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

Get your power failure puns elsewhere; Cubs lose 8-5

Yeeechhh! That was nasty.

Wednesday night at Wrigley, the Cubs spotted the Dodgers a 5-0 lead, squandered opportunities to get the game close or even, then did get the game close, failed to get it closer, and lost.

Here's a professional summary of the 8-5 defeat, which was interrupted by an 18-minute power outage in the fourth inning.

Some quick thoughts...

— Tom Gorzelanny struggled with his command from the outset and all in all, pitched just poorly enough to provide some public relations cover to Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella in the next few days, when, I'm thinking, they will officially yank the lefty from the rotation in favor of Carlos Zambrano.

— To me, the overriding truth in tonight's game was expressed beautifully by Guest Seventh Inning Singer Pat Foley, who was actually describing his recipe for winning a Stanley Cup when he said, "Your best players need to be your best players." We all know how the Cubs have suffered and will suffer if Aramis Ramirez is not contributing, but the point was dramatized tonight by the team's failure to cash in on seemingly can't-miss scoring opportunities and some awful defense at third base, speaking of which...

— Mike Fontenot cannot play on the left side of the infield. He made a questionable but defensible decision to concede a Dodger run on a hard ground ball by Manny Ramirez in the first inning, after failing to glove the ball cleanly. In the second inning, Fontenot launched a throw over Derrek Lee's head which led to two unearned runs immediately thereafter, when Matt Kemp doubled. Maybe the only good thing about playing Fontenot at third is that by comparison, it makes his play at shortstop appear to be Gold Glove-quality.

— It's frequently frustrating to watch Alfonso Soriano play left field, but what Manny Ramirez does out there is just short of a criminal offense. Soriano is an incompetent fielder; Ramirez is indifferent, which I find much, much worse. He runs and bends over in slow motion, when he moves at all. If my favorite team employed that slug in the field every day, it would drive me to drink. Or following soccer full-time. 

— Derrek Lee had three more hits and even rapped the ball sharply when grounding into a double play. Xavier Nady had a pinch home run and Jeff Baker had a pinch triple. Good to see all of those guys coming around (we hope). Starlin Castro, on the other hand, looked a lot like a 20-year-old just up from Double-A when he stepped in against Chad Billingsley. Castro personally left six runners on base in the game. Also, he and Ryan Theriot joined Fontenot in Wednesday night's error parade.

Like I said, yeeechhh.

Ted Lilly (1-4, 4.30) matches up with rookie John Ely (3-1, 3.41) in the series finale Thursday afternoon.

Comments

The last few times I've seen Castro bat, it seems like he is taking the first pitch all the time and lately the opposing pitcher has been saying, "thanks" and grooving him one. I'm only commenting on the ABs I've seen, but it's been a pattern on those I've been able to watch. Then, the pitcher will toss one out of the strike zone and Castro will either miss it or will tap it foul. I still haven't seen him pull the ball yet. So, possibly, weakness finally found. I'm still pretty hopeful about the kid but it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. He's going to be facing some pretty good pitching. And he is still, even with last night's error, our best shortstop right no

Cards' Kyle Lohse has a rare condition likely to require surgery on his forearm. With Brad Penny already on the DL, St.L is scrambling to find a starter for Saturday's game v. the Cubs.

From http://bit.ly/94HWps ...

Adam Ottavino could be promoted from Class AAA Memphis to make his major-league debut, or Blake Hawksworth or Kyle McClellan could be assigned a spot start.

Anyone know of a team with an extra starter they could flip to the Cardinals? h/t to @desipiodotcom, who suggested that a Gorzelanny-for-Pujols deal "would be great for both teams!"

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    For sure. This lineup isn’t exactly stacked as is, and subbing out a Cooper or even a Tauchman for Madrigal won’t do it any favors.

  • crunch (view)

    the ESPN bottom graphic taking up 1/8th of the screen sucks.

    i only use ESPN during baseball season and i'm forced to watch a baseball broadcast designed to be broadcast in sports bars and betting parlors where the news/scores of other games is as important as what you're actually tuned in to watch.

  • crunch (view)

    morel triple to start the season....yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    LHP Blake Weiman appears to have been the last cut from the AAA Iowa roster. He is with the Tennessee group at Minor League Camp.

     

  • crunch (view)

    bruce bochy is hobbling rather badly for a guy who's had 2 hip replacements.  his gait is extremely wonky taking the lineup card to the ump.

  • 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.