sent to the minors without his consent after that date. Almonte is out of minor league options, so I am talking about him getting outrighted to the minors if he is not claimed off waivers, and if he is claimed off waivers, the Cubs save the pro-rated portion of his $1.9M salary, which helps lower the Cubs 2024 AAV.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Totally agree. The 26 man roster very rarely consists of the 13 best position players and 13 best pitchers.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Based on what Jed has done in the past, I’d say the plan is to

    -give Hendricks another few starts
    -give Taillon some runway ot get his season underway

    -Mix and match in the bullpen and see what sticks

    Jed usually doesn’t do a whole lot of waiver wire plays in-season, at least early in the season. He only reallly did that after he blew up the rosters in 21 and 22 because they needed bodies (guys like Schwindel, Fargas, etc).

    I think he’s a little handcuffed by a full 40 man in that he can’t really maneuver much with giving anyone showing ability at AAA (R Thompson/ Sanders/ Edwards etc). Brewer has the most tenuous grip there, and we will see what kind of chance he gets. Other than his spot, there isn’t a ton of 40 man wiggle room.

    I’m very curious to see what happens with Brown now that Taillon returns. Bullpen? Wicks to Iowa? 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Pro teams have to play their "big money" guys if they are healthy and not "locker room" issues.
    The Cubs wanted to deal JHey off well before they bought him out. They just didn't want to pay him to play for someone else for that long. Jed did give him 20+mil to play for LAD last yr.
    Jed might also let Kyle walk at some point this year. Similar scenario to JHey, except Jed thought Kyle was going to be good/solid in '24!!
    You'd think Smyly is in the same book as well. Same with Neris (he's a 1yr vet RP, so he's not really in this convo too much).
    That's ~35mil between those three and those three are going to get opportunities until at least late June) over younger guys even if their performance is "iffy".
    But, Jed is going to play Taillon a lot. They have to try and justify that contract and hope a veteran works out.
    So, Taillon, Imanaga, and Hendricks are locks for the rest of April and probably May.
    Assad, Brown and Wicks handle the last spots until Steele is ready.
    Now, you're question has real merit when Steele comes back. That will interesting if Brown is still good and Hendricks is still bad. But Taillon is entirely safe as long as he's healthy.

    And the bullpen moves were "money" based as well. Smyly has actually been okay. But he hasn't been clearly better than Little. Little had one bad outing. But Smyly makes 9mil. If they needed another RHRP and one of Little and Smyly had to go, it was going to Little. But that doesn't mean Smyly is one of the best 13 arms for the team. 

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